Enduring friendship

Continuation of long tradition signaled China's unwavering commitment to its partnership with Africa

At a time when unilateralism and geopolitical tensions are on the rise, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's trip to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Lesotho in mid-January has once again drawn the global attention to the China-Africa partnership. As this year marks the 70th anniversary of China-Africa diplomatic ties and the crucial first steps for implementing the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan (2025-27), Wang's trip, his first of the year, provided compelling evidence of China's unwavering commitment to strategic trust and multilateralism with Africa, further testifying to the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith that characterize the China-Africa partnership.

The consistency of China's policy toward Africa has been the guarantee for the sustainable development of China-Africa friendship. Its history can be traced back to the consensus on Bandung Spirit, as the contemporary China-Africa partnership was deeply imprinted in the mid-20th century and molded in the dialogue and cooperation between oppressed non-Western countries in an international order deeply influenced by Western centrism, in which China prioritized the alignment of its development trajectory with Africa's endeavor toward modernization.

Unlike the imbalanced "center-periphery" relationship between the West and Africa, the China-Africa partnership, since its inception, has been shaped by equality and reciprocity, to which the resilience of bilateral friendship is attributed.

As a crucial stage in the world's post-Cold War transition toward multipolarity, the past years have witnessed profound changes regarding the pattern of international relations, the dynamics of international cooperation, and challenges including surging geopolitical risks, fierce international competition and unbalanced development. Contrary to the West's fluctuating attitudes toward Africa, the consistency of China's policy regarding Africa presented by the tradition of 36 consecutive years of Africa being the Chinese foreign minister's first overseas visit destination of the year further corroborated that Africa has never been neglected in China's overall foreign policy architecture despite the ever more complicated international environment. With its first ministerial conference held in 2000, the FOCAC became the first platform for institutional dialogue established by China and developing countries, and the first mechanism for multilateral cooperation between China and a whole continent. Motivated by the common aspirations of modernization and national rejuvenation, the longstanding conceptual foundation and cooperation practice of China-Africa relations have been constantly endowed with new connotations of the times.

Alongside the booming development of the comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, China has never indulged in its continuously enhanced international status and influence to become a political or technological hegemon, but has leveraged them to empower the continent to amplify its voice in the international arena and safeguard its legitimate interests in global affairs. As staunch practitioners, promoters and advocates of multilateral cooperation, China and Africa transcend the zero-sum game inherent in the paradigm of the Westphalian tradition, and highlight the contribution made by the Global South.

The active engagement of China in Africa's exploration of the right development path for the continent injects strong impetus into the inclusiveness and resilience of China-Africa partnership. Honoring its commitment to supporting African development with concrete actions has been topping the agenda of China's policy regarding Africa. Within the FOCAC framework, the alignment of China's five-year plans with Africa's development outlook has been systematically crystallized in every single cooperation document and action plan. From the New Partnership for Africa's Development to the African Union's Agenda 2063, the concerns and development aspirations are comprehensively integrated in China's international cooperation blueprint regarding Africa. This has fostered the evolution of China-Africa partnership from a cooperation motivated by mutual political trust and reciprocal economic ties to a multipronged partnership matrix. Supported by the public goods under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and a series of global initiatives it has proposed, China is attaching more importance to transforming the achievements of its modernization into affordable and advanced solutions to deal with Africa's development priorities, including industrialization, modern agriculture, infrastructure connectivity and value chain restructuring.

From the establishment of more than 20 industrial parks to the inauguration of railways of more than 10,000 kilometers, from completion of nearly 1,000 bridges to 24 agricultural technology demonstration centers, the influx of Chinese investment, technology, products and talent in the past seven decades has contributed to effectively reshaping the landscape of African development and regional integration, empowering the continent with more possibilities and capabilities to harness the implementation of its own modernization strategies. This achievement highlights the fact that unlike Africa's relations with the West defined by monopolizing development opportunities and the exploitation of Africa's resources, China-Africa partnership features joint efforts to expand the pie of development and share the development dividends. Driven by the synergy between China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) and the second Ten-Year Implementation Plan (2024-33) of the AU's Agenda 2063, the China-Africa partnership is starting a new chapter to accelerate the implementation of grand visions of pan-Africanism, setting to provide fresh momentum to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The two sides jointly launched the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges during Wang's visit, adding new luster to their time-honored friendship and the all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future.

The author is the deputy director of the Division of Security Studies at the China-Africa Institute. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.