Old friends, new partners
Gao Qiufu

Fifty years ago in May, Egypt became the first African country to establish diplomatic ties with China, a move that ushered in a new era of Sino-African diplomatic relations. Over the past five decades, China and Africa have forged a deep friendship as they strived for national independence and renewal. Bilateral political bonds have increasingly strengthened. China was a firm supporter of African nations’ struggle against colonialism and imperialism for national liberation. It not only rendered moral support to them with deep sympathy, but also offered them material assistance such as huge quantities of military goods.
As the African nations gained independence, Sino-African political trust continued to develop, with frequent high-level exchanges. Since Premier Zhou Enlai’s tour to 10 African countries in 1963, Chinese leaders have visited more than 40 African countries. Since Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Toure’s trip to China in 1960, over 100 leaders of 51 African countries have visited China. China and Africa enjoy prosperous cultural and people-to-people exchanges. To date, China has signed 65 cultural agreements and over 150 implementation plans with African countries. In 2004 alone, a variety of Chinese cultural events were held in 18 African countries. China has sent medical personnel to 47 African countries. Presently, 35 Chinese medical teams are serving in 98 medical stations across the continent.
Since 1956, a total of 17,000 African students from 50 countries have come to China to receive an education. Over the past five years, nearly 10,000 African government officials and technical personnel have received training in China. In addition to enhancing the mutual understanding between China and Africa, these programs bolstered the competence of Africa’s human resources, thereby strengthening its capacity to seek self-development.
China and Africa back each other in international affairs in a joint effort to oppose hegemonism and power politics and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries. Most African countries uphold the one-China policy and stand for China’s reunification. As the largest developing country in the world and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China, for its part, is committed to protecting the interests of African countries in the international arena and promoting their equal participation in world affairs.
New impetus
In the past, Sino-African economic relations mainly took the form of government-to-government official aid. China provided African countries with a considerable amount of free economic aid. The number of aid projects has reached 800, ranging from large ones such as the Tanzania-Zambia railway to small and medium-sized ones in the fields of agriculture, forestry, hydropower, light textiles, education and welfare. In the past decade, Africa has largely enjoyed a stable political situation and a mild economic growth. At the same time, while maintaining rapid economic development, China redoubled its efforts to establish an international presence. These presented excellent new opportunities for China and Africa to expand their economic and trade cooperation. Today, apart from offering assistance, China has begun to develop mutually beneficial economic linkages of various forms with Africa, registering remarkable success.
Bilateral trade has undergone notable growth in recent years. Chinese and African economies are highly complementary, with high-quality yet inexpensive Chinese goods having a ready market in Africa and Africa’s natural resources such as energy, ores and wood being indispensable to China’s economic development. To date, China has entered into bilateral trade agreements with over 40 African countries, while maintaining trade connections of various forms with all African countries. In recent years, with concerted efforts of state-owned and private enterprises, Sino-African trade volume has increased by a large margin, achieving a historical breakthrough.
Although Sino-African trade only accounts for a small proportion in China’s total foreign trade, its growth rate—55 percent annually on average in the past five years—is faster than that between China and any other region. Africa is the most important service market and investment destination for China. It is the region where China has conducted overseas project contracting for the longest time with the best economic returns. At present, nearly 80,000 Chinese workers are engaged in project contracting and labor services in Africa.
In addition, Chinese companies have scored initial success in investing in Africa over the past decade. So far, Chinese companies have set up over 800 factories in 49 African countries with a contractual investment of over $5 billion. Africa needs China’s funds and technology, and China does not attach political strings to its assistance and investment. Given this, China and Africa stand a great chance of enhancing their economic cooperation in the future. Africa is one of the important suppliers of the resources that China needs to pursue sustainable development. Africa is extremely rich in natural resources, many of which rank at the top globally. Its proven oil and natural gas reserves account for 8.8 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, of the world total. All these natural resources are crucial to China, a rapidly developing country that is lacking in resources.
Over the past decade, China has been importing raw materials, mainly crude oil, wood and ores, from Africa in large quantities. Crude oil from Africa accounted for 8 percent of China’s total oil imports in 1998, but the rate has soared to one third today. Africa has become China’s second biggest oil supplier. As China’s robust economic development is projected to last into the future, there is a huge potential for China and Africa to cooperate with each other in natural resource exploitation.
Strategic partners
Since the beginning of the 21st century, China and Africa have been exploring a new partnership as they carry their friendship forward in step with the times. China and Africa launched the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in October 2000 to further boost their friendly cooperation and seek common development. In the past five years, two ministerial meetings have been successfully convened in Beijing and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with consensus reached on a broad range of issues and three historical documents aimed at strengthening Sino-African ties adopted.
Within the framework of the forum, China forgave part of the debts of 31 heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries in Africa, worth 10.5 billion yuan. It exempted the tariff on certain goods from 28 least developed African countries. It also designated 16 African countries as destinations for outbound Chinese tourists. The forum has become an effective mechanism for China and Africa to carry out collective consultation and dialogue and an essential platform for conducting friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in addition to bilateral channels. In recent years, China has proposed a constant series of new areas and ways to expand Sino-African cooperation.
In January this year, the Chinese Government issued the China’s African Policy white paper. While giving full recognition to Africa’s status and role, the document puts forward well-defined policies to boost all-dimensional Sino-African cooperation in the political, economic, cultural, educational and security fields. It is the Chinese Government’s first policy paper on strengthening across-the-board cooperation between China and Africa. During President Hu Jintao’s recent African tour, he raised another four suggestions on developing the Sino-African strategic partnership: enhancing mutual trust politically, promoting mutual benefit and win-win results economically, learning from each other culturally, and strengthening coordination in the security field. The suggestions chart the course for further Sino-African cooperation.
The Third Ministerial Meeting and Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum will take place in Beijing this November. A joint declaration of the Chinese and African leaders is expected to materialize at this meeting, demonstrating their positions on major international issues, African affairs and Sino-African relations. An action plan for the next three years will also be adopted as a complete blueprint for future Sino-African cooperation. At the same time, China is set to unveil some significant initiatives on strengthening cooperation with Africa. The meeting is poised to provide a great impetus to the all-around development of Sino-African relations in the new century.
Sino-African Relations: A Chronology
Despite the geographical distance that separates them, China and Africa cherish a relationship lasting over 2,000 years. According to historical records, China had contacts with Africa as early as the third century B.C. in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220). Exchanges became frequent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Chinese navigator Zheng He traveled to what is now Somalia and Kenya on the east African coast during his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans starting in 1405, the first large-scale friendly contact between China and Africa.
After the mid-15th century, the friendly exchange between China and Africa was disrupted in the wake of Western colonial powers’ incursion into Africa. After the end of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), exchanges between China, then a closed kingdom, and Africa, a continent ruled by colonialists, came to a halt. It was not until the end of World War II, especially after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, that China and Africa were able to resume their relationship.
When the People’s Republic was founded, only Egypt, Liberia, Ethiopia and Libya had won independence. The birth of the new China kindled hope among Africa’s progressive people, who were eager to draw on the successful experiences of China’s revolution. At the First Asia-Africa Summit in Indonesia in April 1955, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai expounded on China’s brand-new diplomatic philosophy that all countries, large or small, are equal. Zhou’s remarks were warmly welcomed at the meeting. Egypt established diplomatic relations with China on May 30, 1956, becoming the first African country to do so. The initiative opened a new chapter in time-honored Sino-African friendly relations.
After the end of World War II, especially in the 1950s, independence movements gained momentum in Africa, with many nations that had long been under European colonial rule gaining independence. Sharing similar sufferings in history and the same mission of national reconstruction as China, these countries established diplomatic relations with China as soon as they proclaimed independence. In the early 1960s, a dozen countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Guinea, established diplomatic relations with China. Zhou visited Africa three times from December 1963 to June 1965, during which time he put forward eight principles on China’s foreign aid while reaffirming China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Zhou’s visits had a profound influence in Africa, giving rise to a new wave of African countries’ establishing diplomatic relations with China. By the end of the 1970s, altogether 44 out of the 50 independent African countries had entered into diplomatic relations with China. To date, 47 out of the 53 African countries have established diplomatic relations with China, including all the leading and strategically significant countries on the continent.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review  Articles Exchange Item)

Struggle for power at all cost
Akhtar Jamal

The official circle has reacted strongly against the signing of Charter of Democracy by the leaders of two major political parties and termed it yet another move to deceive the people of Pakistan. However, the top leadership including the President and the Prime Minister has refrained from launching a direct campaign against the move. Political observers believe that while it has been a long pattern in Pakistan to struggle for power at any cost, the signing of Charter of Democracy Accord may not last long as the date for elections comes closer.
Islamic parties linked with Benazir and Nawaz alliance is though less hopeful that the alliance would last long and complaint about the change of attitude in Benazir’s statement in which she hinted that she might consider discussion on a non-uniform President. Government officials recall here that Benazir Bhutto’s last government is still remembered by MQM as the most brutal and undemocratic while Nawaz Sharif’s last government is best known for its attempt to make a mockery of democracy. Observers also recall that Pakistani political rivals and opponents (in government or in opposition) are always ready to do anything and at any cost to re-gain power even if with foreign support.
Islamabad also smells a rat on reports that London has been chosen as the launching pad of a campaign against current set up in Pakistan. Observers have also noticed the unusual movements of some other political elements trying to take advantage of the situation in the country. Observers believe that after ruling PML the only political element which matters in Pakistani politics is the MQM which still supports the present set up. Some circles believe that opponents to the present regime would try to destabilize the Sindh government and create misunderstanding between the two most powerful coalition partners. According to these circles the storm is under control but not totally over and may hit back.
During last week, President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during their meetings with CM Arbab Rahim and MQM team time and again referred to the losses suffered by the people of Sindh due to chaotic situation that prevailed there in recent weeks. Both sides have apparently realized but observers have failed to see a real change of heart and mind and the realization for sacrifices for the national interest.
New London Plan
Some political observers have term Benazir-Nawaz Agreement as a New London Plan to oust the present set up in Pakistan but they also caution that if Government and Opposition takes a confrontation course it is appears from the statements of the two leaders Pakistan’s internal and external credibility would be harmed. The Government is determined to continue its own course and has vowed to hold elections under an interim set-up but does not appear to accept the demands of a completely independent set up backed by the Opposition parties. Observers however even warn that it would not be easy for the Opposition to boycott an election under an interim set installed by the present Government. President Musharraf has made it clear that he would hold general elections in a fair atmosphere.
One of the top most advisor of President Musharraf and the General Secretary of Pakistan Muslim league the other day in a TV interview said that “we should stop targeting personalities and work to strengthen systems rather”. He also made it clear that “there will be free and fair elections next year and it would be the people who would decide what they want.”
Shanghai Group meeting
The upcoming summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be a “milestone”. The June 15 summit meeting in Shanghai of the heads of state of the member countries and observers will review the SCO’s achievements and future prospects. SCO was established in Shanghai in 2001 and its founding members; China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to offer observers status to Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan and India. The Summit will provide a better chance to the leaders of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to assess possibilities of future cooperation with the SCO members.
According to SCO Secretary General the Summit would devote itself to regional economic integration. “Our present goal is to realize the free flow of commodities, capital, technologies and services in the region within 20 years,” the Secretary General was quoted as saying. “The SCO has never sought confrontation with any parties and its aims have nothing to do at all with becoming a military bloc. The organization will continue holding high the banner of peace, cooperation and openness”, the SCO Secretary General elaborated further.
According to media reports a Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo last week made a three-point proposal here aimed at improving cooperation among the parliaments of the six member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Wu made the proposal at a meeting hosted by Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament), and Boris Gryzlov, the chairman of the State Duma (the lower house).
First, he said, the parliaments should cooperate to ensure the ratification of agreements at an early date and supervise their implementation, thus providing legal guarantees for exchange and cooperation of the six-member regional bloc. The parliaments should also learn from other mature cooperation mechanisms and reinforce the coordination with other cooperation mechanisms, so as to push forward the development of the SCO, the Chinese top legislator said.
Secondly, Wu said, the parliaments should promote cooperation on the issues of common concern such as regional security and economic cooperation. He recommended that in line with the needs and priorities of the SCO, the parliaments should make due amendments to their domestic laws and regulations timely, in a bid to create a favorable legal environment for cooperation on regional security and economy. Thirdly, Wu said, the parliaments should diversify their cooperation in a flexible manner.
“We support holding meetings of top legislators for communication and consultation on major issues in relation with parliamentary cooperation,” he said, adding that the expansion of exchanges between sub-committees, friendship groups and other offices is also encouraged. SCO joint anti-terrorism exercises lauded. Chinese President Hu Jintao recently hailed the joint anti-terrorism exercises conducted by Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, saying they will strengthen the capability to combat terrorism and maintain regional peace.
In a joint interview with media representatives from the six member states, Hu said cross-border drugs crime remained one of the major problems facing the SCO. Member states had signed a cooperation agreement against the trafficking of narcotics in June 2004. “It is the original intention as well as the key mission of the SCO to jointly maintain peace, security and stability in the region,” he said. On the day the SCO was founded, the six heads of state signed the Shanghai Pact on fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism, Hu said. A regional anti-terror center was launched in Tashkent during the SCO summit in 2004. “The SCO is one of the earliest international organizations to hold up the banner of fighting against terrorism, and has played an important role in coordinating anti-terrorism cooperation among member states,” he said. The SCO had held three joint anti-terrorism exercises, Hu said, adding member states had cooperated in information exchanges and judicatory assistance.