Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Paris Science and Education Forum‖ (March 2-4, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Paris, France, 2026. - 293 p.

67 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS UDC 330.342.5:327.56(679) Budnyk Serhii student of higher education, Faculty of International Relations Kyiv University of Culture Kyiv, Ukraine ORCID ID: 0009-0000-5356-0288 CHINA'S ECONOMIC PRAGMATISM IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES OR "DEBT TRAP DIPLOMACY" Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has become the largest bilateral creditor of the countries of the African continent. According to the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI), from 2000 to 2019, Beijing signed more than 1,140 credit agreements with African countries worth more than 153 billion US dollars. This policy became the basis of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, transforming the infrastructure landscape of the region. Angola and Zambia as poles of interaction Angola (Resource provision model): As China‘s largest African borrower, Angola represents a classic ―oil-for-infrastructure‖ model, with loans often secured by future oil supplies. A study of CARI data shows that Angola received significant amounts of financing, but faced a debt service crisis during the oil price collapse. Importantly, unlike Western institutions, Chinese banks (CDB and ICBC) have undertaken significant restructuring (including deferring payments of billions of dollars between 2020 and 2023), which refutes the thesis of a brutal asset grab.