Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Zhou Yuyuan
The world is at a crossroad. It is witnessing the restructuring of global power, a pandemic and national development transformation driven by a global climate change agenda. The shock is universal to all but unfair to Africa. African countries are much more fragile to the shocks and may lose more than others. Africa is experiencing its worst economic recession in half a century, the population in extreme poverty is increasing in large numbers, and the peace and security situation is deteriorating during the pandemic.
Africa needs the world. However, it’s a disunited world with a global development deficit and in which the voices of Africa are neglected and an African crisis response capability is limited. The worrying truth is that Africa has the lowest COVID-19 vaccine accessibility, the lowest climate financing, and the heaviest shock by climate change even though the emission of greenhouse gases by the continent is very small.
China shares the same feeling on Africa’s difficulties. Against that backdrop, China and Africa gathered at the Dakar conference of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the end of November. The conference turned out to be a timely and significant event for China and the continent.
In giving a keynote speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered strategic proposals and commitments on China-Africa cooperation for the next three years and for the longer term. The “Four Proposals” and “Nine Projects” encourage everyone who cares about Africa to bring impetus and confidence to the continent.
China is responding to the demands of Africa. A friend in need is a friend indeed. The real difficulty and requirements of African countries are the main determinants of commitments to the FOCAC. It is very clear that concrete measures are what African countries need most, and mostly in the form of aid.
In order to support Africa’s fight against the pandemic and improve the capability of public health, China will provide another one billion doses of vaccines in the form of 600 million doses as a donation and 400 million through joint production by Chinese companies and African countries. China also provides other grants to support Africa’s poverty reduction, green development and digital innovation.
