The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has urged Chinese companies operating in Nigeria to respect Nigerian regulatory rules, while pledging China’s support to Nigeria’s development.
This was disclosed by Wang Yi when President Buhari received in audience the Chinese delegation at the State House, Abuja.
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The Foreign Minister, responding to questions about harsh treatment of Nigerian workers by Chinese firms said that China would not tolerate such and added that if there were cases of such maltreatment, there were means to address the problems diplomatically.
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- “We make this clear to each and every Chinese company doing business in Nigeria, Nigerian laws must be strictly abided by, local customs shall be respected. We believe most of the Chinese companies here are doing well in this regard but there can be a few exceptions because of this or that kind of reasons they might have some labour issues.
- “This is not something the Chinese government wants to see and whenever such issues occur we have diplomatic channels to communicate to make sure that the situation is properly handled to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Nigerian workers.”
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Wang also added that China supported Africa’s fight against COVID-19, citing that Nigeria and China’s relationship was a “south south cooperation.”
- “China remains a developing country, China’s cooperation with Nigeria is South South cooperation. What makes this different from North South Cooperation is that the former is all about mutual help and support between friends. China sees to it that we do not interfere in Nigeria’s internal affairs.”
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What you should know
- Nairametrics reported last month that as Nigeria and US trade continued to falter, China remained a stronger and growing trade partner with the largest economy in Africa.
- According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China/Nigeria trade topped N4 trillion in the first 9 months of 2020 compared to N3.6 trillion in the same period in 2019.
