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Johannesburg — After pledging $51 billion in financial support for Africa over the next three years and positioning China as a fellow developing country in contrast to the West’s colonialist past, President Xi Jinping told dozens of African leaders gathered in Beijing this week that “the China-Africa relationship is now at its best in history.” This year’s Forum on Africa-China Cooperation, held every three years, was the first since the pandemic and China’s own economic slowdown. It comes amid growing geopolitical rivalry between Beijing and the West, and Xi was blunt in his assessment of the latter’s influence on the continent. “Modernization is an inalienable right of all countries,” he said in his opening speech to more than 50 African leaders. “But the Western approach to it has inflicted immense sufferings on developing countries.” Lucas Engel, an analyst with the Global China Initiative at Boston University, said China is reacting to increased competition in the region. “Xi’s reminder of the ‘immense suffering’ inflicted on Africa by the West in his keynote speech this year is a sharper rebuke of Africa’s Western partners than we’ve seen in the past,” he told VOA. “It is likely that China is feeling the heat as Western partners ramp up cooperation with Africa.” The theme of FOCAC 2024 was “joining hands to promote modernization,” and analysts told VOA beforehand they expected China to focus on green technology and the green energy transition, agricultural modernization and trade, and education and training. The money announced was an increase on the $40 billion pledged at the last FOCAC, in 2021, but still fell short of previous pledges, such as the $60 billion earmarked for Africa in 2018 and 2015. For some time, China has been seen to be moving away from the massive infrastructure projects of the early years of Xi’s trademark Belt and Road Initiative and toward what it has dubbed “small is beautiful projects.” Some of the announcements made at FOCAC, however, surprised analysts by bucking that trend. Xi announced China would be undertaking a $1 billion upgrade of the TAZARA railway, which will link mineral-rich, landlocked Zambia with Tanzania’s coast. He signed an agreement with the presidents of those two countries on Wednesday. “There was already a sense that infrastructure would be one of those asks that would not be entertained by the Chinese side, so I think that has come as a bit of a surprise,” Paul Nantulya, a research associate with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, told VOA. “I think African countries were also quite concerned about infrastructure financing. … Now it seems like the Chinese side may have finally backed down,” said Nantulya, who was in Beijing for FOCAC. “That would indicate that China does not want to be locked out of the infrastructure game, given what the U.S. is doing with the Lobito Corridor.” Nantulya was referring to the G7-backed strategic economic corridor that Washington says is designed to create jobs and enhance export potential for resource-rich Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. As the first big infrastructure project in Africa the U.S. has undertaken in a generation, Washington recently announced it could extend the railway to Tanzania and on to the Indian Ocean. “China’s offer to refurbish the TAZARA railway connecting copper-rich Zambia with Tanzania on Africa’s eastern coast appears to be a direct answer to the Western-led Lobito Corridor,” said Engel of Boston University. Did African leaders get what they wanted? China was not the only country with an agenda at FOCAC, as African leaders also laid out their priorities for relations with their largest trading partner. For South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who leads the continent’s most developed economy, the primary aim was to reduce a long-standing trade imbalance and to get China to import more agricultural products. He also wants to see more value-added exports made in South Africa. Ramaphosa embarked on a state visit to China ahead of FOCAC and made several announcements, including that South Africa would sign up for China’s Beidou satellite navigation system and inviting Chinese electric vehicle company BYD to use South Africa as a manufacturing hub. Xi said China would in turn expand market access to African agricultural products and exempt 33 countries from import tariffs. He also announced that China would support 60,000 vocational training opportunities for Africans. Nantulya said there seemed to be a lot of attention to detail regarding this year’s announcements. “What that tells me is that the Chinese side has been responding to the African side,” he said. “You know, the African delegates are very mindful of the fact that one of the big criticisms of FOCAC is that it's very high on pledges and very low on actual concrete tasks.” Yunnan Chen, a researcher at London-based research group ODI, told VOA the pledged areas of cooperation spanned almost every sector. “I think what's interesting to note about them is this very striking emphasis on areas of technological cooperation — in industry, in agriculture, in science and technology,” she said. “There's a lot of emphasis on training and initiatives that would support knowledge transfer from China to African parties, and I think this is something that's been very much an African demand for many years,” she added. “Even though we have seen a decline in Chinese financing in Africa and we know that China is experiencing a lot of domestic financial troubles, there's still a very clear and very emphatic political commitment,” she said. Aside from Ramaphosa’s trade demands, other African leaders who held bilateral meetings with Xi had specific areas of concern. Kenyan President William Ruto had infrastructure at the top of his list, asking that Beijing fund an extension of Kenya’s Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway. It marked a sharp change from Ruto’s campaign rhetoric, in which he criticized his predecessor’s policy of taking Chinese loans. Ruto made the request even though Kenya is heavily in debt to Western financial institutions such as the IMF and lenders such as China and has been experiencing violent anti-government protests. Other key areas of cooperation announced at the conclusion of FOCAC included the military and security sectors, with Beijing vowing to allocate some $140 million in military assistance grants alongside training programs for thousands of military personnel from across the continent. Green energy was also a focus, with Xi announcing China would launch 30 new clean energy projects on the continent.

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For over a century, dams have blocked fish migration on California’s second-largest river. VOA’s Matt Dibble takes us to the removal of the last of four dams, a major victory for Native Americans who depend on the river.

Washington — Unlike Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign slogan, "I'm With Her," there is no overt gender messaging in Kamala Harris' run for the presidency in 2024. Yet, gender is on the ballot as the Harris campaign and that of her Republican rival, Donald Trump, present competing narratives on masculinity, the latest front line in America's culture war. The contrast was clear at the parties' conventions. At the Republican National Convention, retired pro wrestler Hulk Hogan took off his suit jacket and ripped off his shirt to reveal the muscles bulging under his Trump-Vance tank top. Hogan was preceded by Tucker Carlson, TV personality and star of "The End of Men," a documentary on American men's "collapsing testosterone levels." The message was unambiguous: Former President Trump, who days earlier had survived an assassination attempt, is the self-proclaimed "warrior" who will "Make America Great Again." He was introduced by Dana White Jr., CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, and a day earlier walked into the arena to James Brown's song, "It’s A Man's Man's Man's World." The audience greeted him with raised fists, chanting "Fight, fight, fight!" Trump's persona is coupled with the traditionalist view of gender roles of his running mate, JD Vance. The Ohio senator introduced his spouse as "my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom." The 40-year-old father of three and Catholic convert has advocated pro-natalist views, including in a 2021 interview where he criticized the "anti-child ideology" of women who do not want to bear children. In the same year, he called Harris and other high-profile Democrats "childless cat ladies" who didn't have a "direct stake" in the country. Harris has two stepchildren from her marriage to Doug Emhoff but no biological children. At the Democratic National Convention, speakers focused on reproductive rights and all-gender inclusivity. As the country's first female vice president, Harris has not focused much on her own gender identity. But her take on gender roles was in clear view as she ended her acceptance address at the DNC, sharing the stage with her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Emhoff. Before entering politics, Walz was a high school teacher and football coach who served in the military. Emhoff is a lawyer who stopped his practice to dedicate himself full time to being the country's first second gentleman. In their professional and personal backing of Harris, Walz and Emhoff, respectively, are outliers in the traditional thinking on presidential partnerships, where women usually play the supporting role. Toxic vs tonic masculinity Walz and Emhoff are portrayed by the left as embodying "tonic masculinity," a term coined to contrast stereotypical male dominance over other groups that some brand as "toxic masculinity." Trump and Vance have "evidenced a desire for and a love for this old style of masculinity," said Christine Emba, author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. "The idea that men are in charge and are making the decisions," she told VOA. "A particular kind of man, a sort of theatrically strong man, a man who has paternalistic control of the family." In many ways, Walz is a counter to that narrative. While he is known for being an avid hunter and outdoorsman who shares home and car repair tips, he is also famous for his award-winning "hotdish" recipe. On gender inclusivity and reproductive freedom — key issues for Democratic voters — Walz speaks from personal experience as a former faculty adviser for a high school LGBTQ club and by going public with his family's struggle with infertility. In doing so, he is messaging empathy and vulnerability, traits that stand in contrast with more traditional masculine leadership qualities, such as assertiveness and dominance. That view of leadership is shifting, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Voters have shown they also value "warmth and compassion and empathy, all of which are traits that are more likely to be associated with femininity," she told VOA. The campaign is positioning Walz to resonate with voters who seek those values in their leaders. At the same time, they hope his handy and helpful Midwestern dad persona will appeal to more traditional voters. "Guys who hunt, the guys who fix their cars, the dads, the heads of families, showing that he can still be male and masculine, but also in support of a female candidate," Emba said. This narrative stands in contrast to the Trump-Vance take on masculinity that aligns with the campaign's broader Make America Great Again message, said Matthew Levendusky, professor of political science at University of Pennsylvania. Their strategy is to appeal to a particular vision of American life, "a kind of imagined past," he told VOA, where a woman's value "comes from being a wife and mother." The gender divide Polls show an overwhelming divide along gender lines. Women favor Harris and men favor Trump, with the gap most apparent among young people. Anxiety over shifting gender roles may be a contributing factor, coupled with the fact that American men are doing less well than women in general. In his book, Of Boys and Men, Richard Reeves, a senior fellow focusing on gender inequality at Brookings Institution, outlined various indicators, including education, income, health and access to a social support network, to argue that while American girls and women are making huge strides in recent decades, boys and young men are struggling. "Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace and in the family," Reeves wrote. "While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened." At the same time, with the rise of the #MeToo feminist movement, liberals were increasingly seeking to disrupt the way that power is distributed, Dittmar said. These conversations can be alienating for some men. "There was a sense that their masculinity and their manhood was in some ways precarious, and that they needed to reassert or reclaim that power that has been threatened or lost," she said. Male grievance The Trump campaign has been aggressively courting male voters through what's called the manosphere — online forums with male-centric audiences that promote masculinity and, in many cases, opposition to feminism. It's a continuation of Trump’s 2016 strategy of "tapping into male grievance politics," particularly that of white males, Dittmar said. On the other hand, Democrats are leaning into rights to abortion and in vitro fertilization. All these issues, in addition to how the candidates "talk about women and talk to women" could influence voter enthusiasm by motivating turnout among different groups, she added. In many places around the world there is societal discomfort about how quickly women are coming into roles outside the home. However, competing narratives on masculinity may be unique to American politics. Countries with female leaders have not faced the same struggles; neither in Northern European countries that in general are more advanced in closing the gender gap, nor in developing countries where female leaders are often related to the male leaders who preceded them. "There's sort of a generational continuity that is soothing and attractive," Emba said. "In the United States, we just simply haven't had that." Instead, the idea of women's role in society "feels very unstable in a comparatively new way," she added. "America is experiencing that quite strongly in this moment, it's just showing up everywhere."

Unlike Hillary Clinton — whose 2016 campaign featured the slogan “I’m With Her,” Kamala Harris has no overt gender messaging in her 2024 presidential run. Yet both her gender — and that of her rival, Donald Trump — are on the ballot. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at the two campaigns and their competing narratives on masculinity.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Music cassette tapes are making a comeback in the U.S, with more than 430,000 sold in 2023 – about five times the number sold just a decade ago. Cassette tapes are especially popular with younger generations who grew up with digital music. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. Videographer: Sergii Dogotar

Warsaw — A Polish court on Friday ordered the arrest of three Belarusian officials accused of illegally diverting a Ryanair flight in 2021 in order to seize a dissident journalist on board.  Air traffic control officials forced the plane heading from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk after a false bomb alert and arrested journalist Roman Protasevich and his companion Sofia Sapega.  Following investigations, "the Warsaw regional court announced three arrest orders for three people" involved in the diverting of the Polish-registered plane, the tribunal's spokeswoman, Anna Ptaszek.  Poland's state prosecution service identified them as a former director of the Belarusian aviation agency, a team leader at Minsk air traffic control, and an official from Belarus's KGB security service.  The three men are residents outside Poland, but Ptaszek said the court orders "allow prosecutors to seek procedures to pursue them internationally", Ptaszek said.  The court said the three face possible sentences of 15 years for diverting an aircraft, on aggravated charges categorizing it as a "terrorist" action.  Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza cited audio recordings from the Minsk airport control tower on the day of the flight that were leaked by a controller who later fled to Poland.  In January 2022 a New York federal court charged four Belarusians with "conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy." The U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization called the diversion "unlawful."  The bomb threat "was deliberately false" and was ordered by "senior government officials of Belarus," it said in a statement in July 2022.  Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023 but was later pardoned after recording a "confession" video that his allies said was coerced. 

Moscow — The Kremlin on Friday accused the United States of applying unacceptable pressure on Russian media after the U.S. Justice Department charged Russian TV contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife with schemes to violate U.S. sanctions.  The two indictments were announced just one day after the U.S. took several legal actions against Russia to combat alleged efforts to meddle in the 2024 presidential elections, including charging two employees of the Russian state media network RT and sanctioning RT and its top network editor.  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who has said Russia is not seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, told reporters that Washington was trying to ensure that Moscow's own perspective on world affairs was not available to people.  "Washington continues to try to put pressure on Russia, on Russian citizens, and even on the Russian media, which is engaged in informing both citizens inside our country and world public opinion about what is happening, from our perspective," said Peskov.  "Washington does not even accept that there should be options out there for anyone to get news from our perspective.   This is nothing other than blatant pressure. We strongly condemn this stance as unacceptable," he said.  Moscow still grants accreditation to Western journalists to work in Russia, though many have left since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 and the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges in March 2023.  Gershkovich, who denied the charges, was freed in a prisoner swap last month.  Russia has said it will take retaliatory measures against U.S. media in response to Washington's moves against RT.  Asked what those measures would be, Peskov said Russia carefully evaluated the editorial policies of various foreign media outlets and would take those factors into account when making any decisions, on what he suggested would be a case-by-case basis.   

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Washington — The U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service said on Friday that they have recovered $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from wealthy individuals under new enforcement initiatives funded by $60 billion in IRS modernization spending from the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act.   Why it’s important  Republicans in Congress have long vowed to rescind the 10-year IRS funding passed in 2022, arguing that it would unfairly harass Americans on their taxes. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to rescind all unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, which include billions of dollars earmarked for the IRS.   The IRS has planned to spend about $10.6 billion of those funds through end of the 2024 fiscal year, which concludes on Sept. 30, leaving nearly $50 billion that could be recouped. But budget forecasters say that doing so would increase the federal budget deficit by more than $100 billion over a decade because the agency would forego stepped-up enforcement.   By the numbers   The Treasury said that in the first six months of a new initiative to target 125,000 wealthy individuals who have not filed tax returns since 2017, it has collected $172 million from 21,000 non-filing taxpayers.   Another initiative to target wealthy individuals with more than $1 million in income and $250,000 in unpaid, recognized tax debts has brought in $1.1 billion to Treasury coffers.    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the audit rate for millionaires fell by 80% due to budget cuts at the IRS.   "During the previous [Trump] administration, as audit rates on high-income taxpayers fell, the share of audits on taxpayers with incomes under $200,000 increased," Yellen said in remarks to be delivered at an IRS service center in Austin, Texas. "In 2019, the top one percent of Americans was estimated to owe over one-fifth of unpaid taxes, leaving ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden." 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — U.S. employment increased less than expected in August, but a drop in the jobless rate to 4.2% suggested an orderly labor market slowdown continued and probably did not warrant a big interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this month.   Nonfarm payrolls increased by 142,000 jobs last month after a downwardly revised 89,000 rise in July, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls increasing by 160,000 jobs after a previously reported 114,000 gain in July. Estimates ranged from 100,000 to 245,000 jobs.   The smaller-than-expected increase in payrolls likely does not signal a deterioration in labor market conditions.   August payrolls have a tendency to initially print weaker relative to the consensus estimate and recent trend before being revised higher later. Hiring typically picks up in the education sector, which is anticipated by the model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data.   The start of the new school year, however, varies across the country, which can throw off the so-called seasonal factors. The initial August payrolls counts have been revised higher in 10 of the last 13 years. Layoffs remain at historic low levels.   The drop in the unemployment rate followed four straight monthly increases, which had lifted it near a three-year high of 4.3% in July. Early on Friday, financial markets saw a roughly 43% probability of a half-point rate cut at the Fed's Sept. 17-18 policy meeting, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool. The odds of a 25 basis point rate reduction were around 57%.   Average hourly earnings increased 0.4% in August after falling 0.1% in July. Wages increased 3.8% year-on-year after advancing 3.6% in July. Still-solid wage growth continues to underpin the economy through consumer spending. 

Paris — France's far-right National Rally (RN) is exerting outsize power over President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, rivals said on Friday, a day after the veteran politician got the job with tacit support from the RN. Macron named former 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and a former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-months-long search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered an unruly hung parliament. France's next prime minister faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and the 2025 budget through a hung parliament, as France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit. The RN gave tentative support to Barnier's nomination by saying it would not immediately try to vote it down, but made clear it could withdraw support at any point if its concerns on immigration, security and pocketbook issues were not met. Marine Le Pen's party had vetoed other possible prime ministers Macron had considered over the past weeks. "Today, we have a prime minister who is completely dependent on the RN," said Lucie Castets, the prime ministerial pick of the leftist alliance that came top in the July vote, but who was overlooked by Macron after it failed to secure an absolute majority. "In so doing, the president has put himself in cohabitation with the RN," she said, referring to the term used in France when the president governs with a prime minister from a rival party. The left is organizing protests across the country on Saturday. After hoping to win the snap election following a strong showing in the first round, the RN came third when voters and other parties, especially to the left, rallied to keep it out of power in the run-off round. But appointing Barnier after the RN signaled it would not block him is making the government's dependent on the RN's goodwill, said Sacha Houlie, an MP who used to belong to Macron's camp. "It's now the far right that makes the kings or queens," Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said on France Inter radio. Neither Barnier, who has started meetings with parties on the right and center to pull together a government, nor Macron have made any comment on this or responded to criticism from the opposition. 'At Le Pen's mercy'? Similar criticism were also made by some abroad. "Barnier must not become prime minister at Le Pen's mercy," said Anton Hofreiter, chair of the German parliament's Committee on European Union Affairs and a member of the Greens. "I don't expect any progressive ideas from the new prime minister. I can only hope that Barnier will draw on his many years of European experience and strengthen common European policies." Much attention will now focus on who Barnier seeks to name to his cabinet. Some ministers from the outgoing government may continue but Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who did not seek re-election as an MP, was unlikely to be among them, two sources told Reuters, saying Le Maire wanted to move on. "Barnier's choice for the finance ministry will therefore be crucial to reassure Brussels and financial markets that France can emerge safely from a dangerously intertwined political and fiscal crisis over the next three months," Eurasia analysts said. Government sources said Macron would like Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu to stay on in the new Cabinet. Meanwhile, RN lawmaker Laurent Jacobelli sought to play down the far right's power over the new government. "We are in the opposition, clearly ... We are not giving anyone the green light," he said on France 2. "We will not be the political force that leads France into the wall by systematically opposing everything and creating chaos." The RN, whose priority is the 2027 presidential election and consequently wants to be seen by voters as responsible, also seemed to consider it had no interest in prolonging the past weeks' political uncertainty, Eurasia said. That same line of thinking could also prompt them to hesitate before bringing Barnier's government down. Eurointelligence analysts, noting that Barnier, a moderate, career politician, considerably toughened his discourse on immigration during his failed 2021 bid to get his party's ticket for the presidential election, said: "The left parties will have to digest their defeat, while the RN could extract more dividends."

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Sydney — Australia, Japan, and the United States are expanding defense cooperation. Analysts say the moves are a response to China's growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Senior Australian and Japanese officials Thursday met for the 11th Australia-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defense Ministerial Consultation in the state of Victoria. Australia’s deputy prime minister and minister for defense, Richard Marles, told reporters that plans were agreed for Japan to join U.S. Marine rotations in northern Australia, as well as more joint exercises and fighter jet deployments. “The relationship between our two countries really has gone to a very different level. Today we have agreed to enhance our air engagement with greater people-to-people links, more training, greater exercises between our two air forces,” he said. Long-standing territorial disputes and differences over Taiwan have unsettled Japan’s relations with China. China overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in 2010 and analysts have said that greater economic prosperity in China has been accompanied by more aggressive military posturing. The bilateral talks in Victoria came after two Chinese incursions into Japanese territory. A Chinese surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace on August 26, while a survey ship entered Japan's territorial waters a few days later. Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko told reporters that closer ties with Australia are essential. “Amidst the increasingly difficult security environment in the Indo-Pacific, we need to raise the Japan-Australia security cooperation to a new height,” said Yoko. Under the plans, Japanese troops could join up to 2,500 U.S. Marines who train in Australia’s Northern Territory each year. Japan and Australia could also collaborate on their long-range missile systems. There has been no response, so far, from Beijing to these strategic plans. Japan was an enemy of Australia and the United States in World War II, but Euan Graham a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a research organization funded by the Australian and other governments, said on social media the proposals show “at a symbolic level how successfully Australia and Japan have put wartime memories behind them.” Australia’s formal military ties with Washington date to the early 1950s and are considered by successive governments in Canberra to the cornerstone of Australia’s sense of security in an increasingly fractious region.

Beijing — China's years of splashing cash on big-ticket infrastructure projects in Africa may be over, analysts say, with Beijing seeking to shield itself from risky, indebted partners on the continent as it grapples with a slowing economy at home.    Beijing for years dished out billions in loans for trains, roads and bridges in Africa that saddled participating governments with debts they often struggled to pay back.    But experts say it is now opting for smaller loans to fund more modest development projects.    "China has adjusted its lending strategy in Africa to take China's own domestic economic troubles and Africa's debt problems into account," Lucas Engel, a data analyst studying Chinese development finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, said.    "This new prudence and risk aversion among Chinese lenders is intended to ensure that China can continue to engage with Africa in a more resilient and sustainable manner," he told AFP.    "The large infrastructure loans China was known for in the past have become rarer."      As African leaders gathered this week for Beijing's biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years.    More than half of that would be in credit, Xi said, while the rest would come from unspecified "various types of assistance" and $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest.    Xi gave no details on how those funds would be dished out.    Loans redirected  China has for years pumped vast sums of cash into African nations as it looks to shore up access to crucial resources, while also using its influence as a geopolitical tool amid ongoing tensions with the West.    But while Beijing lauds its largesse towards the continent, data shows China's funding has dwindled dramatically in recent years.    Chinese lenders supplied a total of $4.6 billion to eight African countries and two regional financial institutions last year, according to Boston University research.    The key shift concerns those on the receiving end: more than half of the total amount went to multilateral or nationally owned banks — compared with just five percent between 2000 and 2022.    And although last year's loans to Africa were the highest since 2019, they were less than a quarter of what was dished out at the peak of nearly $29 billion eight years ago.    "Redirecting loans to African multilateral borrowers allows Chinese lenders to engage with entities with high credit ratings, not struggling individual sovereign borrowers," Engel said.    "These loans reach private borrowers in ailing African countries in which African multilateral banks operate."  Modest approach   China coordinates much of its overseas lending under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Xi's bid to expand his country's clout overseas.    The BRI made headlines for backing big-ticket projects in Africa with opaque funding and questionable impacts.    But China has been shifting its approach in the past few years, analysts said.    It has increasingly funneled money into smaller projects, from a modestly sized solar farm in Burkina Faso to a hydropower project in Madagascar and broadband infrastructure in Angola, according to Boston University's researchers.    "The increased volume of loans signals Africa's continued importance to China, but the type of loans being deployed are intended to let Africans know that China is taking African concerns into account," Engel told AFP.    This does not mean that Beijing is "permanently retrenching its investments and provision of development finance to the continent," Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.    "Development finance flows, especially lending, (are) now starting to rebound," she said.     No 'debt traps'   African leaders have this week secured deals with China on a range of sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, mining and energy.    Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.    A chorus of African leaders — as well as research by leading global think tanks like London's Chatham House — have rebuked the "debt trap" theory.    "I don't necessarily buy in the notion that when China invests, it is with an intention of... ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Beijing on Thursday.    One analyst agreed, saying that for many Africans, China has "become synonymous" with life-changing roads, bridges and ports and the debt-trap argument ignores the "positive impact" Beijing has had on infrastructure development on the continent.    "The reality is some [African] countries have had a tough time fulfilling their debt repayment commitments due to a multiplicity of factors," Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, said.    Engel, of the Boston University research center, said the argument mistakenly assumes that "China solely has short-term objectives in Africa."    That, he said, "vastly underestimates [its] long-term vision... to shape a system of global governance that will be favorable to its rise." 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.