China has asked countries of means to support Africa to get on the path of self-reliance.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Africa’s development would be a sure path to attaining global modernization.
“There will be no global modernization without African modernization,” the Chinese foreign minister said on Friday in an address on China’s position on various continental matters.
China said it was keen on helping Africa attain the stability it needs to realize its growth and development goals.
“The stability and development of Africa is vital to the future of humanity, and the world must listen to Africa and heed its concerns,” Wang Yi said.
“Africa is going through a new awakening, and countries should support Africa in exploring a new development path of self-reliance and self-strengthening.”
He spoke at a time when Africa was facing uncertainty in the wake of the US government withdrawing its support.
Orders by the US President Donald Trump have seen African nations lose billions of dollars in aid.
Several African nations, namely Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan, are facing turmoil as rebels and government forces fight.
There is also a two-state problem in Rwanda and DRC, with the former threatened with sanctions on charges of fueling violence in Congo.
In a press brief obtained by the Star, the Foreign Minister said that for China, “Africa is a fertile land of hope of the 21st century".
He restated China’s commitment to maintaining the ties it has grown with African nations, Kenya included, over the past 60 years.
“China and Africa are always good friends, good partners and good brothers with a shared future.”
“Under the guidance of President Xi Jinping and African leaders, China-Africa relationship is now at its best in history,” Wang Yi said.
He went on, “The China-Africa community with a shared future has been elevated to an “all-weather' level".
China has established strategic partnerships with all African countries, and it has diplomatic ties with them under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Over the past 25 years of FOCAC, China has helped Africa build or upgrade nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads and more than 10,000 kilometers of railways.
The foreign minister revealed that in the past three years alone, Chinese enterprises created more than 1.1 million new jobs in Africa.
China also boasts of being Africa’s largest trade partner for 16 consecutive years.
“To African brothers and sisters, China-Africa cooperation is visible, tangible and truly beneficial,” Wang Yi said.
He gave an example of how a Gambian farmer sent a bag of rice he grew to Hunan Province in China last year to show respect to Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice.
“It is China’s hybrid rice that has helped end hunger and bring hope to them. Stories like these are happening in Africa every day,” Wang Yi said.
More than three-quarters of countries across the world are part of China’s development agenda under the Belt and Road cooperation.
More than 100 countries also ascribe to the major initiatives by the Xi Jinping administration on security, development, and civilization.
“History will prove that a real winner is the one that keeps in the interests of all,” China’s foreign minister said.
China exerted its influence with the construction of the railway that connected Tanzania in East Africa to the land-locked Zambia in South Central Africa.
The majestic infrastructural development is hailed as the key that opened Africa to the world in terms of production, transport and information.
These valuable investments, now accelerated by the leadership of President Xi Jinping, have indeed “opened the eyes of Africa” literally.
In less than 30 years, African countries and China have reached various agreements on financing and public-private partnerships, or socio-cultural exchanges.
