{"id":29094,"date":"2024-09-06T19:17:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=29094"},"modified":"2024-09-06T19:17:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:47:57","slug":"china-hosted-focac-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/06-09-2024\/china-hosted-focac-summit","title":{"rendered":"China-hosted FOCAC Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Regional Groupings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged <strong>$51 billion<\/strong> of funding to African countries at the ninth edition of the<strong> Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>China will support <strong>30 infrastructure projects across the continent,<\/strong> with 360 billion yuan ($50.7 billion) to be offered as financial assistance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> theme this year<\/strong> is \u201cJoining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is the FOCAC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was established in <strong>2000 <\/strong>to formalise the strategic partnership between China and African nations.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A summit is conducted<strong> every three years<\/strong>, with the host alternating between China and an African member.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The FOCAC count<strong>s 53 African nations<\/strong> as its members \u2013 the entire continent except <strong>Eswatini<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eswatini has diplomatic ties with Taiwan against Beijing\u2019s \u201cOne China\u201d Policy.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The African Union Commission is also a member.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>China\u2019s Investment in Near Future in Africa<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>China\u2019s approach has changed for investment in African Nations: <\/strong>China wishes to narrow the country\u2019s investment portfolio away from big-ticket infrastructure to \u201csmall and beautiful projects.\u201d\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It also hopes to sell advanced, green technologies which Chinese firms have heavily invested in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reasons for Change in China&#8217;s Approach:<\/strong> The summit comes at a time when China is experiencing a prolonged economic slowdown post-pandemic, with China\u2019s growth target for the year looks out of reach.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Its manufacturers are battling deflationary pressures and unemployment challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are also concerns about loan defaults \u2014 in 2020, Zambia defaulted on its loan , while Ghana defaulted on most of its $30 billion external debt in 2022.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance of FOCAC 2024<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One goal of the summit can be<strong> narrowing the growing trade imbalance between China and Africa<\/strong> through increasing imports of agricultural goods and processed minerals.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Meeting these African demands is in <strong>China&#8217;s geopolitical interest to keep them onside in the tussle with the U.S.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>African leaders are likely to seek backing for big-ticket items, as they have in the past, but also place<strong> greater emphasis on debt sustainability.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recent deadly protests in Kenya were triggered by the government&#8217;s need to service its debt burden to international creditors, including China.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>African leaders at the forum seek not only more Chinese investment but also more <strong>favourable loans in light of such events.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/focac-china-africa-9551476\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $51 billion of funding to African countries at the ninth edition of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29095,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29094\/revisions\/29095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}