DW Africa: But in this marriage Angola ended up single. Indebted, owing more to China than Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya combined. To what extent are these debts sustainable?

CR: Debts should not be demonized, the problem is that you don’t see where the money was applied. This is the big question, naturally all countries take on debts for investments in infrastructure and development projects, but in the end it works. In Angola, despite the volume of loans, which are around US$50 billion over twenty years, it is still questionable how these values were used. In fact, it is known that much of the money from these loans was embezzled. One of the major apprehensions made in the context of the fight against corruption has precisely to do with business with China, where it is Angola that borrows the money, but the benefits end up in the hands of the private sector. Angola was harmed because it did not make good use of the money, it was left with debts. We are at a stage where the Angolan state needs to diversify its funding sources and be less dependent on China.