Fifty years ago in May, Egypt became the first African country to establish diplomatic ties with China, a move that ushered in a new era of Sino-African diplomatic relations.
　　Over the past five decades, China and Africa have forged a deep friendship as they strived for national independence and renewal. Bilateral political bonds have increasingly strengthened.
　　China was a firm supporter of African nations’ struggle against colonialism and imperialism for national liberation. It not only rendered moral support to them with deep sympathy, but also offered them material assistance such as huge quantities of military goods.
　　As the African nations gained independence, Sino-African political trust continued to develop, with frequent high-level exchanges. Since Premier Zhou Enlai’s tour to 10 African countries in 1963, Chinese leaders have visited more than 40 African countries. Since Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Toure’s trip to China in 1960, over 100 leaders of 51 African countries have visited China.
　　China and Africa enjoy prosperous cultural and people-to-people exchanges. To date, China has signed 65 cultural agreements and over 150 implementation plans with African countries. In 2004 alone, a variety of Chinese cultural events were held in 18 African countries. China has sent medical personnel to 47 African countries. Presently, 35 Chinese medical teams are serving in 98 medical stations across the continent.
　　Since 1956, a total of 17,000 African students from 50 countries have come to China to receive an education. Over the past five years, nearly 10,000 African government officials and technical personnel have received training in China. In addition to enhancing the mutual understanding between China and Africa, these programs bolstered the competence of Africa’s human resources, thereby strengthening its capacity to seek self-development.
　　China and Africa back each other in international affairs in a joint effort to oppose hegemonism and power politics and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries. Most African countries uphold the one-China policy and stand for China’s reunification. As the largest developing country in the world and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China, for its part, is committed to protecting the interests of African countries in the international arena and promoting their equal participation in world affairs.
　　
　　New impetus
　　
　　In the past, Sino-African economic relations mainly took the form of government-to-government official aid. China provided African countries with a considerable amount of free economic aid. The number of aid projects has reached 800, ranging from large ones such as the Tanzania-Zambia railway to small and medium-sized ones in the fields of agriculture, forestry, hydropower, light textiles, education and welfare. In the past decade, Africa has largely enjoyed a stable political situation and a mild economic growth. At the same time, while maintaining rapid economic development, China redoubled its efforts to establish an international presence. These presented excellent new opportunities for China and Africa to expand their economic and trade cooperation. Today, apart from offering assistance, China has begun to develop mutually beneficial economic linkages of various forms with Africa, registering remarkable success.
　　Bilateral trade has undergone notable growth in recent years. Chinese and African economies are highly complementary, with high-quality yet inexpensive Chinese goods having a ready market in Africa and Africa’s natural resources such as energy, ores and wood being indispensable to China’s economic development. To date, China has entered into bilateral trade agreements with over 40 African countries, while maintaining trade connections of various forms with all African countries. In recent years, with concerted efforts of state-owned and private enterprises, Sino-African trade volume has increased by a large margin, achieving a historical breakthrough.
　　Although Sino-African trade only accounts for a small proportion in China’s total foreign trade, its growth rate--55 percent annually on average in the past five years--is faster than that between China and any other region.
　　Africa is the most important service market and investment destination for China. It is the region where China has conducted overseas project contracting for the longest time with the best economic returns. At present, nearly 80,000 Chinese workers are engaged in project contracting and labor services in Africa.
　　In addition, Chinese companies have scored initial success in investing in Africa over the past decade. So far, Chinese companies have set up over 800 factories in 49 African countries with a contractual investment of over $5 billion. Africa needs China’s funds and technology, and China does not attach political strings to its assistance and investment. Given this, China and Africa stand a great chance of enhancing their economic cooperation in the future.
　　Africa is one of the important suppliers of the resources that China needs to pursue sustainable development. Africa is extremely rich in natural resources, many of which rank at the top globally. Its proven oil and natural gas reserves account for 8.8 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, of the world total. All these natural resources are crucial to China, a rapidly developing country that is lacking in resources.
　　Over the past decade, China has been importing raw materials, mainly crude oil, wood and ores, from Africa in large quantities. Crude oil from Africa accounted for 8 percent of China’s total oil imports in 1998, but the rate has soared to one third today. Africa has become China’s second biggest oil supplier. As China’s robust economic development is projected to last into the future, there is a huge potential for China and Africa to cooperate with each other in natural resource exploitation.
　　
　　Strategic partners
　　
　　Since the beginning of the 21st century, China and Africa have been exploring a new partnership as they carry their friendship forward in step with the times.
　　China and Africa launched the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in October 2000 to further boost their friendly cooperation and seek common development. In the past five years, two ministerial meetings have been successfully convened in Beijing and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with consensus reached on a broad range of issues and three historical documents aimed at strengthening Sino-African ties adopted.
　　Within the framework of the forum, China forgave part of the debts of 31 heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries in Africa, worth 10.5 billion yuan. It exempted the tariff on certain goods from 28 least developed African countries. It also designated 16 African countries as destinations for outbound Chinese tourists. The forum has become an effective mechanism for China and Africa to carry out collective consultation and dialogue and an essential platform for conducting friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in addition to bilateral channels.
　　In recent years, China has proposed a constant series of new areas and ways to expand Sino-African cooperation.
　　In January this year, the Chinese Government issued the China’s African Policy white paper. While giving full recognition to Africa’s status and role, the document puts forward well-defined policies to boost all-dimensional Sino-African cooperation in the political, economic, cultural, educational and security fields. It is the Chinese Government’s first policy paper on strengthening across-the-board cooperation between China and Africa.
　　During President Hu Jintao’s recent African tour, he raised another four suggestions on developing the Sino-African strategic partnership: enhancing mutual trust politically, promoting mutual benefit and win-win results economically, learning from each other culturally, and strengthening coordination in the security field. The suggestions chart the course for further Sino-African cooperation.
　　The Third Ministerial Meeting and Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum will take place in Beijing this November. A joint declaration of the Chinese and African leaders is expected to materialize at this meeting, demonstrating their positions on major international issues, African affairs and Sino-African relations.
　　An action plan for the next three years will also be adopted as a complete blueprint for future Sino-African cooperation. At the same time, China is set to unveil some significant initiatives on strengthening cooperation with Africa. The meeting is poised to provide a great impetus to the all-around development of Sino-African relations in the new century.
　　
　　Sino-African Relations: A Chronology
　　
　　Despite the geographical distance that separates them, China and Africa cherish a relationship lasting over 2,000 years. According to historical records, China had contacts with Africa as early as the third century B.C. in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220). Exchanges became frequent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Chinese navigator Zheng He traveled to what is now Somalia and Kenya on the east African coast during his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans starting in 1405, the first large-scale friendly contact between China and Africa.
　　After the mid-15th century, the friendly exchange between China and Africa was disrupted in the wake of Western colonial powers’ incursion into Africa. After the end of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), exchanges between China, then a closed kingdom, and Africa, a continent ruled by colonialists, came to a halt. It was not until the end of World War II, especially after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, that China and Africa were able to resume their relationship.
　　When the People’s Republic was founded, only Egypt, Liberia, Ethiopia and Libya had won independence. The birth of the new China kindled hope among Africa’s progressive people, who were eager to draw on the successful experiences of China’s revolution. At the First Asia-Africa Summit in Indonesia in April 1955, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai expounded on China’s brand-new diplomatic philosophy that all countries, large or small, are equal. Zhou’s remarks were warmly welcomed at the meeting. Egypt established diplomatic relations with China on May 30, 1956, becoming the first African country to do so. The initiative opened a new chapter in time-honored Sino-African friendly relations.
　　After the end of World War II, especially in the 1950s, independence movements gained momentum in Africa, with many nations that had long been under European colonial rule gaining independence. Sharing similar sufferings in history and the same mission of national reconstruction as China, these countries established diplomatic relations with China as soon as they proclaimed independence. In the early 1960s, a dozen countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Guinea, established diplomatic relations with China.
　　Zhou visited Africa three times from December 1963 to June 1965, during which time he put forward eight principles on China’s foreign aid while reaffirming China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Zhou’s visits had a profound influence in Africa, giving rise to a new wave of African countries’ establishing diplomatic relations with China. By the end of the 1970s, altogether 44 out of the 50 independent African countries had entered into diplomatic relations with China. To date, 47 out of the 53 African countries have established diplomatic relations with China, including all the leading and strategically significant countries on the continent.
　　

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