China-Africa friendship valuable as gold

Over 1,000 students from 10 primary and middle schools in Mathare Slums, Nairobi, capital of Kenya gathered at a square on Feb. 6 to show their support for China and Wuhan, epicenter of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

Holding banners reading “We are together with you” “I love you, China” and “Together, we can defeat coronavirus”, they expressed their deep friendship with the Chinese people.

China and Africa, fighting side by side and sharing weal and woe, have forged a brotherly friendship of shared destiny. While the Chinese government and people are fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic, their African counterparts, as good friends, partners, and brothers, have expressed their sympathy and firm support for China in various ways.

Leaders of many African countries have sent messages of sympathy to China. They highly evaluated China’s effective measures of epidemic prevention and control, and sent hope that the Chinese people will overcome the difficulties.

Recently, African foreign ministers attending the 33rd African Union (AU) summit made a unanimous voice to support the government and people of China for their efforts to control the spread of the novel coronavirus and its ramifications.

AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat noted that at this moment, Africa feels what the Chinese people feel and stands with them with solidarity.

China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future, and the African people will not just sit by and watch how the whole Chinese nation is fighting against the epidemic.

Equatorial Guinea has donated $2 million to China; the government of Ghana has sent 10,000 pieces of N95 masks to Wuhan; and staffs at the at headquarters and branches of Standard Bank Group of South Africa wore red outfits to show support for China.

In addition, a foreign student from the Republic of Benin named Glele Aho Letonghan volunteered to join the emergency team at Jinxian Hospital in southeast China's Jiangxi province, and Munyaradzi Gurure, a foreign student at Guangxi University of Finance and Economics from South Africa, started serving as a volunteer to disinfect the train station of Yulin, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Such assistance offered by African countries and people is warm and sincere, demonstrating the priceless relations between the two sides.

Such relations were forged at critical moments. After the Ebola virus raged throughout West Africa in March 2014, some western countries closed their embassies in three virus-hit countries and evacuated diplomats and nationals.

The Chinese government was among the first to offer help, deploying 23 charter flights to deliver emergency supplies and sending over 1,000 medics to the epidemic areas. Chinese embassies, diplomats and medical experts stayed there with the African people.

They fought side by side with the African people day and night until the final victory against the Ebola epidemic was achieved. This has left a deep impression for the African people, and explains what real friendship is.

Now, when China encounters a hard time because of the novel coronavirus, its African friends have sent messages of sympathy to express their support and care for China and the Chinese people, and extended their gratitude for China’s selfless assistance for them to get through hardships. The heartfelt words demonstrate their sincere ties with China, and will be honored in the history of China-Africa friendship.

The mutual assistance offered by China and Africa through good times and bad has always been shining like gold. Such a friendship is deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese and Africans, as a solid foundation and inexhaustible strength for the building of a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.