Foreign Minister Qin Gang denied on Wednesday allegations by some foreign politicians and media that China's loans to African countries are creating "debt traps".
He made the remarks during a joint news conference with Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, at the body's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Qin, who is on his first trip overseas as the country's top diplomat, labeled the claims "narrative traps" and groundless accusations.
Of the G20 members, China has offered the most debt suspension to African countries and has signed deals or reached agreement with 19 of them on suspending debt, he said.
President Xi Jinping announced in 2021 that "China is ready to channel to African countries $10 billion from its share of the International Monetary Fund's new allocation of Special Drawing Rights".
Qin said, "Relevant works have achieved progress in phases".
He cited a World Bank report that showed multilateral finance institutions and private creditors account for nearly three-quarters of Africa's total debt. "They could and should play a bigger role in the debt relief issue of Africa," Qin said.
Observers said raising the "debt trap" hype again is not helpful to relieving the financial burden that the least-developed countries in Africa face, given the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic downturn and geopolitical conflicts.
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