Deepening China-Africa cooperation and boosting Africa’s development

This past September, the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and African leaders from more than 50 countries; including 40 presidents, 10 prime ministers and the chairperson of the AU Commission, with ministerial senior officials of African countries attending the summit.

Also presented in this summit were the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and representatives of 26 international and regional organizations in Africa. The summit boasts the largest scale and highest standard among all home-based diplomatic events ever held in China with more than 3,200 Chinese and foreign participants.

Themed on “China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation”, the summit planned the future development of China-Africa relations, and drew a blueprint for China-Africa cooperation. At the summit, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech entitled “Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future”.

The summit adopted two outcome documents, namely, the Beijing Declaration-Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future, and the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan, which will serve as the guide for the development of China-Africa relations in the years to come. During the summit, President Xi Jinping also met with the leaders of participating African countries on separate occasions. What’s more, China and African countries signed nearly 150 cooperation agreements of various types.

The results of the summit were remarkable with the following highlights:

First, President Xi Jinping emphasized the important principles for China to develop its relations with Africa, namely, a “four-adherence” principle and a “five-no” approach.

The “four-adherence” principle is: First, China values sincerity, friendship and equality, and always respects and supports Africa.

Second, China values common interests and puts friendship first in pursuing cooperation. China welcomes African countries aboard the express train of China’s development, to pursue win-win cooperation and common development.

In doing so, China insists giving more and taking less, giving before taking, and even giving without asking for return. Third, China takes a people-oriented approach in pursuing practical cooperation with efficiency. China will continue to improve institution building, develop new ideas and expand areas of cooperation with Africa to bring cooperation to greater heights, and fully honour the promises it has made to African brothers.

Fourth, China takes an open and inclusive approach to cooperation, stands ready to work with other international partners to support Africa in pursuing peace and development, and welcomes and supports all initiatives that meet Africa’s interests.

The “five-no” approach means no interference in African countries’ pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries’ internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries, no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa. China hopes this “five-no” approach could apply to other countries as they deal with African matters.

Second, China-Africa relations will forge ahead towards the “six-in-one” direction, which, as President Xi Jinping pointed out, means that China and Africa will build a community with a shared future for mankind that assumes joint responsibility; pursues win-win cooperation; delivers happiness for peoples of both China and Africa, enjoys cultural prosperity; enjoys common security; and promotes harmony between man and nature.

China and Africa could increase political and policy dialogue at various levels, enhance mutual understanding and support on issues involving each other’s core interests and major concerns, and boost coordination on major international and regional issues. Such efforts will enable both sides to uphold the common interests of China and Africa as well as other developing countries. Both sides could expand more areas of cooperation and tap new cooperation potentials.

Making lives better for African people is what China aims to achieve in growing China-Africa relations; China will do more to help African countries alleviate poverty, pursue development, increase employment and income, and better the lives of African people.

Both sides will enhance exchanges, mutual learning and harmonious co-existence of our civilizations, and expand people-to-people exchanges in culture and art, education, sports, and between think tanks, the media, and women and young people to strengthen the bond between the people of China and Africa.

China firmly supports African countries and the African Union as well as other regional organizations in Africa in solving African issues in the African way and supports African countries to strengthen their independent capacity of safeguarding stability and peace.

China will work with Africa to pursue green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable development and strengthen exchange and cooperation with Africa on areas of ecological and environmental preservation.

The “six-in-one” defines the connotation, development direction and path of building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future in this era and will serve as a model and accumulate experience for building a community of a shared future for mankind throughout the world.

Third, China has planned eight major initiatives to carry out cooperation with Africa.

China will launch these initiatives in close collaboration with African countries in the next three years and beyond to support African countries to accelerate the independent and sustainable development.

The eight major initiatives specifically lay out the China-Africa cooperation in eight major areas including industrial capacity, infrastructure, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.

At the same time, the eight major initiatives will promote an in-depth integration between the Belt and Road Initiative and the AU Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the development strategies of African countries, which will greatly promote the China-Africa cooperation and benefit more African people.

To make sure these eight initiatives are implemented on the ground, China will extend $60 billion US of financing to Africa in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies. In addition, for those least developed countries, heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China, the debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese government loans due to mature by the end of 2018 will be exempted.

The success of the FOCAC Beijing Summit has once again demonstrated that China and Africa enjoy a firm foundation for traditional friendship, and China-Africa pragmatic cooperation is full of vitality. The FOCAC mechanism is practical and efficient, and China-Africa exchanges and cooperation remain at the forefront of international cooperation with Africa.

The leaders of participating African countries and international organizations spoke highly of the FOCAC Beijing Summit and they appreciated China’s tangible actions to sincerely help the development of African countries and believed that the eight major initiatives will provide new and broad space for Africa’s development. South African President and Co-Chair of the FOCAC Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa said China-Africa relations have entered a golden age.

The leaders of African countries also expressed their indignation and condemnation of the irresponsible remarks on China-Africa relations made by certain forces in the world, stressing those claims that the China-Africa cooperation has aggravated African debts are utterly wrong, and that fomenting dissension between China and Africa only leads to a blind alley.

The FOCAC is a collective dialogue mechanism established in 2000 between China and African countries in the context of South-South cooperation. Members of this forum include China, 53 African countries that have established diplomatic relations with China, and the AU Commission.

The FOCAC holds a ministerial meeting every three years, and it has once held two summits respectively in Beijing in 2006 and Johannesburg of South Africa in 2015.