Arms Linked in Unity

China’s 40 years of reform and opening up can lend experience to African countries

what does China’s reform and opening up mean to African countries? What lessons can African countries draw from China’s route to prosperity? These are the topics the Chinese and African scholars from think tanks throughout China and Africa discussed at the Seventh Meeting of China-africa Think Tanks Forum convened in Beijing on July 4. Over the past 40 years, China-africa economic and trade cooperation has achieved leap-forward development. The trade volume between China and Africa increased more than 200-fold since the start of China’s reform and opening up in late 1978. China has maintained its position as Africa’s largest trade partner for nine years in a row, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce of China.

The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. During this period, China achieved its own rapid development, and also committed to building a community of shared future for mankind. Reform and opening up is a great process that has seen China and the world, especially China and African countries, develop and progress together, according to experts at the meeting. At the forum, envoys, government officials, think tank scholars and media representatives expressed their opinions on China-africa mutual developments in the past four decades and how the relationship could be further strengthened in the future. The following is an edited excerpt on their views: