infrastructure projects run by chinese firms it's also about influence so let's bring in alexandra de mysie he's a founding director of the china africa advisory in cologne summit critics say that china is creating a truly death trap for many african countries that is the true. you know i do not fully agree to this assumption yes it's true that china has given quite a lot of money as you just mentioned in the last seventeen years in that you know one hundred forty three billion us dollars this money has been invested in a lot of vital infrastructure projects has enabled a lot of african countries to become one of the biggest growing markets today. china is investing in africa also not on you know on the touristic measures but also to create a future market that is being done through these loans but it doesn't mean that china is becoming a debt trap for african countries and frankly african countries have a lot of debt to other institutions namely too much let's write it usually but also to private banks that have given quite a lot of money to african countries other single countries that you see