The evolution of China-Africa relations on path to modernization

The year 2024 marked the 24th anniversary of the founding of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). These twenty-plus years of cooperation have seen Africa and China coming together as one community with a shared future. Historically, Sino-Africa relations date back to ancient times when African scholars and travelers visited parts of China and Chinese sailors made voyages to many parts of Africa. These interactions were facilitated by the “Silk Road”, an ancient network of trade and cultural transmission routes dating back to 200 AD that linked China and the rest of the world, including the Horn of Africa.

A triennial communal dialogue was initiated in October 2000 in Beijing. China's presence in Africa has elicited a range of reactions from inside the continent and other economic powerhouses worldwide, particularly the West. However, FOCAC has a defined mandate in Africa: "Equal consultation, enhancing understanding, expanding consensus, strengthening friendship, and promoting cooperation."

Under the summit theme of “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future,” The two sides unanimously adopted two important outcome documents with distinctive features of the times, namely the “Beijing Declaration on Jointly Building an All-Weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future for the New Era”,  and the “FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027)”.

China and Africa’s path to modernization has grown steadily over the decades and developed into one of the great stories of the 21st century. China has eliminated the historical problem of absolute poverty and achieved moderate prosperity in all respects.

Africa on the other hand is experiencing a flowing tide of solidarity and self-strengthening, and the continent’s influence in international affairs continues to grow. It is now forging ahead with the development of free trade zones, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), while accelerating industrialization and modernization, and heading towards the bright future envisioned in the AU’s Agenda 2063.

China and Africa are partners in their pursuit of modernization that fits their respective development ambitions and national goals.

As a concept, modernization is a process of all-round development, covering all the aspects in the economic, social, political, and cultural sectors, featuring balanced development. Sino-Africa partnership in the modern era began to thrive only in the aftermath of the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and Africa’s decolonization process which started in the late 1950s.

As new powers, Africa and China re-entered the international arena, asserting their identities and interests, fully supporting liberation struggles, and, following the Bandung Conference in 1956, adopting a common policy of non-alignment with the Cold War protagonists, the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union. Since 1960, China has developed an optimistic African-focused agenda. During his 10-country tour of Africa from December 1963 to 1964, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai unveiled China's "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence," which include support for anti-colonial liberation struggles, peace, neutrality, and non-alignment, African unity and solidarity, peaceful resolution of disputes, and respect for African sovereignty and non-interference.

In the 1970s China adopted the “reform and opening-up policies” – the wide-ranging economic and political reforms, including revitalizing agriculture and the non-state sectors.

Abroad, China took a less ideological and more pragmatic approach, and redoubled its economic engagement with the continent.

Further in boosting China-Africa cooperation, in May 1996, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited six African countries and delivered his keynote speech at the headquarters of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor to the African Union, and laid out a five-point proposal for the development and need to set up an institutional platform for consultation and cooperation with African countries to promote in-depth development of China-Africa relations. These guiding events marked a new era in China and Africa relations. Today, relations between China and Africa are more pragmatic.

China has been active in developing cooperation with the African Union (AU) and African sub-regional organizations. The AU Conference Center, which was built with Chinese assistance, was inaugurated in January 2012. It was the second-largest project in Africa to be built with China’s assistance after the Tanzania-Zambia Railway. In 2014, China sent a mission to the AU, marking a new stage of China-AU relations. China values the AU’s leading role in advancing African integration and building a stronger African continent through unity and supports its dominant role in safeguarding peace and security in Africa. China also supports the AU in playing a bigger role in regional and international affairs, adopting Agenda 2063, and executing the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan.

China has, as an observer, attended the summits of many African sub-regional organizations, including the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the Economic Community of Central African States. China has also appointed ambassadors to the EAC, SADC, and ECOWAS.

To enhance modernization in Africa, China embarked on a mission to implement sustainable development in the continent through the offering of transformative global public goods, namely:

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

According to the March 2015 white paper presented by the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China, the five major goals of the BRI are to promote policy coordination, facilitate connectivity, promote unimpeded trade, promote financial integration, and foster people-to-people bonds. BRI and FOCAC have managed to become drivers of industrialization and manufacturing in Africa.

The China-Africa Institute (CAI)

The inauguration of the China-Africa Institute was held in Beijing on April 9, 2019. Anchored within the FOCAC key agendas, CAI’s main aim is to strengthen cultural, policy and people-to-people links between China and Africa, achieve greater policy synergy for an even higher-level comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership between China and Africa, create a strong talent pool for people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa, foster favorable public opinion for the friendship and cooperation between China and Africa, and make great contributions to building an even stronger community with a shared future between China and Africa.

Global Development Initiative (GDI)

Committed to ensuring that there is peace and development for humanity, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, China moved the concept of peaceful development to a whole new level. Globally, President Xi Jinping unveiled the Global Development Initiative (GDI) as China’s new framework for providing global public goods. GDI’s fundamental purpose is to assist the global community and United Nations achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and reverse the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on development in developing countries, address the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change, poverty alleviation and food security, promote green recovery and the principles of an ecological civilization that harmonize development and natural environment, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity in the digital era.

Global Security Initiative (GSI)

The initiative is anchored on six pillars of common security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, legitimate security concerns of all countries, peaceful dispute resolution between countries through dialogue and consultation, and security in traditional and non-traditional domains. For China, without peace, there is no development, and the path to modernization will be rough and slippery.

Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa

The initiative seeks to localize the ideals of the GDI and GSI in the Horn region. During his three-nation trip to Africa (Eritrea, Kenya, and Comoros), China’s former State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, clarified that the peace and development initiative will support regional countries to address security, development, and governance challenges.

Crystallizing the initiative, Beijing also appointed a Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs[ Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Holds a Collective Meeting with Diplomatic Envoys of Countries in the Horn of Africa Region to China.] to help galvanize regional consensus on political, security, and development agenda to realize lasting peace, stability, and prosperity.

The Global Civilization Initiative (GCI)

As an initiative, GCI focuses on respecting the diversity of the world civilization, advocating the common values of humanity, highly valuing the inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and jointly advocating robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. According to President Xi, peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom are the common aspirations of all peoples.

The Future of China-Africa Cooperation

China and Africa are currently in a new era of growth. China is adopting a new development model in which the home economy and foreign involvement provide mutual reinforcement, with the former serving as the foundation. China's progress will open up new prospects for Africa's development. With the formal inauguration of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa's economic integration is progressing, opening up new opportunities for China-Africa collaboration. The two parties will focus on boosting quality development and further aligning the goals of FOCAC, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative with those of the AU's Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the development strategies of individual African countries.

The route to modernization for both civilizations will be built on the foundations of peace, prosperity, openness, industrialization, ecological civilization, innovation, as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, resulting in a China-Africa community of shared future in the new age.

Thus, as China and Africa go through new phases of modernization in all areas, the benefits of their complementarity become more apparent, and their mutually beneficial partnership is defined by higher quality, larger effects, and brighter prospects. The two sides will aggressively support their respective aims and cultivate new development drivers such as e-commerce, 5G networks, artificial intelligence, blue and green economies, and green energy, as well as deepen collaboration in crucial areas for the future.

Contributed by Justus Thuthi Wanjiru, Director of the Business Research Center, Africa Policy Research Institute, Kenya