2018: Year of Africa

Peopletopeople exchange was a key feature of Chinaafrica cooperation in 2018

WThe author is a senior researcher with the Charhar Institute and a researcher at the Institute of West-asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

ith frequent high-level visits and the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in September, for China, 2018 was the “year of Africa.” From July 21 to 28, 2018, President Xi Jinping visited Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa and Mauritius, his fourth Africa visit since he was elected president in 2013, which showed the great importance he attaches to Sino-african relations.

In the first half of 2018 alone, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, special presidential representative Yang Jiechi, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Li Zhanshu, and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Wang Yang visited Africa one after another.

In addition, African leaders visited China frequently. Within half a month after China concluded the annual sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee in March, the presidents of Cameroon, Namibia and Zimbabwe visited China. The three leaders expressed their wishes to strengthen alignment between their own development strategies and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. SinoNamibian and Sino-zimbabwean relations were upgraded to comprehensive strategic cooperative partnerships during the visits.

A new chapter

The 2018 FOCAC Summit, held on September 3-4, pushed the “year of Africa” in China to its climax, opening a new chapter of Sino-african relations. The most prominent achievements at the summit included an agreement by China and African countries to work toward a stronger community with a shared future, with African countries emphasizing their desire to more actively support and participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the summit, 28 African countries, as well as the African Union, signed memoranda of understanding (Mous) with China on the Belt and Road Initiative, increasing the number of African countries that have signed Mous to 37. This number accounts for 70 percent of the countries that participated in the 2018 FOCAC Summit.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China will reinforce close communication with related African countries on the Belt and Road Initiative with the aim of expanding the initiative to the whole continent so as to benefit African countries and peoples in a concrete manner.

Infrastructure construction and the building of industrial parks—which form important parts of the Belt and Road Initiative—are on the rise on the African continent and have seen preliminary success. For instance, the Mombasa-nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, which went into operation on May 31, 2017, had transported 1.72 million passengers and 2.1 million tons of goods by August 2018, far exceeding estimates. In addition, the railway has helped reduce logistics costs by more than 40 percent, contributing up to 2 percent to the growth of Kenya’s GDP.

The construction and operation of the railway also diversified business operations and promoted industrial chain development along the route, laying a solid foundation, along with other projects, for new industrialization in Kenya.

Peopletopeople exchanges

Apart from industrialization, forging closer people-to-people ties is a strong component of the Belt and Road Initiative. Building friendships on the ground can enhance mutual understanding among the peoples of China and African countries and can help counter slander from Western countries about China’s intentions on the continent.

The year 2018 saw more people-to-people ties between China and African countries in areas such as education, tourism, medical care, science and technology, and culture. Since the Chinese Government put forward “expanding people-to-people and cultural exchanges” as part of its eight measures at the Fourth FOCAC Ministerial Conference in 2009, China-africa exchanges in culture, think tanks, personnel, media, youth and women, and volunteer services have been growing. For instance, the Fifth China-africa People’s Forum in 2018 issued the Program for China-africa People-toPeople Friendship and Partnership (2018-20), promoting 30 people-to-people cooperation projects in three years.

To promote closer people-to-people exchanges, China has held a series of trainings for culture-related human resources