Chinese President Xi Jinping met his Zambian counterpart Hakainde Hichilema in Beijing on Friday, as the heavily indebted African nation works to shore up ties with its leading creditor.
Beijing had launched a major infrastructure drive including new airports, roads and energy projects before Hichilema stepped into office in 2021.
But Hichilema has enjoyed an increasingly close relationship with the United States, with President Joe Biden hailing his commitment to democracy at successive US -Africa and democracy summits.
On Friday, Xi said China and Zambia's friendship had "withstood the test of international storms and changes", according to a readout published by state broadcaster CCTV.
China-Zambia relations
China is willing to transform that friendship into "an inexhaustible impetus for win-win cooperation in the new era", and to move relations between the two countries steadily forward, he said.
According to the readout, Hichilema said Zambia admired China's role "in actively promoting change in the global order so that the global South can take its rightful place in the world ".
Zambia, whose total debt amounted to $32.8 billion at the end of 2022, defaulted on its $18.6 billion foreign debt in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The nation became the first on the continent to default on its foreign debt since the start of the pandemic.
A restructuring deal involving foreign lenders and covering about a third of the tab was struck in late June following a two-day Paris summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Commercial interests
China has significant commercial interests in Zambia, having invested in over thirty projects worth $11.3 billion in the country through its Belt and Road Initiative between 2014 and 2023.
This is according to data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute think tank which indicates the infrastructure projects are spread through the energy, agriculture and aviation sectors.
China also holds huge stakes in Zambia's mining sector. The world's second-largest economy imports a significant amount of raw copper from Zambia to refine and feed its hungry construction and transportation sectors.
