China-Africa Cooperation Forum is about to be held

The 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be held in Beijing from September 4 to September 6, with the theme of “Joining hands to promote modernization and build a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future”. Chinese President Xi Jinping particularly emphasized that this is to contribute to the “global South”. In order to publicize the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China’s official media Xinhua News Agency released a series of special reports. On Saturday (August 31), it released 5 related articles in succession. In the article “Building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future”, it detailed the benefits that China has brought to Africa, including the “Ten Cooperation Plans”, “Eight Actions” and “Nine Projects” announced by Xi Jinping at the forum over the years. The article quoted data recently released by the Ministry of Commerce of China, “In 2023, the trade volume between China and Africa reached 282.1 billion US dollars, breaking the historical peak for the second consecutive year; by the end of 2023, China’s direct investment stock in Africa exceeded 40 billion US dollars.” It also stated that in the past three years, Chinese enterprises in Africa have created more than 1.1 million jobs for local people, covering agriculture, processing and manufacturing, trade and logistics and other industries. Xinhua News Agency also criticized Western media for instilling the impression that Africa is only “vast grasslands, wild lions, simple huts, hungry children, terrible epidemics, and tribal conflicts” in a special article. It focuses on the plight and problems of African countries, but rarely traces back to the colonization of Africa by Western countries. The article said that the collective awakening of the “Global South” has become an important new trend on the international stage. As an important member of the “Global South”, Africa is moving towards becoming an important pole of world political, economic and civilizational development. “In view of the increasingly fierce geopolitical struggle among major powers, African leaders visiting China this week will seek funds for large infrastructure projects. China’s research on the African loan database found that last year Beijing’s loans to African countries were the highest in five years. The largest borrowers are Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.
But analysts say that China’s economic slowdown has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to invest large sums of money, and China has also refused to provide debt relief. China is the largest trading partner on the African continent, but its exports to Africa far exceed its imports. Many experts and scholars said that China’s products are facing more and more restrictions in the United States and Europe, and China will look for alternative markets in Africa.