CHINA treats Africa, a forgotten continent for the West, as a reliable friend and sincere partner, Victor Gao, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based non-governmental think tank, has said.

“Once the European colonists were driven out of Africa, they forgot about Africa for many decades,” Gao said during a recent interview with Xinhua.

“China and African countries look at each other as equals. We are brothers and sisters,” he added.

“China has always been supporting the decolonization program and the independence movements of different African countries,” Gao said, stressing that China even fought with the African brothers and sisters together to help them to achieve independence from colonial rule.

A case in point is the China-aided Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA), a huge connectivity project by the standard of the 1970s at a time when China itself was not very well-developed and didn’t have a lot of financial resources.

“But China did it as an amazing thing. And the TAZARA, which has been called a ‘road of freedom’ and ‘road of friendship’, really boosted China-African confidence,” Gao said.

Having transported millions of tons of goods and innumerable passengers since it was put into operation, the Tanzania-Zambia Railway has greatly contributed to Africa’s prosperity.

The success of the railway and other projects highlighted the importance of connectivity in China-Africa cooperation.

“Because without connectivity in terms of highways and roads of all kinds, you really cannot generate greater productivity and efficiency in your economic endeavor. Since then, China has been focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).”

China and African countries have also put much emphasis on manufacturing. “Because without manufacturing, you really cannot command a higher premium for the goods, the commodities and the raw materials you come up with,” Gao said.

“It is eventually through manufacturing, high level of industrialization, and now aided by high-tech of all kinds that you can really expect to uplift the people out of poverty in Africa.”

Gao said agricultural cooperation between China and Africa is also of great significance. “Because from the Chinese perspective, if the African countries can really get their acts together and cooperate with major countries like China and several others, Africa can achieve self-sufficiency in food production.”

As the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) approaches, Gao voiced confidence that all these, from connectivity, manufacturing to agricultural cooperation, will be discussed within the China-Africa cooperation framework and there are high expectations among African countries for future cooperation with China.

“Between China and Africa, we respect each other, and we respect our differences. We see these differences as what make us so strong together and why we cooperate with each other. So I think all these set China apart from many other countries,” Gao said.

Xinhua