China and Africa natural partners for development

When covering the Seventh Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing earlier this week, attention focused on the $60 billion in aid and financing China pledged to African nations.

Few, however, may realize that back in 1978 when China launched its reform and opening-up drive, it was one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita GDP of only $156 according to the World Bank, much lower than the $490 for SubSaharan Africa at that time.

Forty years of reform and opening-up have enabled China to make a great leap forward. Its economy has expanded at an average annual rate of 9.5 percent and its foreign trade has grown at an average of 14.5 percent each year.

It became the factory of the world, the world’s largest trading nation and the second-largest economy.

This has enabled China to lift about 800 million people out of poverty over that period. And with a per capita GDP of $8,460 in 2017, China has become a middle-income country.

Such an economic miracle underscores Chinese optimism that Africa can replicate the country’s success by learning from its experiences and avoiding its mistakes. That was at least my feeling a few years ago when interviewing Chinese entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, whose companies were making shoes and cars or building railways and telecom systems.

Some Western politicians like to ... defame China’s involvement as “debt trap” or “neocolonialism”. Yet the presence and passion of African leaders at the FOCAC this week has best dismissed such accusations.