THREAD on China's debt relief announcement at today's #China- #Africa summit: China has announced to cancel interest-free loans to due by end of 2020 within the #FOCAC framework ( http://xinhuanet.com/english/2020-06/18/c_139147084.htm) A few explanatory notes for those interested in #ChineseAid /1

1) interest-free loans are part of China's foreign #aid. 2) they constitute only a small part of #ChineseAid, most foreign aid loans are concessional loans. 3) Interest-free loans are cancelled quite often. Actually, it appears they are always cancelled when a country /2

declares it cannot repay. (This has been a big issue for #China historically and the reason why it introduced concessional loans in 1995.) 4) Interest-free loans constitute only a small part of China's foreign aid. Most foreign aid loans are concessional loans. /3

5) Normally, it's only interest-free loans that get cancelled. Concessional and non-concessional loans are typically rescheduled. This is also what #China has recently announced in the context of the #G20 #debt moratorium. 6) So all in all, nothing new here. /End