Chinese Ambassador Pledges to Deepen Ghana, China Relations

By Abigail Annoh

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, has urged Ghanaians not to judge the people of China by the conduct of "the few bad nuts."

According to him, "there are very good Chinese who comply and work within the rules and regulations of the country but as society will have it, there may be a few bad ones. That is not the general representation of the people of China."

Mr Wang was reacting to reported cases of the involvement of Chinese in illegal mining activities of the country's natural resources when he paid a courtesy call on the Editor of the Ghanaian Times, Mr David Agbenu, in Accra yesterday.

The call formed part of a media familiarisation tour by the diplomat since assuming office in June last year.

The Ambassador stressed that the Chinese government would not condone illegality in any form and pledged his commitment to work with all key stakeholders to address the canker.

The Editor of the -Ghanaian Times, Mr Agbenu, who had earlier briefed the Ambassador on the fierce war against illegal mining (galamsey) embarked on by the Ghanaian media, noted that the fight was not targeted at the Chinese but to ensure that the right procedures were followed.

"We got to know that some Ghanaians aided the Chinese nationals to dig the pits and showed them where the gold deposits were so the media had to balance the reportage and now we are handling the issues better so as not to portray the Chinese alone as the bad guys," he explained.

Mr Agbenu commended China for its huge investments in various sectors of the Ghanaian economy urging that the country continued in that light to advance socio-economic growth.

Ghanaians in recent times have been peeved over the destruction of the country's natural resources with activities of illegal mining and felling of its priced trees, particularly involving foreign nationals.

Some Chinese have come up as part of major culprits in such despicable acts raising doubts over Ghana's ability to punish such nationals as a result of the bilateral relations existing between both countries.

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