Some foreign observers have expressed skepticism about the motivations behind China's African policy ahead of the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg but China's commerce ministry has rejected these views.

In questioning the real intent of China's cooperation with Africa, these overseas comments have focused on the alleged "China threat theory" and the idea of China pursuing "neocolonialism" in Africa, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

But such rhetoric and doubts are totally groundless and have no connection with the present bilateral relationship between China and African countries, he stated. The spokesman's remarks came just before the upcoming FOCAC, which will be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ahead of his attendance, a byline article by Xi was published by South Africa-based Star newspaper, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"We should leverage our strengths in political mutual trust and economic complementarity, translate our friendship into a strong boost for practical cooperation, and promote more fruitful cooperation in such key areas as the marine economy, production capacity, energy, infrastructure, human resources and finance," Xi said in the article.

Data from China's ministry of commerce points to a big increase in economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa.

In 2014, bilateral trade hit $222 billion, 21 times the figure in 2000. And over the past 15 years, China's outbound direct investment in Africa has seen an average annual growth rate of 37 percent.

The two sides are also cooperating in a greater number of areas, including industries such as tourism and telecommunications.

Chinese companies are also keen to invest in African countries. For instance, Chinese smartphone vendors including Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Xiaomi have stepped up their expansion in the Sub-Saharan African market, which, according to London-based industry association GSMA, is currently the world's fastest-growing marketplace for mobile phones in terms of unique mobile subscribers.

These Chinese handset makers and the many other Chinese firms that have gained a foothold in the African market are benefiting from the closer economic ties between China and Africa, while also helping to boost bilateral trade and investment.

But this truly win-win outcome has been distorted by those people who claim that China's investment in Africa is based on ulterior motives.

Western powers exploited Africa's natural resources, and even now, the areas that are considered economic lifelines for many African countries such as heavy industry and mining are still controlled by Western multinational corporations, Shen said.

The threat theory, therefore, fits with previous scenarios in which nations went to Africa purely for the sake of exploiting local resources.

By contrast, China's investment has created more jobs in Africa and has helped with the development of the local economies.

It is thus evident that it is these conspiracy theorists that actually have ulterior motives.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn