Global Times: China-Africa cooperation to promote common development
China’s Global Times reported that several national leaders from African countries have arrived in Beijing to attend the upcoming summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 2024 (FOCAC 2024), which will be held in the Chinese capital from Wednesday to Friday this week.
“The event will inject much-needed new impetus into global economic recovery and set an example for South-South cooperation,” analysts from both China and Africa said, noting that the forum “will be a major diplomatic event that won’t only bring together Chinese and African leaders and representatives of relevant regional and international organizations, but also bring together businesspeople, scholars and young people from China and the continent to promote high-quality cooperation between the Global South, and this will be of great significance to a world undergoing profound change and turmoil”.
In turn, He Wenping, director of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that this year’s FOCAC summit will raise cooperation between China and Africa to new levels.
He Wenping is expecting that China and African countries will enhance cooperation in new areas such as the digital economy and green development based on existing infrastructure.
“The world is still undergoing profound changes and turmoil, with many uncertainties, and there are serious challenges to globalization and global economic recovery… China and African countries are developing countries that share common interests and the position that multipolarity in the world should be promoted, and a community with a shared future for mankind should be built,” said Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University.
According to the Chinese newspaper, “The upcoming summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will certainly send an encouraging message not only to China and Africa, but also to the Global South and the rest of the world, as this is a successful example of cooperation within the Global South of global significance”.
“In addition to diplomacy, they are also interested in learning about China’s development and modernization from a broader and more comprehensive perspective,” Li Haidong said.
The Chinese newspaper concluded by saying, that now is the time for Africa to begin its journey towards modernization.
Since other major economies, especially Western ones, have failed to play very constructive roles in supporting Africa, Sino-African cooperation, characterized by high-level mutual trust and traditional friendship, will become more comprehensive and profound.
