Since the turn of the year, a narrative has sprung up, according to which China has significantly cut its lending to Africa in recent years. This narrative maintains that the entire Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) program was designed from the beginning to do nothing more than further enslave the entire continent in a “debt trap.”
The fact is that China shifted its approach to Africa beginning with the Covid lockdowns of 2020, in order to prevent African countries from accruing debts which they could not pay. That approach was later officially announced at the September 2024 FOCAC conference in Beijing, where President Xi Jinping announced that the emphasis for the 2025-2027 period would be in increasing trade with Africa, instead of heavy infrastructure construction.
The definitive accounting for the BRI program, produced by the Green Finance and Development Center, exposes this new narrative as a complete fraud. According to author Christopher Nedopil Wang, “2025 saw the highest BRI engagement ever for any 6-month period, with $128.4 billion in construction contracts and about $85.2 billion in investments.” The “catch"—the phrase which the narrative-shapers ignored (beyond the glaring figures themselves)—was that, “In 2025, Chinese private enterprise reclaimed a dominant role in investment,” listing private companies East Hope Group, Xinfa Group, Longi Green Energy, and Bytedance as examples.
While there has not yet been a full Western accounting of BRI spending in 2025, a couple of reports produced during the year had already proven this new narrative a fraud. In July 2025, the Australian Griffith University’s Asia Institute produced a report on the first half (H1) “engagement” of China in Africa. According to them, “2025 H1 saw the highest BRI engagement ever for any 6-month period, with $66.2 billion in construction contracts and about $57.1 billion in investments.”
