China has signed military deals worth US $ 3.5 billion with eight African countries to sell equipment and to build bases. The biggest borrower is Zambia with $2.1 billion to build up its air force and army over the past two decades, according to Nairobi based Kenyan journalist Jevans Nyabiage.

In a recent despatch to South China Morning Post, Nyabiage wrote: “ Chinese money is helping to bankroll and equip some African countries with military equipment and infrastructure”. 

Quoting Boston University’s Global Development Centre, the despatch said China signed 27 loan deals with eight African countries worth US$3.5 billion between 2000 and 2020 for defence spending.

Most of the money went into buying military aircraft, equipment and training and for building housing units for the military and police.

Some 60 per cent, or US$2.1 billion, of the total went to Zambia, a country which has also received massive loans from China to build highways, dams and airports. It is the third biggest borrower on the continent behind Ethiopia and Angola, the SCMP report said.

Other countries to receive military loans include Ghana (US$389 million), Cameroon (US$333 million), Tanzania (US$285 million), Zimbabwe (US$257 million), Sudan (US$121 million), Sierra Leone (US$16 million) and Namibia (US$9 million).

And the lenders were the Export-Import Bank of China (Eximbank), and Chinese companies such as Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and Poly Technologies amongst others.

Zambia was the top recipient of Chinese loans for defence equipment as a result of historical, strategic and domestic interests, Jyhjong Hwang, the lead researcher for Boston University’s Chinese Loans to Africa Data­base, was quoted as saying. The deal became attractive as “Chinese aircraft tend to be cheaper to purchase and to maintain, and can sometimes be financed by Chinese loans”.

And China’s footprint expanded, and Zambia’s Chinese debt ballooned. Two years ago, in November 2020, Zambia became the first African state to default on Euro bond repayments. China is working with the Western creditors to resolve the problem, said   Jevans Nyabiage   in his SCMP dispatch.

According to John Calabrese, head of the Middle East-Asia Project at American University in Washington, China had also cancelled and restructured its Zambian loans several times over the past two decades. Zambia owed Chinese financiers US$6.6 billion as of August last year.

A fall-out of the growing Chinese engagement in Zambia is the decision of the US Africa Command to open an office in the American embassy. It could be “a prelude” to enhancing US-Zambia security cooperation, says Calabrese.

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