Keywords

The relations between China and Africa are historical. Existing evidence shows that China began trading with Northeast Africa before the Christian era, while several Chinese travelers reportedly visited Africa during the early part of the Christian era. China’s first significant contact with Africa occurred during the Ming Dynasty when the fifth and sixth voyages of the famous Zheng He naval fleet reached the northeastern coast of Africa during the first quarter of the fifteenth century. The voyages were, however, an anachronism in Chinese history and were followed by a return to China’s inward-looking approach to the rest of the world (Snow, 1988: 30–1). A hiatus in the China–Africa relationship then set in for several centuries until Chinese laborers and traders came to several regions of Africa beginning in the latter part of the eighteenth century (Shinn and Eisenman, 2012: 17–26).

Modern China and Africa have enjoyed a long-lasting friendship. Chairman Mao Zedong and other first-generation leaders of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with older generations of African statesmen including Tanzania’s founding father Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and others, laid the foundations for this China–Africa friendship. China has always expressed respect, appreciation, and support for Africa, and the Chinese people have shared weal and woe and mutual assistance with African people, exploring a distinctive path to win–win cooperation.

The establishment of modern Sino-African relations began in the late 1950s, when China signed bilateral trade agreements with Algeria, Egypt, Guinea, South Africa, and Sudan. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai made a ten-country tour of Africa between December 1963 and January 1964.

Africa has been crucial to China’s foreign policy since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1947. China also supported several African liberation movements during the Cold War, and for every year since 1950, bar one, the foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has first visited an African country. This tradition has been kept to the present day. In January 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Mr. Wang Yi visited five African countries including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo-DRC, Botswana, Seychelles, and the United Republic of Tanzania. During my one-hour interview with the state-owned Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) on this visit, I emphasized the strong and concrete relations that exist between China and Africa, particularly Tanzania. I clearly underscored the weight attached to the relations between Tanzania and China and that China recognizes Tanzania as its entry point and gateway to Africa.

It should be recalled that on October 25, 1971, following the passage of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, the votes of African countries were instrumental in winning the PRC control of China’s seat in the UN General Assembly and Security Council—displacing representatives from Chinese nationalist forces, who had been defeated in the civil war and governed only Taiwan.

Tanzania had played a leading role in the campaign to restore China’s lawful seat in the UN every year in the United Nations General Assembly since 1969. It was also among the 23 co-sponsors of the draft resolution calling for restoring the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the UN in 1971. Tanzania made outstanding contributions to the restoration of China’s lawful seat in the UN. The then Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, successfully foiled attempts to retain Taiwan’s seat in the UN during the vote on Resolution 2758, which has always been appreciated and remembered by the Chinese people. China recognizes that it is their African brothers and sisters who lawfully restored them to their seat at the United Nations. China is not one to forget those who have helped it through the many decades of its rich and prosperous history. China is willing to continue working together with Africa and all other developing countries to uphold the authority of the UN and safeguard true multilateralism.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Chinese government supported African independence movements and gave aid to newly independent African nations. Among the most notable early projects was the 1860 km TAZARA Railway, linking Zambia and Tanzania, which China helped to finance and build from 1970 to 1975.

China is the largest developing country in the world, and Africa has the largest number of developing countries. Shared past experiences and similar aims and goals have brought China and Africa closer together. China and Africa will always be part of a community with a shared future. Developing solidarity and cooperation with African countries has been the cornerstone of China’s foreign policy, as well as a firm and long-standing strategy. In the fight for national liberation and independence, China and African countries have supported each other and fostered mutual political trust in the process. In pursuing economic development and national rejuvenation, both sides have been helping the other and increasing their scope of cooperation. On major international and regional issues, they have coordinated their positions and jointly safeguarded international equality and justice.

Forum on China–Africa Cooperation-FOCAC

The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation-FOCAC was established in 2000 as a uni-multilateral partnership platform between China and 54 African states (all African states except Eswatini, which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan). Of the many partnership platforms Africa has today with a single external actor, FOCAC remains the most strategically intertwined and far-reaching in terms of its depth, scope, and level of cooperation. In theory, the Forum creates a form of multilateralism in which all countries are equal partners, but the comparative weight of China’s state capacity effectively engages 54 pairs of bilateral relationships under a single architecture.

Contrary to the conventional belief that FOCAC was initiated by China, the Forum was created in response to a proposal by the then-African leader Madagascan Foreign Minister Lila Ratsifandrihamanana. The new organization saw China emulate other Western nations who were steps ahead in partnering with Africa, most notably the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Africa-France Summit, the US-Africa Business Forum, the US-African Leaders Summit, the EU-Africa Summit, the Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD), and others. Recently, there have been efforts to hold a Turkey-Africa Forum and a GCC-Africa Summit and others are expected to mushroom in the future. All these demonstrate the potential that the African continent holds in shaping the world order.

Contrary to the ad hoc nature of the EU-Africa Summit or Japan’s TICAD, after two years of initial incubation, FOCAC was institutionalized with a clear operating architecture. FOCAC has evolved from a forum of diplomatic exchange and development-centric body to a comprehensive economic-political-security-soft power nexus, which advances China’s long-term vision in Africa. It features tri-annual ministerial-level meetings with core secretarial responsibilities housed in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Commerce, and Finance.

The inaugural FOCAC meeting was convened in 2000 during Chinese leader Jiang Zemin’s era. In 2006, FOCAC gathered over 40 heads of states or governments from Africa for the first time, overseen by then Chinese President Hu Jintao. Its elevation during the Xi Jinping era from 2013 to an all-encompassing strategic uni-multilateral framework spanned issues on health, the environment, trade, finance, security, politics, ideology, and human development.

Among the eight FOCAC Forums held during this period, three were elevated to a China–Africa Leaders’ Summit, attended by heads of state and government: the 3rd FOCAC in 2006 in Beijing, the 6th FOCAC in 2015 in Johannesburg, and the 7th FOCAC in 2018—again in Beijing. Not coincidentally, each summit redefined the form and scope of the uni-multilateral relationship. At the FOCAC Beijing Summit held in September 2018, the two sides decided to build an even stronger China–Africa community with a shared future and guide China–Africa relations and cooperation into a new era. China and Africa have stood together in success and adversity, setting an example for building a global community with a shared future.

Today, FOCAC has grown far beyond a single development parameter. It has become the quintessential component in China’s grand strategy for the global South. In Africa, in contrast to the continent’s old colonial powers, China’s soft power has deepened alongside its hard power. In the following decades, China’s focus in Africa switched to eliminating all remaining recognitions for Taiwan’s government. Burkina Faso, Malawi, Liberia, Senegal, and others all switched their recognition from Taiwan to the PRC. Eswatini is the only African nation still to recognize Taiwan’s government in 2023.

As we enter a new era, Chinese President Xi Jinping has outlined the principles of China’s Africa policy—sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, and pursuing the greater good and shared interests, charting the course for China’s cooperation with Africa, and providing fundamental guidelines. The dual successes of the Johannesburg Summit in 2015 and the Beijing Summit of the Forum in 2018 pushed China–Africa cooperation to a new and unprecedented height. President Xi Jinping and African leaders unanimously decided at the FOCAC Beijing Summit that the two sides would work to build an even stronger China–Africa community with a shared future and advance cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, establishing a new milestone in China–Africa relations.

The China–Africa friendship, however, was not an overnight success, nor has it been gifted from on high. Rather, it has been fostered throughout the years when China and Africa supported and stood alongside each other in trying times. China has aided the development of Africa to the limit of its capabilities and has been grateful for the strong support and selfless help African countries and their peoples have extended to China for a long period of time. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, China and African countries have continued to provide mutual support, writing a new chapter in China–Africa solidarity and friendship at times of crisis.

The FOCAC partnership platform between China and Africa has produced increasingly deep and complex relations between regions. Africa has benefited from significant investments and China has developed extensive soft power. China’s premiere institutional venture in Africa is now FOCAC and China’s recent experiences demonstrate that working through institutions is a formula for success in Africa. Its efforts through NEPAD, FOCAC, and the United Nations have had not only the most positive impact in Africa, but also the highest approval ratings among African nations. Currently, where its institutional approach is weakest is in a formal partnership with the African Union. But, it should be remembered that the AU has now appointed its diplomatic representative based in Beijing, which is expected to bring new synergies in coordinating with the African continent.

China, in its cooperation with Africa, has always honored its commitment and worked in a practical and efficient manner. China, as the world’s largest developing country, and Africa as is the continent with the largest number of developing countries ensure that the mutual assistance between the two sides when they are pursuing economic development and national rejuvenation will help enhance the common welfare of the 2.7 billion people that live in China and Africa.

Concrete actions have been put in place to implement the outcomes of the 8th FOCAC Ministerial Conference, which are deepening and substantiating the building of a China–Africa community with a shared future in this new era.

China has always followed the principles of sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith and pursued the greater good and shared interests in its cooperation with Africa. The two sides have built over 10,000 km of railways, nearly 100,000 km of highways, nearly 1000 bridges and 100 ports, as well as a large number of hospitals and schools. As long as China and Africa maintaining their solidarity and cooperation, they will definitely explore a new path for developing countries to achieve modernization and common prosperity.

The spirit of China–Africa friendship and cooperation, which features sincere friendship and equality, win–win cooperation and common development, fairness and justice, and progress with the times and openness and inclusiveness, will be carried on from generation to generation. As they join hands for modernization and the building of a China–Africa community with a shared future, China and Africa will surely write a glorious chapter in the history of human civilization.

South-South Cooperation

Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has always demonstrated a spirit of internationalism and humanitarianism following and supporting other developing countries’ efforts to improve their people’s lives and achieve development. From the outset, even though China was itself short of funds, it started offering assistance to needy countries in support of their fight for national independence and liberation, and their effort to promote economic and social development, which laid a solid foundation for long-term friendship and cooperation with those countries. After launching reform and opening up in 1978, China has provided other developing economies with even more aid in more diverse forms to boost common development. Countries like my own—the United Republic of Tanzania, immensely benefited from the support of the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway-TAZARA, Urafiki Textile, and many more projects, which have brought huge impact to the lives of our people.

Over the past few years, the Chinese government has pursued a common prosperity agenda with a series of reforms. Africa has forged cooperation and partnerships with major regions and economies like the EU, the USA, China, Japan, France, Germany, Russia, the Arab League, India, Turkey, South America, and Korea, among others. Yet, no other partnership has attracted as much attention or as much scrutiny as the China–Africa partnership. Partnership and cooperation are undertaken on the basis of political will—from both sides—to promote their interests through each other, and benefits can occur through the synergy this creates. This is the best platform that elucidates the benefits of a South-South Cooperation.

China and Africa enjoy long-standing and historical relations that were elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership in 2018 during the Beijing FOCAC Summit. The formation of Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) two decades ago took the existing relations between Africa and China to a new height. The institutionalization of the cooperation framed not only areas of cooperation, but it also made it predictable and measurable.

“If you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together” is the African wisdom of expressing the need for unity and solidarity. I believe that China–Africa cooperation has, at its crux, made a choice to go together and to go far.

Many global geopolitical observers tend to agree that the current global situation is volatile, complex, and uncertain. No country, big or small, developed or developing, south or north, east or west, can handle the enormous challenges facing human kind alone. Hence, to navigate through uncertain and fast-changing global situations, the need for partnership and strong multilateralism cannot be over-emphasized. The current pace of partnership between China and Africa and the Global South is poised to create a new system of global governance, moving from a uni-polar setup into a multipolar one.

This is not to say that existing partnerships or multilateralism is perfect—but they are the basis for moving forward. Therefore, the China–Africa partnership should also be seen in this context, as a leveled platform of purpose and of action to forge a concerted intercontinental approach for mutually beneficial partnership and responses. And judging from the complementary nature of multifaceted areas of interaction and the convergence of interests, partnership between China and Africa is not only important, it is absolutely necessary.

New South-South cooperation embraces the massive rise of emerging economies and the new international economic system. It insists on the substantive characteristics of South-South cooperation, namely mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual benefit, win–win results, and joint development, thus contrasting sharply with the existing inequalities in the North–South economic relations.

At the same time, the overall strength of emerging economies has been greatly enhanced, meaning that they can now receive financial, technological, managerial, marketing, and other developmental support through the new South-South cooperation, whereas before these were only available through North–South cooperation. In this way, a new international economic system is being formed based on investment, trade, finance, and industrial transfers between emerging economies, thus setting a new world order, from uni-polar to multipolar.

There is no doubt that the global landscape of development cooperation has changed drastically in recent years. The era of one-way cooperation has become outdated, as countries of the South, with China taking the lead, are engaging in collaborative learning models to share innovative, adaptable and cost-efficient solutions to address their development challenges. Conscious that effective cooperation should go far beyond financial contributions and North–South technical assistance, a large and expanding group of Middle- and Low-Income Countries (MICs and LICs) are creating new and innovative responses to their socio-economic-environmental challenges, ranging from poverty and education to climate change, post-conflict, and reconstruction.

In this context, South-South Cooperation (SSC) has become the expression of collaboration and partnership among countries from the South, interested in sharing, learning, and exploring their complementary strengths to go beyond their traditional role as aid recipients. Knowledge Sharing, one of the most dynamic dimensions of SSC, has developed into a third pillar of development cooperation, complementing finance and technical assistance. This changing context is allowing the emergence of a paradigm where “Horizontal Partnerships,” based on equity, trust, mutual benefit, and long-term relations, become an alternative way to do development cooperation. This is a cooperation of the like-minded, most of the countries being developing.

South-South Cooperation is an important component of Deng Xiaoping Theory. China maintains that developing countries must, on the premise of self-reliance, enhance solidarity, support, and help each other through South-South Cooperation. Although trade and investment are two central means by which China engages economically with developing countries, China has also become a significant provider of South-South Cooperation in Asia, Latin America, and especially in Africa. In many least-developed countries (LDCs), China is now believed to be the major source of aid, trade, and investment. It has a long tradition of providing foreign aid, longer than that of some members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC). However, it is important to note that the various instruments stated as part of the Chinese aid program cannot all be considered Official Development Assistance (ODA) as defined by the OECD: in addition to technical assistance, concessional loans and debt relief, components such as non-concessional finance, preferential trade agreements, investment schemes go well beyond the ODA definition. Chinese aid is also very much integrated with trade and investment.

Aid, in the form of financial aid and investment, has become increasingly prevalent in both bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the BRICS. In Africa, the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation provides the official framings for forms of development assistance to the continent, with financial forms of aid available through the New Development Bank and the China–Africa Development Bank (CADFund).

It should be recalled that during the High-Level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation co-hosted by China and the United Nations in September 2015, President Xi Jinping announced a plan to establish an Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD). In April 2016, ISSCAD was set up in Peking University with the goal of sharing China’s experience in state governance and train talent from other developing countries to modernize their governance capacity. Since its founding, ISSCAD has enrolled around 220 doctoral and master’s candidates from 59 developing countries, representing governments, academic institutions, news media, and NGOs. This was another way that China is making good on its promises.

The rise of China as the second largest economy in the world (though some scholars argue with statistics that China is the largest economy now, surpassing the USA) and Africa’s biggest trading partner since 2009 has changed the global geopolitical landscape. The increasing Chinese presence in Africa has created considerable debate among scholars and development experts. While there is broad consensus among scholars that China’s growing economic influence in Africa exerts significant impact on Africa, opinions are divided on the exact consequences that China’s presence will bring to the political, social, and economic development of the continent.

Africa is blessed with enormous untapped natural resources that allow for cooperative interdependence for countries in dire need of natural resources. China needs Africa’s raw materials for its emerging industries and sustained growth and Africa needs to sell these raw materials to China to ensure its continued growth; politically, both China and Africa are committed to seeking revision of the global institutions that constrain economic prosperity in the developing world. Such mutual need fosters interdependence. However, drawing from a recently held China Lecture, hosted on June 10, 2023, in Dar es salaam in Tanzania by the Centre for International Policy-Africa (CIP-AFRICA) in collaboration with Beijing’s China Africa Institute (CAI), participants including seasoned diplomats, politicians, academics, researchers and youth, called upon China to ensure that Africa’s raw materials were processed on the continent for finished goods in order to enhance industrial growth and job creation within the continent. There was consensus that China–Africa cooperation today is the best form of cooperation that has ever existed on the continent. Investing in agriculture was highlighted during the debate, calling for Chinese companies to turn into investing in agriculture to address the problem of absolute poverty on the continent.

China’s policy toward Africa is based on constructive pragmatism and is both action-oriented and functional; thus, it can provide a shield against exploitation by wealthy, industrialized nations and against the negative consequences of globalization. It also offers a realistic alternative to North–South trading patterns that have dominated global trade since the colonial era. Advocates of the China–Africa economic partnership, to which I personally also subscribe, often point to FOCAC as a good example of South-South cooperation. In addition, the elevation of the China–Africa relationship from “strategic partnership” to “comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership” is a clear indication of the prioritization of China’s relationship with Africa, and a step forward in strengthening South-South cooperation.

Nevertheless, the much-touted benefits of South-South Cooperation often underestimate the unequal power relationship, especially with regard to China’s emergence as a global power, both economically and politically, and its expanding geopolitical influence. I want to underscore the fact that China is rapidly growing its military capabilities in Asia, but nowhere else in a significant way. That is increasingly concerning to America’s Indo-Pacific allies, who now rely on the US security umbrella more than before. We have witnessed this with the Russian-Ukraine war, where Europe seems to be more dependent on US-led NATO plans. This leaves the USA with a uni-polar security order and not a uni-polar economic order.

The extremely limited and unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines in the Global South and the so-called “vaccine diplomacy” of China and India during the recent pandemic have generated renewed interest among scholars and policymakers in better understanding the idea of South-South Cooperation and its impact on global development. Under the broad umbrella of South-South Cooperation, countries in the Global South exchange resources, technology, and knowledge. The role of China and India in South-South Cooperation has gained significant attention due to their growing economic influence and engagement in development initiatives in other countries. China in particular highlights its logistical prowess, which has enabled it to build impressive infrastructure at home and abroad.

Recently, on June 7, 2023, at a seminar co-organized by the Institute of African Studies at Zhenjiang Normal University and Research and Education for Democracy-REDET of the University of Dar es salaam in Tanzania, held at University of Dar es salaam’s Confucius Institute, where I was invited to speak, I underscored the point that many global geopolitical observers tend to agree that the current global situation is volatile, complex, and uncertain.

This is not to say that existing partnerships or multilateralism is perfect—but they are the basis for moving forward. Therefore, the China–Africa partnership should also be seen in this context, as a leveled platform of purpose and of action to forge a concerted intercontinental approach for mutually beneficial partnership and responses. And judging from the complementary nature of multifaceted areas of interaction and the convergence of interests, partnership between China and Africa is not only important, but it is absolutely necessary.

I seized the opportunity to lament the importance of think tanks in advancing the debate on South-South cooperation, noting that think tanks are important actors in global policy-making, and those from the Global South are gaining relevance and forming a community that will together ensure the implementation of the finest and informed policy-making processes. Here, think tanks can define and shape a forward-looking research agenda on South-South Cooperation and triangular cooperation for sustainable development. Promoting and conducting collaborative research involving other thought leaders from the Global South is also important.

The sharing of knowledge and solutions is an increasingly important pillar of South-South Cooperation. Think tanks provide thought leadership on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), informing policymakers and development practitioners with knowledge, research findings, and solutions to SDGs. However, there is still a significant knowledge gap impeding informed decision-making on agendas relevant to the SDGs. The global network of think tanks will help reduce such knowledge gaps, and more connections and dialogues will be created between think tanks and international development agencies. We need to have a strong network of think tanks where the global South and North can come together and engage in policy dialogues and share knowledge and perspectives.

The BRICS

Another development worth mentioning is the emergence and creation of the BRICS. Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) now form one of the world's most important economic blocs, representing more than one quarter of global GDP, and 42% of the world's population. Some of the benefits it brings include increased economic growth, improved cross-border business operations, enhanced innovation, improved public services, and strengthened regional cooperation.

BRICS has three pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. The New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement were established at the 2014 Fortaleza Summit. So far, the NDB has sanctioned almost $8 billion in renewable energy and infrastructure projects across the BRICS countries.

The BRICS countries had and still have a common goal of overhauling the international financial and monetary systems, as well as a strong desire to create a more just and balanced international order. The BRICS community plays a critical role in setting global economic policy and promoting financial stability, accounting for 17% of global trade and one-third of global GDP. The countries have made significant contributions to global poverty alleviation. Continued BRICS growth is critical for poverty reduction and decreasing international disparities. Through poverty alleviation and unwavering efforts to bridge inequalities, BRICS has recently emerged as the voice of developing countries, or the global south, and has played am essential role in defending the rights of the developing countries of the world.

In conclusion, BRICS must be an instrument of pressure for change in the international system. South-South cooperation is therefore the vehicle to this change. We must therefore, for the global south to prosper and become a global influencer, set the right direction for openness and inclusiveness. We must walk together leaving no one behind. As the famous African wisdom of expressing the need for unity and solidarity goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far go together,” let us, as developing world, walk together in order to go far.