At the beginning of the new year, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi was invited to visit Eritrea, Kenya, and Comoros. The first destination of the Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit at the beginning of the year was in Africa, which is a fine tradition that China has adhered to in its diplomacy for 32 years. Facing the challenge of the epidemic, the Chinese Foreign Minister still arrived as scheduled. Unstoppable rain or rain, the original intention remains unchanged, which fully demonstrates the background of China-Africa friendship.
Wang Yi’s visit to Africa has clear goals: to join hands with Africa to thoroughly defeat the epidemic; accelerate the implementation of the results of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum; firmly safeguard the common interests of China and Africa. The three goals not only include the current urgent tasks of China-Africa cooperation, but also clarify the development direction of China-Africa cooperation in the next stage, and emphasize the importance of China-Africa cooperation to the world.
To fight the epidemic together, China and Africa insist on watching and helping each other. The world is facing a new round of impact from the Omi Keron strain. As a friend of Africa, China will never stand idly by. The African media have noticed that China is the first country in the world to hold an anti-epidemic summit with Africa after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia. China has repeatedly provided vaccines and other materials to many African countries and called on the international community to increase support for Africa. So far, China is the largest supplier of vaccines to African countries. In order to achieve the AU target of 60% of the African population to be vaccinated against the new crown by 2022, President Xi Jinping announced that China will provide another 1 billion doses of vaccine to Africa, and implementation has already begun. China was the first to cooperate in vaccine production with African countries. In July 2021, Egypt completed the localized production of the first batch of China’s Kexing vaccine, and Morocco started the packaging of the stock solution of the Chinese National Medicine vaccine. Facts have proved that China upholds the “first attribute” of the global public product of the new crown vaccine, vigorously supports African countries in the fight against the epidemic with practical actions, and leads the international community in anti-epidemic cooperation. This is in sharp contrast to some countries that only write blank checks.
Promote the deepening of cooperation, and China-Africa will jointly create a development engine. In November 2021, the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was successfully held. President Xi Jinping announced the “Nine Projects” of China-Africa practical cooperation, drawing a magnificent blueprint for China-Africa cooperation in the next three years, which was highly praised by African countries. During Wang Yi’s visit to Africa, the “nine projects” had early harvests. China-Africa cooperation focuses on the “post-epidemic era” and the new development trend of the world, and jointly accelerates the quality and upgrading of China-Africa cooperation, and continues to move towards high quality, people’s livelihood, and sustainability. Because of this, the Chinese foreign minister can confidently express his position, and can compare who has done more for Africa, who has contributed more to Africa, and who has paid more sweat and hard work for the African people.
Strengthen coordination and cooperation, and China and Africa defend fairness and justice. Both China and Africa recognize that individual countries wantonly interfere in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of so-called democracy and human rights, exaggerate ideological opposition, damage the external environment of the rise of developing countries, and undermine the harmonious atmosphere of international cooperation. Therefore, China and Africa oppose all kinds of power, bullying, and unilateral acts, support countries in following a development path that suits their own national conditions, are committed to safeguarding the rights and interests of developing countries, and jointly practice true multilateralism.
The first visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister to Africa in the New Year fully reflects the strong willingness of China and Africa to overcome the difficulties and seek common development together, and demonstrates the huge potential and broad prospects of China-Africa cooperation. On the background of China-Africa friendship, the blueprint of a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era is slowly unfolding.
(The author is an associate researcher of the China Institute of International Studies)
Original Title: Adhere to the Diplomatic Tradition and Show the Friendship Background (Wanghailou)
Editor in charge: Ran Miaojun