Uganda Terminates Railway Contract As China Fails To Provide Financial Support

Recently, a senior Ugandan official revealed to the media that China Harbor Engineering Company cannot provide funds for a railway construction project signed in 2015 and expects the Turkish company to take over the contract. The planned railway runs from Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to the Uganda-Kenya border. It is an international standard gauge railroad that built a connection with the Indian Ocean coastline of Mombasa. However, so far, China has failed to provide financial support for the project and to respond to Uganda. On Jan. 11th, China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, held a press conference on the eighth China-Africa strategy with the chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the headquarters of the African Union. Regarding the criticism of China’s “debt trap”, Qin Gang said that China always respects the interests of the African people and will help enhance Africa’s ability to develop independently. China does not accept the accusation of a “debt trap”. Beijing will never make empty promises and force others to do anything. It has always placed Africa as a diplomatic priority; China will do everything possible to help Africa. On the 13th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing that China and Uganda have carried out a series of productive cooperation in the fields of railroads, hydroelectric power plants, freeways, oil and gas exploration, and infrastructure in the past. Practical cooperation is at the forefront of China-Africa cooperation. The termination of the China-Uganda railroad construction contract shows that Beijing’s support for Africa has shifted from its previous single-sided direct funding support to assist African countries in their independent development. At present, China’s own economic situation has been deteriorating, and its ability to global economic expansion has been weakened. The infrastructure construction that Beijing has invested heavily in Africa isn’t working out; Sino-African relations are bound to take a sharp turn for the worse as Communist China’s economy declines.