By Li Tianmin

China-Africa relations enjoy a long history and a time-honored friendship. Since taking office, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made two historic visits to Africa.

The first one was in March 2013, when President Xi Jinping chose Africa as the first place to visit after becoming the President of China. During the visit, President Xi Jinping for the first time put forward the principle of truth, practicality, amity, and sincerity, as well as the values of friendship, justice, and shared interests. It was also the first time that a Chinese President visited Africa before anywhere else, signifying a new era for China-Africa relations.

The second visit was in December 2015, when President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Zimbabwe and South Africa and co-chaired with President Zuma the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), jointly opening with other African leaders a new era of win-win cooperation for common development. During the Summit, President Xi Jinping announced the China-Africa Ten Major Cooperative Plans, which mainly focus on helping Africa accelerate industrialization and agricultural modernization over a three-year period, and would provide 60 billion US dollars as financial support.

Thanks to the guidance of the Chinese and African leaders, China and Africa have successfully developed a comprehensive strategic partnership of equality and mutual trust in politics, win-win cooperation in the economy, mutually enriching cultural exchanges, mutual assistance in security and solidarity, and sound coordination in international affairs, bringing new development opportunities and fruitful results to the peoples of both China and Africa.

Over the past years, China's trade and investment with Africa have maintained rapid growth, and has become a leading force in the international community's cooperation with Africa. Today, China stands as Africa's largest trading partner and major investor. In the first half of this year, China-Africa trade overcame the negative impact of weak global economic recovery and the backlash of globalization-trade volume was up to 85.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 19% year-on-year. According to incomplete statistics, since the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, there have been over 600 Chinese projects in Africa that are completed, under construction, or reached an agreement to implement, involving investment of over 108 billion US dollars. Financial Times reports that China has become Africa's largest source of foreign direct investment and the source of finance for infrastructure development.

China has become the main source of investment and financing for infrastructure construction in Africa, and is the most important supporter and contributor to Africa's acceleration of industrialization and agricultural modernization. Since the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, a large number of flagship projects have been completed, including the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, and Nigeria's Abuja-Kaduna Railway. Among them, the 480-kilometer-long Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is Kenya's largest infrastructure project since its independence, with a total investment of 3.8 billion US dollars. The project helped Kenya's GDP growth by 1.5%, and up to 90% of the construction workers were hired locally, in total creating 38,000 jobs. With a one-way fare for the full journey costing only 700 shillings (~89 rand), and a design speed of 100-160 km/hour, logistics cost has been cut by 40%. The Kaleta hydroelectric in Guinea, which was financed and constructed by China, solved the electricity-supply to over 4 million people in Conakry, the capital city of Guinea, and its surrounding provinces, enabling them to enjoy a modern life.

China-Africa production capacity cooperation has achieved fruitful results and has become a source of strength for Africa's industrialization. In recent years, production capacity cooperation has stayed on a fast-track, especially in the four pilot African countries for production capacity cooperation, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Republic of the Congo. Significant progress is also underway in over 10 major production capacity cooperation countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Nigeria. A large number of Special Economic Zones and Industrial Parks are making great headway, attracting large number of investors from China and other countries, and creating huge employment opportunities for the local people. In the course of past two decades, China has invested and financed over 20 billion dollars in Ethiopia. With the strong support from China, and thanks to the joint efforts of both countries, Ethiopia has achieved remarkable growth that has impressed the world.

People-to-people exchange between China and Africa continues to flourish. Programs such as the China-Africa Cultural Cooperation Partnership, China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan, China-Africa People-to-People Friendship Action, and China-Africa Youth Festival have become renowned brands among our peoples. There are 48 Confucius Institutes and 27 Confucius Classrooms in Africa, and 22 African countries have been designated as travel destinations for Chinese tourist groups. The World Tourism Organization reports that in 2016, the number of Chinese tourists to Africa recorded 11.3 million. According to China-Africa Ten Major Cooperative Plans, China will train 200,000 technical personnel and provide 30,000 government scholarships for Africa in 3 years.

China is firmly committed to upholding peace and security in Africa. As an active contributor to peace and security in Africa, China strongly supports the African people to solve Africa's problems in an African way. In order to support the African Union to speed up the development of the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for the Immediate Response to Crisis, China has committed 100 million US dollars of free assistance to the African Union over a 5-year period. China has actively participated in 16 UN peacekeeping operations in Africa, and currently deploys over 2,600 peacekeeping personnel across the continent. Since 2009, China has dispatched 27 naval fleets to Somalia and the Gulf of Aden where they have escorted over 6,300 passing ships.

China and Africa need each other and are faced with historic opportunities to dovetail each other's development. With respective strengths and highly compatible development strategies, there is huge potential waiting to be tapped in China-Africa cooperation. China and Africa have always been good friends, good brothers, and good partners. Next year, the 7th Ministerial Meeting of FOCAC will be held in China, and the 10th BRICS Summit will be held in South Africa. These events will give China and Africa fresh opportunities to jointly plan for a new blueprint for China-Africa cooperation, and write a new chapter of community of shared future and common development for both China and Africa.

First, China and Africa must provide greater political guidance for the relationship and remain forever good brothers sharing weal and woe. China and Africa need to carry forward the traditional friendship, maintain political and strategic mutual trust, expand experience sharing in governance, enhance mutual understanding and support for each other's core interests and major concerns, firmly uphold common interests, and constantly consolidate the foundation of a community of shared future for China and Africa.

Second, China and Africa must improve mutually beneficial cooperation and remain forever good partners for common development. China has its strengths in manufacturing and processing, capital, technology, equipment, talents, and development experience. Africa has its unique advantages in natural and human resources, and boasts a huge market potential. As such, China and Africa should fully leverage each other's comparative strengths, and seek more opportunities of cooperation in the Belt and Road initiative, China-Africa Ten Major Cooperative Plans, and the AU 2063 Agenda. Priority should be given to support Africa breakthrough three development bottlenecks, namely inadequate infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel, and short of financial resources. Efforts should also be made to resolve livelihood issues of employment, food, clothing, and health. Only by doing so can we bring more benefit to the African people and constantly consolidate the basis for China-Africa friendship.

Third, China and Africa must strengthen cross cultural exchanges and remain forever good friends of united hearts and souls. China and Africa should strengthen people-to-people exchange in such areas as health, education, culture, science and technology, tourism and sports. China and Africa need to expand exchanges and visits between youth, women, civil society, think tanks, media and the academia. We should work hard to promote mutual learning between the two civilizations, boost mutual understanding and appreciation between the Chinese and African people, and pass down China-Africa friendship from generation to generation, so as to build and reinforce strong public support for China-Africa friendship.

Fourth, China and Africa must strengthen security cooperation and remain forever guardians of peace and stability. China stands ready to step up the implementation the 100 million dollars of assistance to the AU. China will continue to take a constructive part in African peace and security matters, help African countries and the AU build capacity for peacekeeping, maintaining stability and countering terrorism, and support African countries to enhance law-enforcement capacity from border control, army and police to customs and taxation. We strongly believe that these efforts will help create a sound environment of lasting peace and stability for China-Africa cooperation and the development of Africa.

Fifth, China and Africa must broaden cooperation in international affairs and remain forever protectors of our common interests. China and Africa need to firmly uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, jointly work for a more just and equitable international order, and oppose the practice of the strong bullying the weak or interference in other countries' internal affairs in any form. China and Africa should strengthen communication, coordination and cooperation on UN reform, climate change, food security, poverty reduction, development and other global issues so as to safeguard the common interests of all developing countries.

China highly values its cooperation with Africa, and welcomes members of the international community to join in. China does not seek its own sphere of influence, but is willing to join efforts to help Africa achieve lasting peace and further development. China is not trying to have its own backyard in Africa, but is willing to build a splendid garden for all. China is ready to work with members of the international community to fully realize their potentials and strengths and jointly bring out sustainable peace, common development, and shared prosperity in Africa and beyond.