BUILDING THE NEW TYPE OF CHINA-AFRICA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Your Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government, Your Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the AU Commission, Your Excellencies Heads of Delegation, Ministers and Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to join you in the beautiful coastal city of Sharm El Sheikh on the occasion of the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This conference gives us the opportunity to renew friendship and explore ways to further cooperation. As the Premier of the co-chair country of the conference, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government, a warm welcome to all the participants and express sincere thanks to the government of Egypt for the thoughtful preparations and arrangements it has made for the conference.
Achievements
Since its founding nine years ago, FOCAC has played a major role in guiding and promoting the development of China-Africa relations and become a bridge of friendship and a platform of cooperation between China and Africa. In the three years since the Beijing Summit in particular, the two sides have worked together to build the new type of strategic partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges. Together, we have opened a new chapter in China-Africa cooperation.
Your Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government, Your Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the AU Commission, Your Excellencies Heads of Delegation, Ministers and Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to join you in the beautiful coastal city of Sharm El Sheikh on the occasion of the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This conference gives us the opportunity to renew friendship and explore ways to further cooperation. As the Premier of the co-chair country of the conference, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government, a warm welcome to all the participants and express sincere thanks to the government of Egypt for the thoughtful preparations and arrangements it has made for the conference.
Achievements
Since its founding nine years ago, FOCAC has played a major role in guiding and promoting the development of China-Africa relations and become a bridge of friendship and a platform of cooperation between China and Africa. In the three years since the Beijing Summit in particular, the two sides have worked together to build the new type of strategic partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges. Together, we have opened a new chapter in China-Africa cooperation.
We have enhanced political mutual trust. The two sides have had more frequent high-level exchanges and stepped up diplomatic consultations and strategic dialogue. African countries have given even stronger support to China on issues concerning China’s core interests. China and Africa have cooperated and coordinated with each other on major international and regional issues and jointly safeguarded and expanded the common interests of developing countries.
We have strengthened economic cooperation and trade. Last year, China-Africa trade exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars and the number of African countries trading with China grew to 53. China has begun construction of the six economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa. Nearly 1,600 Chinese enterprises have started business in African countries with a direct investment stock of 7.8 billion U.S. dollars. Project contracting and labor services cooperation between the two sides have been expanding, and financial cooperation is gaining momentum.
The increase in China’s assistance to Africa has produced practical results. Despite the impact of the international financial crisis and the many difficulties we face at home, we have honored the commitments we made at the Beijing Summit in an all-round way. Our assistance to Africa has been doubled. The plan to cancel 168 debts owed by 33 African countries is near completion. The 5 billion U.S. dollars of concessional loans will be fully in place soon. The China-Africa Development Fund, whose first tranche reached 1 billion U.S. dollars, has become operational as scheduled. These measures have not only added to Africa’s capacity for self-development but also helped African countries in their effort to counter the financial crisis.
We have witnessed vigorous people-to-people exchanges. Exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa in culture, education, health and human resources training have grown rapidly. By the end of this year, China will train a total of 15,000 people of different professions for African countries. Interactions among the youth, women and sister provinces and cities have been more frequent. All these developments have led to deeper mutual understanding and stronger traditional friendship between China and Africa.
The Chinese-Africa partnership in my point of view is good as it offers alternative to the westwern style which is often aid-based and not partnership. There are however genuine issues and concerns to the it. In my point of view, Africa should deal with China as one economic bloc and eschew from the current system where individual countries enter into trade pacts with China. I believe we have unique opportunity as a continent to define our terms and conditions of dealing with China. That way, we gain as much as they do. African countries must know that, there is no free lunch anywhere. I believe we can make the best with China-Africa partnership if we can sit,analyse, plan into the long term and define our terms of engagement.
True, partnership with China and relations with other world regional blocks would work better if we are a single united state. At this summit China spoke as one but the African voice was scattered. We need a common approach, policy and programme in such engagements. However in the meantime it is a positive thing that slowly Africa is cutting the umbilical cord with imperialism which is responsible for Africa’s underdevelopment.
Well said. I’m not even talking about United States of Africa here my brother hulisani. I think in the meantime the various regional economic blocs such as ECOWAS, SADC etc, should come together as a continental bloc or as separate regional blocs to define terms of engagement with the Chinese. I’m afraid the Chinese are here to first pursue the supreme interest of China before any other consideration. I’m thinking that we may be fooled into believing that we’re punishing the West somehow by disengaging with them and instead engaging with China. Taking a glance back at our history,one realises that the West colonial master plan did not manifest itself readily to our people from the initial stages. It’s after a sense of friendship, trust and a level of commitment were attained before the lion within emerged from the sheep on the surface.If our leaders will show that they have the long term interest of Africa at heart by not committing the continent into short-sighted pacts and aggreements only for posterity to pay dearly in the future. We’ve been bitten before and I thought the lessons will strengthen our resolve to be on the path of vigilance. God bless Africa.
i have heard some reactionary white supremacists claim that europeans did africans a favour by colonising them. they also have the gall and temerity to write this type of nonsensical stuff. the martinican intellectual and poet of negritude aime cesaise once said, no one colonises innocently. now sons and daughters of africa these are heroes you’ll hear about, anti colonialist heroes such as jacques rabemananjara of madasgascar and leon damas of guyana. is china animated purely by altruistic motives? if so why is china flooding our markets with cheap textile goods that ultimately depress prices of locally produced textiles thereby causing unemployment? china and oth er asian countries are also guilty of illegal human trafficking and gangsterism. isra el is also encouraging gangsterism through its spy agencies like mossad and shinbed (verify spelling) whose members terrorised south african citizens at jan smuts airport in kempton park by stripping them and searching them. jan smuts airport was supposed to be named after robert sobukwe who said in his 1959 inaugural speech that we should not be dictated to by either the east or the west. dr cheikh anta diop said africa should not be towed like a vessel by the eastern or western bloc and continued to say that africa must relate with all states on a perfectly equal footing. china falls under that category. we must be circumspect of china’s pretentious plans. we must not be afraid of being trail blazers especially on knowledge production and alternative theories such as for example aids and on our approach to china’s spreading its tentacles on the continent. is china animated by selfishness or altruism? i think china is motivated by egoism.
It is fundamentally critical that Africa must stand as one in all engagements with the world if it wants to be heard and respected. Whether or not China intends to colonise Africa is for me a side issue. If China colonises us it will be with our consent. I use the word consent broadly. If you are being forced to do something you have the right to resist and revolt but if you choose to succumb (at last consenting) its your own problem and you must live with the consequences.
The real issue for me is how Africa can, at this point, optimise partnership with China to advance the African agenda and isolate the West because i believe the West must be isolated if we want to breakdown imperialism and change the balance of power in the world. In my view there is no denying that compared to the West, China is a better associate. China offers Africa, scattered as it is, better trade, economic and development deals compared to what the West is offering. The movement away from imperialism to independence and self reliance requires us to identify strategic partners. We cannot isolate ourselves from everybody and think that we will become a prosperous nation. We cannot run away from the interdependece between regions of the world but we can shape the nature of such relationships. In my view no region can develop on its own to the exclusion of the rest of the world. So we simply have no choice but to choose friends. There is no room for island approach to development. We cannot do it single handedly. It is my view that China, given its development track-record, economic muscle, population size and political clout in multilateral forums, is a viable and suitable partner for Africa. If not China then who?
It is merely by accident of history that we are Africans and find ourselves on this piece of the world rich in mineral wealth.In the same vein there are other forms of wealth that we do not posses and which lay in other parts of the world. This forces us to co-operate with other regions so that we can exchange and share resources for each other’s needs.
Even if we boast enormous precious mineral deposits and other wealth, apart from own consuption, we need a broad market for such raw materials or end products thereof. Our cynical focus on China’s motives is unhelpful. Of course China is not Africa’s father Christmas and we cannot expect it to become one. It is advancing its own economic and development interests. China gets value from its relationship with Africa and we must ensure that we extract proportionate value as well. It is entirely up to us to determine the nature of our relationship with China…whether it will be one between equals or one of master and slave. If we become subservient, sentimental and unstrategic, China will take advantage of us. We must look out for ourselves. We must remain vigilant and strategic. It is survival of the fittest. We cant go out there and be cry babies.
Apart from all of these, i believe China is a shining example of self reliance. They have defied their colonial history and produce everthing for their consumption and for export. They have also build a strong patriotism which is partly responsible for their success because they support their own. On the other hand, despite the abundance of raw materials on mother Africa, we depend on imperialsim for everything. This is what we must break and this is what we must learn from China. It is a positive thing.We cannot say because at some point in history we were ahead of world civilisation and a glorious people therefore we are entitled to greatness. We must work for our prosperity through and through and stop trying to reinvent history. If we sleep, we must expect to be trampled upon. Our focus should be to maximise mutual benefit in our partnership with China and any other region in the world. Let’s stay focused on strategic matters and put forward proposals on programmes that will ensure that we can improve the livelihood of our people.
Lastly we must remember that our struggle is for equality and economic justice for the African people. It is not one for hegemony over other species of the human race or nations. We are not Nazis’.
“It is entirely up to us to determine the nature of our relationship with China…whether it will be one between equals or one of master and slave. If we become subservient, sentimental and [un]strategical, China will take advantage of us”.
This is exactly what I expect our leaders to understand. Thanks for educating me brother. Critically analyzing the path Africa is trailing today in her dealings with China, I find it hard to see the long term prospect. The quest for power can dilute all good intentions! It’s part of human nature. The earlier we started putting our heads together to device a masterplan that spell out our terms of engagement with Chinese, the better position we place posterity and africa’s future. In today’s politics, you cant trust anybody. Even heads of states of africa remember don’t trust themselves – how much more an outside force. Of course we need to have a partner, but we also need to know how that partnership should be. The good news is that africa-china trade relation is still at the teething stage and that means our leaders can still do something. God Bless Africa.
I cannot trust a nation that eats anything that moves! from cats,dogs to pigs!