On August 28, 2023, Ambassador Zhao Weiping published an article entitled “A New Milestone in China-Africa Cooperation” in the Namibian Sun. The full text is as follows:
On the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa last week, President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China co-chaired the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue with President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, which was themed “Promoting African Integration and Jointly Building a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future” and attended by the co-chair of FOCAC, the Chair of the African Union and Representatives of the Regional Economic Communities including President Dr. Hage G. Geingob. President Xi delivered his keynote speech entitled “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Create a Great Future for China and Africa”. President Geingob and other African leaders in attendance also contributed their vision and insights to the promotion of China-Africa Cooperation with their respective addresses. The Dialogue issued a Joint Statement, sending a strong message of China-Africa cooperation in further enhancing multilateral and international cooperation and partnership for the benefit of Africa’s development.
During the Dialogue, President Xi Jinping put forward the Initiative of Supporting Africa’s Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development, explicitly prioritizing the key areas in the next phase of China-Africa cooperation. As affirmed by President Xi, China will continue to provide strong support for Africa to accelerate its regional integration, enhance the Continent’s human capital development, drive infrastructure expansion and industrialization, and promote the modernization of Africa’s agriculture and agri-business sectors. By such concrete measures, China hopes to contribute its part to helping Africa fight against underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment, with the aim of jointly building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future.
In 2021, President Xi announced nine programs for cooperation with Africa at the opening ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. This time, by launching the above-mentioned initiative and plans, President Xi drew up a new blueprint for China-Africa cooperation from a strategic perspective, vividly demonstrating again China’s principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith towards Africa, the spirit of China-Africa friendly cooperation, as well as China’s firm political determination to support Africa’s development. In the new circumstances, China-Africa cooperation will only get strengthened constantly, and China-Africa friendship will surely further deepen.
China-Africa cooperation is in essence South-South cooperation, a mutual support and help between developing countries, which is also the eternal feature of China’s cooperative policies towards African countries. In spite of having become the world’s second largest economy, China has a long way to go to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation taking into consideration its large population with relatively low per capita income and imbalance of regional development as well as many development indicators that are still at middle rank in the world. As a developing country itself, China fully understands the aspiration of African countries in achieving modernization and absolutely shares Africa’s longing for lifting itself out of poverty and improving the welfare of its people through economic development. No matter how it grows economically, China will always be a member of the developing countries who will stand on the side of developing countries forever, representing their interests and serving their development needs.
As the Chinese Ambassador to Namibia, I am deeply encouraged that President Xi and President Geingob also had a bilateral meeting in South Africa, exchanged views on deepening the China-Namibia comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, and reached important consensus on pushing forward China-Namibia relations. This was the first face to face meeting between our two Presidents since 2018, which has renewed the friendship between the two leaders as well as the two countries, and set the direction for the future development of the bilateral relations.
I have been working with my new posting in Namibia for 7 months already, and through my visits to various regions and engagement with local friends, I have become keenly aware of the huge needs for Namibia to promote industrialization, agricultural, human resources and infrastructure development. The initiative and plans announced by President Xi at the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue have exactly provided important opportunities for China and Namibia to deepen cooperation in all those important areas of Namibia’s priorities. During my tenure here, I will work hard with the Namibian side to fully unleash the potential of our bilateral cooperation and elevate China-Namibia relations to a new high.