LUSAKA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government has officially requested the U.S. government to retract the "misinformation" in National Security Advisor John Bolton's statement over China-takeover-assets allegations.
"Zambia has written an official de'marche to the United States government to request a retraction of a portion of the statement made by a senior U.S. official John Bolton, who alleged that the Chinese government intends to repossess some state owned enterprises because of governments failure to settle its outstanding loan," said Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji in a press statement issued on Sunday.
Last week, Bolton claimed in a statement to unveil the new U.S. strategy for Africa that China is poised to take over Zambia's national power utility due to the government's failure to settle outstanding debts.
Malanji said the Zambian government was disappointed that such a statement lacking accurate information could come from a high ranking official who could have easily verified the information.
"Such misinformation gives a bad name to America's foreign policy," he said.
Zambia enjoys cordial bilateral and multilateral relations with the U.S. government and does not wish to see its diplomatic ties strained as a result of misinformation, said the foreign minister.
He reaffirmed the government's previous statements that Zambia has not offered any of its assets as bilateral or multilateral loans and that there were no state enterprises at risk of being repossessed.
"Therefore, no state asset or state enterprise were at risk of being repossessed as they have not been used as collateral security," Malanji said in the statement.
Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe had earlier said there was no debt default by the government on its debt obligations with the Chinese government or other Chinese lenders.
