The 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will soon be held in Dakar, Senegal from November 29th to 30th. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony virtually and deliver a keynote speech via video links. In light of new conditions, imperatives and opportunities, China and Africa will jointly take stock of the latest achievements in cooperation at the conference and draw up blueprints into a brighter future for their 2.7 billion people.
China-Africa friendship remains as iron-clad and rock-solid today as it was upon the inception of diplomatic ties 65 years ago. In the past course striving for national independence and liberation, China and Africa are comrades-in-arms and brothers going through thick and thin. In the drive for modernization, China and Africa are partners and friends with win-win cooperation toward common development. In the fight for shared interests of developing countries and greater democracy in international relations, China and Africa are “natural allies” that stand shoulder-to-shoulder and work back-to-back.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of China’s lawful seat at the UN. We will never forget the firm votes of confidence from Ethiopia and other African brothers half a century ago, which gives vivid expression to the high level of political mutual trust and profound friendship between China and Africa. No matter how international landscape may evolve, it will always be a priority in China’s diplomacy to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries.
At the dawn of the new century 21 years ago, China and our brothers in Africa decided to initiate FOCAC, a platform born in an era of peace and development, dedicated to promotion of win-win cooperation. The inception of FOCAC has thus opened up a new era of political mutual trust and comprehensive cooperation between China and Africa.
The past 21 years have been a journey of China and Africa coming together as one community with a shared future, overcoming challenges and forging ahead at full throttles. FOCAC has bolstered political trust, practical cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and mutual support between China and Africa. Over the years, the forum has become a crucial platform for collective dialogue between China and Africa and an effective mechanism for practical cooperation, setting a prototype of friendly cooperation for common development among developing countries.
In recent years, China-Africa relations have broken into a sprint. Chinese President Xi Jinping laid down principles guiding China’s Africa policy, including sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, and pursuing the greater good and shared interests, and called for building a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future. His devotion to leadership diplomacy with Africa has given a strong boost to political interactions between the two sides, which are more frequent, extensive and unprecedented in scale. In 2015 and 2018, Chinese and African leaders convened two historic FOCAC summits: one in Johannesburg and one in Beijing. And at a critical moment in tackling the coronavirus, the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19 was successfully held, pointing the way forward for China-Africa cooperation against COVID-19 headwinds and demonstrating to the world the high-level of China-Africa relations.
With the development of FOCAC, China-Africa practical cooperation has gathered stronger momentum. In terms of infrastructure, Africa has become China’s second largest market for overseas contract projects. Since the inception of FOCAC, Chinese companies have built or upgraded more than 10,000 kilometers of railway and nearly 100,000 kilometers of highway. With regard to trade and investment, China-Africa two-way trade has increased by over 20 times since the year 2000, and Chinese direct investment in Africa has grown by more than 100 times. China has been Africa’s top trading partner for 12 years in a row, and is Africa’s second largest destination for agro-exports and the fourth largest investor on the continent. Total Chinese FDI in Africa has exceeded US$43.4 billion, covering more than 50 countries and including an increment of over US$10 billion since the FOCAC Beijing Summit. More than 3,500 Chinese companies are doing business in Africa, and have created over 4.5 million local jobs.
As Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partners, China and Ethiopia have adopted development strategies that are highly compatible, and engaged in practical cooperation that sets the pace for China-Africa cooperation. The two countries are complementary in infrastructure, energy, agriculture, human resources and other fields of cooperation, which are full of development potential. China has been Ethiopia’s top trading partner, source of destination and project contractor for consecutive years, and played a vital role in the industrialization and modernization of Ethiopia. Since the FOCAC Beijing Summit, the flagship project - Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, has experienced continued increase in its transport volume. Coffee, soybean and mung bean have become new drivers of growth for Ethiopian exports to China. The Friendship Square and Africa Leadership Excellence Academy are among the major projects completed through cooperation.
A Chinese proverb has it that “Just as distance tests a horse’s strength, time will reveal a person’s sincerity”. The vicissitudes of international landscape will not affect the fraternal bond linking China and Africa together, or stop the two sides from pulling together in the joint pursuit of progress. In the upcoming FOCAC Ministerial Conference, 55 members of the forum will work together to form new strategic consensus, explore new cooperation areas, bring new benefits to the peoples and inject new momentum into common development of China and Africa. Through concerted efforts of China and Africa, there will surely be an even brighter future for all!