Beijing an indispensable friend to Africa, despite foreign attempts to tarnish image

Source:Global Times Published: 2013-11-28 23:48:01

Zhang Chun, Africa: On International Contributions of China-Africa Relationship, Shanghai People's Publishing House, October 1, 2013

Zhang Chun, Africa: On International Contributions of China-Africa Relationship, Shanghai People's Publishing House, October 1, 2013



China has special feelings about Africa. When talking about the people of this continent on informal occasions, Chinese diplomats tend to use the term "African brothers and sisters." It was the combined efforts of many African countries that finally allowed China to regain membership in the UN in 1971.

However, after trials and tribulations over the past half a century, the brotherhood between China and Africa is facing new challenges.

As one of the few texts which only focus on the details of the Sino-African relationship, Africa: On International Contributions of China-Africa Relationship, written by Zhang Chun, an associate research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, is helping China in facing up to these challenges and reclaiming its reputation in Africa.

The close relationship between China and Africa was not questioned before the 1980s as much as it is today. Since the Chinese economy took off after the reform and opening-up in the 1970s, China's growing moves in Africa have attracted much attention from the West.

The massive success of the Forum on China-African Cooperation in 2006 was the last straw that irritated many Western countries. These irritating voices from the West blamed China as being the "new colonist in Africa."

Chinese diplomats have been making effort to improve China's reputation in Africa. This is becoming more urgent nowadays, because efforts to tarnish China's cooperation with African countries are becoming more systematic.

To some extent, although cooperation and communication between China and Africa in many respects, such as trade and culture, are flourishing, if China cannot fight off the increasing influence of those voices, China's influence on this land will risk being reduced. This task needs to be done in a professional and systematic way.

These efforts to repair China's reputation are not being made due to simple patriotism. This is an academic text which was written on the basis of irrefutable proof and prudent analysis.

This book also gives a thorough and objective analysis of why the West sees China's presence in Africa as a threat. But interestingly, it mentions that different mindsets about development might be one of the major reasons that have caused the divergence between China and the West regarding the continent of Africa.

According to the author, most Western countries are still sticking to the stereotyped mindset that Africa needs to be developed according to the "democracy-security-development nexus." That is why China, which always gives priority to mutual interests in economic cooperation instead of interfering in local issues, remains on the negative side, and this is described by some Western countries as being "lack of morality and responsibility."

By referring to history and combining China's current actions in Africa, the book supplies detailed data to illustrate that a growing China-Africa relationship is not only reciprocal, but has extended their influence to the rest of the world.

For example, the current forums and cooperative mechanisms between China and African countries, such as the Forum on China-African Cooperation, have added new catalysts to a variety of international dialogues. The book draws a full and accurate picture of China's actions in Africa, convincingly proving that it has never acted as a devil to the continent, and neither will it in future.

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