New Starting Point for China-Africa Cooperation

By HE WENPING 

CHINA-AFRICA ties have expanded on all fronts over the past decade. About one million Chinese have gone to Africa for business and trade over the period, and more than 2,000 companies now operate on the continent. China has also become an important business destination for Africans, evident in the 200,000 that live in Guangzhou alone, whose numbers grow 30 to 40 percent each year.

China-Africa trade volume has grown at an annual average rate of 35 percent, from US $10 billion in 2000 to US $160 billion in 2011. In 2009 China replaced the U.S. as Africa’s largest trade partner. Africa is now China’s second largest project contracting market and fourth largest overseas investment destination. Vice Minister of Commerce Sun Guangxiang estimated at the Third Round Table Conference on China-Africa Cooperation last November that bilateral trade volume would hit US $200 billion in 2012.

In retrospect, two highlights stand out in the bilateral relationship during the year 2012. One is the visit by Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), to Ethiopia to attend the inauguration ceremony of the China-funded African Union Conference Center. The other is the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Successfully held in Beijing from July 19 to 20, the forum made a comprehensive plan for China-Africa cooperation over the next three years, marking a new starting point for China-Africa cooperation.

The African Union Conference Center, one of China’s key construction aid projects.

AU Conference Center: New Milestone of China-Africa Friendship

Jia Qinglin arrived in Addis Ababa on January 27, 2012 for a three-day visit to Ethiopia that included the African Union summit, where he represented the highest level of Chinese leadership ever to attend the conference. Jia was also present at the inauguration and dedication ceremony of the AU Conference Center, a project to which China gave substantial assistance.

Chinese President Hu Jintao announced the AU Conference Center project during the FOCAC 2006 Summit in Beijing. Building commenced in June 2009, after prudent site investigations, detailed architectural design, tender invitations, and extensive preparatory work. With a total investment of US $123.7 million, it is China’s largest aid project since the Tanzania-Zambia Railway. The conference center provides the AU with a permanent venue for summit meetings, obviating its previous need to rent conference space. It also signifies China’s overwhelming support for and full confidence in the African integration process. The AU Conference Center represents a new milestone in Sino-African diplomatic history.

In the past year, Africa underwent complicated and profound changes. It has withstood rigorous tests, including the Cote D’Ivoire civil war, Southern Sudan independence, the Libyan war, and turmoil in Northern Africa. The AU has made unremitting efforts to deal with crises and challenges. Owing to Western intervention, as well as to the AU’s limited resources and capacity, however, it suffered substantial setbacks, to the extent of itself becoming marginalized.

China has always regarded its relationship with the AU as essential to the construction of a new type strategic partnership between China and Africa. In recent years, China has gone all out to support the AU’s actions, including assistance in the form of a US $1 million cash allocation in 2006 towards peacekeeping in Darfur, material aid towards peacekeeping in Somalia in 2010, and US $900,000 towards AU capacity construction and US $600,000 towards the organization’s peacekeeping efforts in Somalia in 2011. Jia Qinglin announced at the 2012 AU summit a new round of assistance to the organization involving RMB 600 million.