actually either come to a solution by some sort of breakthrough a might take place but certainly the general mood is one of cynicism although in the desperate situation in yemen people have to have some sort of optimism within their thinking there has to be said also that in age and the local council the governing council which is backed by the united arab emirates is making calls for the talks not to be taken seriously and to be resisted by civilians simply because it's the governing council isn't going to be a part of the talks and that's really by its own choice so that is the u.n. a temporary council making clear statement to civilians to get out and protest against the rules a very mixed picture that doesn't really build a lot of hope and trust which is what the united nations special envoy wants desperately in these talks if that's even get off the ground all right thank you

for that. now to sri lanka where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take part in antigovernment marches in the capital colombo the protests have been organized by the opposition coalition which is led by the former prime minister mahinda rajapaksa extra police have been deployed and special security has been put in place around parliament the courts have ruled the protesters can be arrested for disrupting the peace the opposition says the government no longer has a mandate health to recent losses in local government elections let's talk to our correspondent. in colombo how much trouble then is the government of three policy reason actually and. money in the government of my policy the sailor facing a dilemma at this stage they're three little over three years into they're. facing

a lot of unpopularity escalating cost of living and basically the joint opposition yapping at their here's the joint opposition very much fronted by former president strongman behind the rajapaksa keeping on proving and showing the masses who are still a significant amount of them sued backing the government government for the east side of mind the rajapaksa that the current government has not basically kept their promises promises to change the country to get rid of corruption to bring in essentially a new era and bring change so the government also has a problem with its coalition that has been one of the main problems putting on a united front the party's of prime minister run over at loggerheads with the president and his party might be powerless serious enough and this is led to fractions giving the former president and the joint opposition an advantage so this

rally very much a show of force they're calling it the people's power brought to colombo why. one of them will mean slogans getting rid of the government that has messed up the country so we're expecting these marchers joint opposition says hundreds of thousands of people will converge on the capital in a show of force and tell us that's the can't be known so if if indeed hundreds of thousands of sri lankans to turn out to protest against the government of mr city center will this be an indication of how much power rajapaksa still wields on the island. that is a fact that he has proved time and time and again even after his election defeat at the hands of my policy the same of the current president of the rajapaksa was still able to marshal and put on a major show of force don't forget that he is constant to unsee his supporters he

has broad based support in the rural areas many hundreds of thousands of people still consider him the sort of savior of the country he is the president that ended a near thirty year civil war and that is something that the people and his supporters still find very much a reason to almost day for him so this this sort of demonstration that we're expecting today very much a show of force another way that the former strongman the former president shows that he's still a force to be reckoned with now hernandez live in the sri lankan capital colombo thank you. now the leaders of pacific island nations are meeting in our room that's where australia imprisons refugees the four day forum faith is due to focus on regional peace and security as well as well as improving the health of the people

of the region but actually the treatment of refugees in our room is casting a shadow over the entire conference around sixteen hundred people are currently being held on now ruth and on popular new guinea is mannus island. a new book by the washington post journalist bob woodward has claimed that president donald trump wanted to have syrian president bashar al assad assassinated last year a request that was ignored by his defense secretary fear is the name of the book trump in the white house and it has quotes from the president's own aides questioning his ability to lead the white house says the book is full of fabricated stories many by former disgruntled employees told to make the president look bad and of quotes bob woodward his name in vain his investigative reporting that helped bring down president richard nixon in the watergate scandal. but the washington

post has published odio of a telephone conversation between president trump and bob woodward in which they apparently discussed the book. look at the world in your industry in. the right you are still very much is going to be a negative book but you know i'm some sort of fifty percent used to that ok all right so my goodness say maybe it's going to be a good. time to take a look at the top stories here at al-jazeera warplanes have been bombing syria's rebel controlled italy province at least seventeen people have been killed russia says it's aware the syrian army is planning an all out offensive on it led the rebels last stronghold the u.s. has warned of a potential humanitarian disaster un brain could talk between who see rebels or members of the internationally recognized government of yemen are due to meet in

geneva on thursday but we have learned that the healthy delegation has not left for the talks because there are certain conditions were met this is protests continue for a third day in southern yemen against a worsening economic situation. i shall be adding i don't know how well the people are destroyed and the situation requires mutual agreement if we really are arabs and we really are patriotic we have to compromise and concede to each other and god willing we will all sixteen and the country will have a space for us all no one wants anything but peace. we call on all the parties in those disagreeing to unite under one banner in order to relieve the people from the division they've reached and relieve them from suffering and also to end the siege and the recent deterioration of the currency also to put the country's interests above their own personal interests and shown their differences. the strongest

typhoon to hit japan in twenty five years has killed at least ten people and injured hundreds of others typhoon j.v. left more than a million people without electricity and damaged roads and rail lines thousands of airline passengers were stranded overnight because runways at the airport and also flooded. a major antigovernment protests is expected in sri lanka security has been increased around pauline and in the capital colombo the protest has been organized by the opposition coalition which is led by the former prime minister mahendra rajapaksa he says the government no longer has a man days after losses in recent local government elections but they say the headlines inside story is next. at night in a stalking somali bonds patrolled the streets police. chiefs in the in hamburg in. gang violence the use the maternal approach to prevent crime. a doomed.

pit in. the stories we don't often hear told by the people who live there mothers of rain could be this is europe on al-jazeera. are african countries getting into a debt trouble with china president xi jinping host another high level the king of egypt and promises that no strings attached and billions of dollars in new financing for one of the long term financial risks this is inside story. hello there welcome to the program i'm laura kyle china is africa's largest trading partner and already spent billions of dollars in investment and loans with the

promise of much more to come from roads and railways to ports the chinese government is backing large scale projects across africa as part of its so-called belt and road and negative the leaders of around fifty african countries have been in beijing for a two day summit china's president xi jinping offered them sixty billion dollars in new financing deals and says the investments come with no political strings attached is also promising to waive the debts of the poorest african countries as our china correspondent adrian brown. well this has been a summit which in many ways was more about symbolism than substance it lasted really less than two days but of course china has committed itself to giving africa another sixty billion dollars that's on top of the sixty billion dollars that was pledged at the last africa china forum three years ago china's media actually doesn't call this you know loans it talks about aid that way it doesn't seem as

though china is making a profit out of extending financing to africa but of course you know these are loans now president xi jinping said that you know fifteen billion dollars of that sixty billion was going to be free of interest but of course it still means that africa will be paying interest on forty five billion dollars worth of loans now china is again has been very sensitive to criticism that it's carrying out what is known as debt diplomacy china says in fact that you know african countries are not in debt because of the money that china has been lending it's the result of money that has been lent by others and chinese officials on the sidelines of this summit have been pressing home that point again and again i've also been struck by what's been said on social media and there really is quite a bit of anger out there

a number of de of messages have now been deleted from way boat that's china's equivalent of twitter you know many people in china actually don't go along with president xi jinping international ambitions and what people are saying is you know china is a developing come a country maybe some of that money should have gone back to china this is adrian brown the inside story in beijing. ok let's bring in our poll now and joining us from beijing we have done one she's an analyst at the economist intelligence unit at last and her dad is american former minister and member of parliament and from a roby at a concert to an investment advisor rich management very good to have you with us welcome to the program mr howe that if i could start with you i was very impressive as you get around fifty heads of african states to be cheering did the leaders will

get what they wanted. i think so and i it's very impressive first of all because a lot of people have been i mean go to those kinds of meets is whether it's in africa or in china and african leaders are interested in china because now it's becoming like a major global player especially with the problems that europe has been having lately or not so the protectionism the rise in protectionism in america and the trump so a lot of people a lot of africans look at china and china has been the liver in this sense since two thousand i mean in terms of loans in terms of investment in terms of development aid which is becoming like bigger and i think it's very it's fair to say that that the chinese are aware of the fact that they need to be i mean like to change the model of financial help that they're providing for example if you look at the sixty billion dollars that they pledged feds were only

twenty billion dollars is credit line but fifteen billion is concessional and interest free ten billion is for the elements and five billion is to help with imports and ten billion will be like for the private sector so all of that is very important in the sense that the africans are seen that china is not only interested in making money and also in extracting like resources but they are more interested in improving if you like like exports to china not only like i mean primary kind of exports but also like manufactured exports and that is like me like to talk about developments about sustainability so all of those kinds of things are important and i think the africans also the african leaders are very sensitive to the fact that these kinds of loans and development money comes without political strings comes from western countries so that's the interests in china but also i mean i think that china has

a lot of money to spend as well and for it like africa is a. an emergent region with a lot of but tension and lot of growth come in come in its way so there is that there is that interest also from the chinese whether it's the chinese government and also the chinese companies and china is interested in bringing africa within that kind of perspective of the of the silk road the reinvention of the same road absolutely that the chinese president put together how interested is china really in developing a different kind of relationship or all of these changes that has made the pledging of sixty billion dollars of which forty five billion quintal correspondent it's still in the form of knowns that carry with it interest rates and penalties for non repayments so how interested is china really in changing the relationship. well i don't think the direction general direction of the relationship has any real changes but there are some interesting language change because previously china

focused more on a poverty reduction and in line with that by this year capacity butin is mention a multiple times where such as actually china is more interested into injecting more of the manufacturing capacity and a more even part of the china supply chain over to african countries and this is a positive change i would say and in terms of the loans china is also a bit more conservative in terms of providing concessional loans and a lot more focuses on operating up the trade links between the two continent and that's also a positive ok i contacted you agree with this do you see a new era in china africa relations developing here i think there's definitely been a linguistic change i think xeon pingu for his propaganda chief i think about two weeks ago stephan it lead change the language around africa around the african story but i think you know we cannot be naive at this point in time we've seen

countries take on enormous amounts of debt we've seen hugely inflated infrastructure projects many of which which are white elephants before the get go and you don't have to look very far whether it's quiet in pakistan whether it's. whether it's true lanka who gorged on chinese credit and then add to disgorge that bought at hand and we can see the writing on the wall and where this is headed so i think definitely seeing paying is is situationally more aware but i think you know some of these deals that were offered in the sixty billion dollars package had had collateral benefits for china to take some of the debt forgiveness for indian ocean island. which he specified that's all about geopolitical reach these islands have to have have

a lot of reach in terms of the sea around them so i think you know what i do find there is a rather brigade of that seems of a very well coached when they all go to china i wish they'd take some notes when they went i didn't seize a single leader of that of any african country taking any notes it was quite extraordinary so i think look there it is there is a chorus. of people who will clap anything but at the but the bottom line is you know twenty years down the road there are definite changes that have happened countries of borrow too much money the projects they've borrowed these these funds for are not going to pay off in the foreseeable future and really the import the key factor now for the c.d.o. african relationship is how china is going to deal with the debt fallout we can see the dominos are beginning to fall because a classic example prime minister abbey read the writing on the wall dot was standing ten percent g.d.p.

rates so really i think we've got to we've got to be aware of what's going on we cannot be naive china is not santa claus though a lot of our leaders seem to believe that and we need to negotiate now with our national interest in mind and i think these are the key things i'd like to i'd like to see happen i'm not seeing them happen yet i'm just seeing a big cheer leading brigade great boondoggle china shook his hand and they've come back and i'm not sure what we've really got here ok that one just to pick up on one of the many points made there is china a soft benefactor when it comes to these lanes is it going to write them off as perhaps you know sort of santa clause or is it going to play hardball as i said we've seen in sri lanka where the sri lankans couldn't pay back the debt for those ports and china then took over the lease for it well we all know the chinese doesn't. come a chinese long doesn't come with a lot of political strength but it does. i mean china has no conditions in fact over fifty percent of china's loans to africa and latin america is backed by

commodity things like energy and food and there's a very important for china to have sort some sort of backup but overall i don't think people should consider china as some sort of aid provider. chinese entrepreneurs go over to african countries build up factories and change the landscape of africa it is out of their self interest and not the fundamental thinking of helping african countries i still think the countries like the u.s. and europe probably take really the moral high ground in this issue but what's really has changed in the past decade in africa we have to we have to admit that the chinese is actually taking the lead here not the western countries i must say that the big criticism of course over these projects is that many of them a simply not needed by many of these countries in africa they may benefit twenty years down the line but they're certainly not benefiting anyone now and when

countries can't pay back the loans to pay for them in the first place then they risk losing their sovereignty are you seeing that happen. some of the projects have been like very unlike what the chinese presidents called vanity kind of projects and they are carried out by some african leaders for their kind of political gains unlike big stadiums or big statues or big dams or different kinds of grandiose kinds of projects but i think there is an awareness now both among i mean on the chinese president's said that but also like among african leaders and there is some sort of convergence now that we you need to invest in it like creation of wealth creation of employment but also in sustainable kinds of projects and i think that's the kind of language change that i'm seeing and i'm seeing awareness on the part of the chinese like ten years before i mean like didn't care about those kinds of

things that sustainability was not on the table but also like the nature of the projects was not an on the table but now it is on the table and and if you look at the speech of the chinese president you will see that that's a very important kind of like they have to be sustainable to have also not to be the to benefit the people and that's that's important so there is probably like i mean like some sort of shift towards like more projects that will be canonically beneficial to the countries themselves rather than to regimes and to president ok perry what is interesting is that we're hearing this change of language from the chinese side from the chinese president xi jinping but not raining necessarily hearing it from the african leaders side so what responsibility should leave as of africa bear for example why are they not apples conference taking notes while they at least giving the impression of just being a bunch of yes men i think i think the there is there is

a very important drive and also very important like need for funding and for investment a lot of the africa. and leaders that they're dying to get those kinds of investment projects they're not there to take notes or take any kind lessons that they're in order to see if they could fund like the different kinds of initiatives that they have and the take and whether they are regional or national so i think that's the most important thing but i mean the chinese are there for that kind of like if you look for example i've been at the needs of africa in terms of infrastructure they have been evaluated sometimes at one hundred billion kind of dollars that's not something that will come from the u.s. or come from europe but china is there in order to fund those kinds of projects and i think that's the most important thing for for for those countries one of the things that needs to probably like make everyone worried and the world bank and i.m.f. also have signaled that is it i mean are those countries solvable or will they be able to to bay those kinds of that's what happens if they don't pay those debts and

i think the chinese are smart in lincoln some of those that too like commodities and also having access to different kinds of resources within the within the continent but i mean it's something that i mean we need to wait and see how much of an economic and political dependence will a lot of the countries that have not solvable in terms of that that will be to china rather than try their countries them into western countries like they have historically been ok i think on can countries afford to wait and see what sort of debt they're going to be in to china or is it already too late well i think in some cases it's too late and in some cases the dominoes are falling in zambia you called the euro bond prices seventy cents on the dollar if you follow the markets that's telling you that basically xanthias bust its biggest lender is china so we're going to watch this situation in real time unfold in front of our eyes and there are a number of other situations which are very very similar if i can just return to

the previous question in one way i think china very much better on. the elites on the leadership of the of the african continent and what we're watching now is a very fluid moment i'll just you know i'm sitting in nairobi just look at what's happening over the border in uganda with the situation with president was of a me and and and and bobby wine this pop star who's very popular and we're watching a generational shift from folks who fought for independence to the born free generation and when i listen to presidency in ping it was quite sophisticated he was talking about inclusive growth he was talking about africans feeling the growth on the street and i think that's increasingly an important point that seeing thing is understanding is that you know this all in debt limit long bet on leadership at a moment when leadership is about to be up and it in many places is

a very interesting moment for china to handle and i think we've got to keep an eye on that but look make no mistake and mean these projects are not delivering the return on investment that they should be delivering that just simply not going to do it in some cases the never going to do it and the point is what's going to happen when this becomes evident to many many people and we're seeing that evidence in front of our eyes and i think that's the challenge for china i also think we can't lose sight of the overall geopolitical situation we've got president trump rattling xeon ping's golden cage looking to bottle up china in the south china sea not keen on expansion into the indian ocean so you've got a lot of other cross currents which are at play at the moment and i think we've got to watch them all unfold but it is a fluid situation and my view and why does that not consenting china but it's going to be saddled by all of these bad loans which can never be repaid. it is certainly

a concern for china has specially when domestically also faced some liquidity problem. we cannot say that infrastructure infrastructure building is necessarily wrong in africa if i live in a village in a remote uganda do i want to erode our that connection my village to a nearby township of course i do but as some point to this low might go sour but i wouldn't be able to see it probably the later generation children or children children will have to repay it a little but it doesn't mean that to building this road is wrong it probably will leave a lot of people out of poverty and we cannot deny that china has gotten word it is now by its a by the so-called china model which is a data driven infrastructure spending model and that has through the chinese miracle in the past forty years and whether that model can be export it to africa and whether african countries want to adopt it it's

a different question but you know the the world has no patients really this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that china is a willing to provide it is kind of liquidity and a shipping consider this the dot in the road investment initiative as a one thousand year project for himself so it's very important actually for the practical business men to take advantage of this opportunity it is just that one it's there you just have to seize it ok i said we proved irresistible to many people on the african continent and i said out how does it benefited people in america as chinese investment benefits of america or morocco is the solution for chinese investments but it's not as big as south africa or nigeria or a jury. or or on goal of for example so morocco has like a diversified kind of investors from both u.s. and also europe and middle east especially china so it's not highly dependent on

china although like. very important the relationship that exists in morocco and and chinaman politically and also morocco is being seen as a platform since it has also its own investment in africa and its own interests in west africa let me go back to the point that the previous point about regarding like the weather whether like the zone i mean like investments in infrastructure is very important and i agree with the fact that roads and highways and also like ports and airports are very important and they could be like structuring projects in terms that they create some sort of dynamics around them and i think the challenges for the chinese is to go beyond the infrastructure and then work with the african governments on well for the using kind of sectors and i think i agree culture is very important energies and energy and mining and agriculture

technologies and the transformation that are happening in some countries like zambia or one donut other places those are the kinds of transitions that should be accompanied by countries like china so that there could be enough wealth creation that can be enough jobs but also there could be also enough taxes for the governments to pay back i mean like those kinds of that and i think that's the question that needs to happen i mean the problem seems for exam the declaration of chinese officials and the concerns of the africans i think that they need that kind of concern about the fact that yes infrastructure is important yes that should not be like big but should be geared towards like infrastructure but i think there is a need also to to to have like more focus on sectors that develop like wealth and also i think you look at africa and i think a lot of countries i could do was send a golf ball or one that others are probably not on board but are growing and some of them double digits and i think that is prosperity to be created to. be enhanced

in those kinds of countries and i think the investment you need is geared towards that kind of prosperity and ballack how do you see china willing to make that transition to invest in other areas of the economy and for this to become a more balanced relationship. absolutely i think they have to i mean and you know if i'm not knocking infrastructure i'm just not getting the price tag right i'm saying ina road is good if it's built to the village but if it's built at the right price if you have pay three times the price that the road costs then you've got a problem you've got a debt burden so if we can content civilised in that sense i think look this relationship is dynamic it's going to change is going to change dramatically i think the it just the linguistics of president seeing ping at this conference is signaling the that he's listening and that is he's looking to turn and i think the question is does the does the bureaucracy turn with him do they listen to what he's

saying or is it going to be more of the same which is a rather freewheeling type attitude. a lot of contracts which ultimately have gone into financing elections that you know you've got these big ticket projects for infrastructure way money is being creamed off the top recycled into winning the election and supporting the government of the day so this is a very very obvious is the question is can can presidency in being clean up shop and go there's a good example because if you look back at the chinese engagement with angola there was a very free wheeling type in gauge went i think there was a very well known character out of hong kong a contra member's name now but you've seen cd paying stamp his mark try to try to sort of. own the engagement much more but he's going to have to take a lot more ownership of it over it because for now what we've seen is a lot of privileged people eating the chinese cake the question is the crumbs going

to get down to a billion african citizens whose refrain has been throughout this twenty year expansion we can't eat g.d.p. and i think that's what he was responding to in point of fact very interesting indeed and by that we will have to leave discuss. today many thanks to all of you. and thank you very much for watching you can see the program again any time. facebook page at facebook dot com. inside story.

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