Sino-African Cooperation Reaches New Level
In the field of poverty reduction, China can share its experience, particularly in agricultural development, with African countries in their fight against poverty. Non-governmental cooperation in this regard kicked off in 2014. The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and the China Lingshan Public Charity Promotion Association jointly sponsored a Smiling Children program for Africa, and Ethiopia was selected to be the first recipient country. The Lingshan Association donated RMB 3 million, and promised RMB 10 million more over the next five years to pay for free nutritious meals for Ethiopian children. Once the fund reaches US $500,000 the program will be extended to a new recipient country in Africa.
Ecological conservation is a highlight of the six cooperative programs. In his African tour Premier Li Keqiang announced that China would offer US $10 million in aid for wildlife protection, and that the two sides would extend their cooperation to forestry conservation and desertification control.
Security is a new area of China-Africa cooperation. China’s involvement in this regard is based on respect for the African countries concerned and the consent of the AU, and evolves within the UN framework. The intention is the continent’s cohesion rather than division. This makes China distinct from Western countries on Africa security issues. In 2014 China sent hundreds of peacekeepers on a UN mission to South Sudan.
In response to the Ebola epidemic, China has donated medical supplies to the hardest hit regions including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and dispatched 200 medical workers to the disaster zones. On top of three batches of assistance worth RMB 250 million to affected African countries and international organizations, on October 24 China provided a further RMB 500 million in aid, and launched a public health cooperation program with Africa. According to the program, China will sponsor 12 training sessions on public health and disease prevention and control in the three African countries affected by Ebola, the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2015. It will also rally Chinese medical resources in Africa, including aid projects in hospitals, anti-malaria centers, laboratories and medical teams, to carry out joint research on tropical diseases. What’s more, China will help African countries set up public health information platforms and epidemic prevention, control and monitoring networks.
As work in the above six fields proceeds, Sino-African cooperation is bound to reach a higher level.
LI ANSHAN is director of the Center for African Studies at Peking University.
