Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Global Prosperity Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilizational Initiative completely dominated the proceedings of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Xi announced a blueprint for future cooperation and proposed ten partnership actions with Africa to advance modernization over the next three years, sending a powerful message of joint development.
The summit presented an opportunity to reflect on the substantial strides made in education, healthcare, energy and infrastructure across the African Continent, largely facilitated by the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Additionally, the Beijing Declaration 2024 has further brightened the scope of China-Africa win-win cooperation.
While delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the FOCAC, President Xi hailed the growing strength and resilience between China and Africa. He highlighted the tangible benefits being delivered to both Chinese and Africans and emphasized how this partnership sets a stellar example of a new type of international relations.
The Summit achieved significant milestones. Launched in 2013, BRI remains an ambitious infrastructure program committed to enhancing global connectivity. Aligned with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the BRI promotes coordinated economic, social, and environmental development. It aims to address the root causes and obstacles hindering development and to boost the self-driven progress of BRI partner countries.
In Africa, the BRI has catalyzed critical investment in public infrastructure, creating jobs, improving market access and enhancing living standards. Key projects across the continent include railroads, highways and energy facilities, transforming previously isolated regions into vibrant economic zones.
It is suggested that the BRI should play a bigger role in the inter-linkages between clean infrastructure investment, green industrial development and critical minerals and FOCAC endorsed it. It is recognized that social and environmental challenges need to be addressed, but host countries also have a responsibility to ensure large-scale projects have public support and accountability so that both sides could jointly mitigate political hyping of so-called debt trap.
Undoubtedly, Africa is endowed with vast renewable energy resources, particularly solar and wind energy, which present remarkable opportunities for sustainable development. Chinese solar, wind and development finance are already tapping into the African energy market. However, Africa’s renewable energy contribution globally is still the lowest and most expensive in terms of kilowatt-hour produced. However, the BRI green projects are gaining momentum in the African continent giving the hope of sustainable economic prosperity and ecological stability.
To accelerate the energy transition and climate actions in joint efforts, China is actively promoting South-South Cooperation on climate change and has established the Belt and Road Energy Partnership with 32 countries which is indeed a good omen for both sides.
In his keynote speech Xi announced that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China are elevated to the level of strategic relations and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations is elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
In a bid to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead the Global South modernization, Xi said China stands ready to work with Africa to implement ten partnership action plans in the next three years, covering the areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihood, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, green development and common security. China will expand market access for African agricultural products, push forward the pilot zone for in-depth China-Africa economic and trade cooperation and carry out 30 infrastructure connectivity projects in Africa.
Critical analysis reveals that the 10 partnership actions cover a wide range of areas, from mutual learning, trade prosperity and infrastructure development to healthcare, agricultural collaboration, people-to-people exchanges, green development and common security.
In this regard, China will provide 60,000 training opportunities to Africa, mainly for women and youths, which are aimed at addressing the career development concerns of African youths and cultivating a new generation of talent for Africa.
China will also send 500 agricultural experts and establish a China-Africa agricultural science and technology innovation alliance, addressing issues of food security and self-sufficiency in Africa in the context of global climate change. The 10 partnership actions are concrete, aimed at providing feasible solutions to specific problems.
The summit showcased unwavering confidence in the unity and cooperation of the Global South and unveiled a new chapter for building a community with a shared future for humanity. Evaluation of the FOCAC confirmed several significant achievements: bilateral relations between China and all African countries with diplomatic ties have been elevated to the level of strategic relations; the overall characterization of China-Africa relations has progressed to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era; six major proposals to advance China-Africa modernization have been put forward and a comprehensive blueprint for action to advance China-Africa cooperation has been drawn up.
Interestingly, this FOCAC session included business-to-business matchmaking sessions, allowing Chinese companies that are just starting to expand into Africa to efficiently connect with demand-side partners and engage with local enterprises. This initiative is expected to enhance the dynamics of China-Africa cooperation by exploring new fields and increasing the involvement of AI enterprises in economic and trade relations.
However, the summit also attracted attention from the US and some Western media, with some amplifying clichéd narratives such as the “debt trap.” Many prominent internationalists suggest that these narratives stem from biases and fears that China’s growth and cooperation with Africa might diminish Western influence on the continent. Some policymakers in these Western countries are attempting to equate the FOCAC with increasing military partnerships in Africa, demonstrating a reluctance to acknowledge the successful and complementary development between China and Africa.
The success of China-Africa cooperation is largely due to the alignment of China’s infrastructure capabilities with Africa’s industrial needs. China’s diverse industries offer significant advantages, addressing critical demands on the continent. Investments by China in Africa not only create local jobs and increase tax revenues but also consider each country’s specific circumstances for debt relief or deferral, allowing local governments to better utilize their fiscal revenues and foster a healthy, sustainable development cycle.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) symbolizes boundless opportunities to address challenges posed by Western powers. It represents propositions that disseminate messages of global shared prosperity, trans-regional connectivity, socio-economic integration and the development of human capital, focusing on modernization, digitalization, AI and green transformation.
