The impact of the first forum on Sino-African relations
Name:Zhao Fengjuan Student ID：S07696
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China and the African nations have enjoyed very special relations. They have cooperated and made great progresses on politics, economy and culture. However, the Sino-African relations have dramatic changes during the past years. Then，what and how the first forum endues its impact?
Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000，China-Africa relations have entered a new Period of cooperation.
The forum provides a mechanism on strengthen the cooperation relations. Before the forum, Chinese government asks African countries for their advice on developing a more fruitful cooperation. The forum also made a firm foundation for establishing a long term stability and mutual interest in their new relationship.
So, Beijing summit promotes the relations.
Key words: the first forum; Sino-African relations; assistance; change; promote
Introduction
Sino-African Relations, a model of friendly cooperative relations between developing countries, have undergone the test of international vicissitudes over a long period of time and have been consolidated and strengthened in the new situation. The friendly relationship between china and Africa is well established for quite a long time. It not only has a historical and realistic basis, but also accords with the fundamental interests of Chinese and African peoples to reinforce their friendly relationship. After the founding of new China, china and Africa have cooperated and made great progresses on politics, economy and culture and so on. China has given many aids to African countries.
Since fifteen years ago, Sino-African relations has occurred some change. They are basically because the Reform and Open Door Policy in China, and also Democratization process in African states. The three drives of change in the relations are: the shift from ideology to pragmatic policies, trade-investment and their discontents, and the delicate issue of the Chinese arm sales.
In this paper, I will present the retrospect of the Sino-African relations in the 20th century, and give a brief introduction about the first forum on Sino-African relations. Then, the main part of the paper is to show the important and promote impact of the first forum, which was held in Beijing, Oct 10th, 2000.
1. The retrospect of the Sino-African relations in the 20th century
Half a century ago, China and Egypt established diplomatic ties, symbolizing a new phase in China-African relations. Since then, bilateral cooperation in politics, economy, tourism, culture and education has been developing steadily and especially swiftly in recent years. When first establishing diplomatic ties with China, many African countries were poor. Though China was not well-off itself, it gave its African allies aid. As follows:
In the 1960s to 70s, some 50,000 Chinese engineers and construction workers were sent to Africa to help build the rail road linking Tanzania and Zambia. Known as the "Road of Friendship," the railway has played a key role in enhancing economic development and national liberation in the southeastern part of Africa. Apart from personnel support, the Chinese government has also been providing funds, equipment and materials for the maintenance and up-grading of the railroad, ever since it came into use. Since 1963, China has dispatched some 15,000 medical personnel to 47 African countries or regions, providing treatment to more than 170 million people.
Cote d'ivoire’s ambassador to China, Alain Nicaise Papatchi Coffie said: "China is the first developing country to provide aid to other developing countries. The benefits we get from China's aid are obvious. Meanwhile, the two countries have been cooperating under a bilateral framework, which enables China to get to know the needs of my country better." [1]
In the introductory field, china also gives aid to African countries. For example, In October 1984, China sent 27 experts to join the Mali pharmaceutical manufacturing factory which has been running at a loss for many years despite the allowance from the government, under the join venture agreement with the country; the result of this cooperation was that the company started making a profit of 1.3 million RMB Yuan every year [2].
Economic cooperation and trade is an important part of China-Africa relations, as well as important content of South-South cooperation. It is in the common interests of both sides to intensify China-Africa trade and economic cooperation. The Past 50years since the birth of the People’s Republic has seen a year-by-year growth of the two –way trade. From table 1, we can see the China-Africa Trade Statistics since 1980 to 1987.
Table 1 China-Africa Trade Statistics（1980-1987）
(In 10,000 U.S. dollars)
Year
Total
Export
Import
Year
Total
Export
Import
1980
113,103
74,703
38,400
1984
87,608
62,373
25,235
1981
109,749
79,809
29,940
1985
62,677
41,844
20,793
1982
119,099
97,844
21,255
1986
85,447
63,845
21,602
1983
92,074
67,576
24,498
1987
100,883
85,428
15,455
The resources are collected form < China's Foreign Trade and Economic Yearbook > （1984-1988 年）by Li Anshan.
According to the statistics of China’s customs, in 1999，the total import and export trade volume amounted to USD6.484 billion, up by 17.2% from the previous year. In a breakdown, China’s export to Africa reached 4.109 billion US dollar, increasing by 1.3% as compared to the same period of the previous year; and its import from Africa stood at 2.375 billion US dollar, up 60.9% from the previous year. Between January and August of this year, China-Africa trade continued to rise rapidly and totaled 6.72 billion US dollar, a growth of 67.2% as opposed to the corresponding period of last year. To be more specific, China registered export to Africa amounting to 3.23 billion which was an increment of 27.6% and witnessed import from the region worth 3.49 billion, a surge of 134.6%. All in all, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation maintained sound momentum of development as the growth of China’s import from Africa has outpaced that of its export. The trade imbalance situation is gradually being alleviated.
Alongside the swift development of trade, significant progress has also been made in other areas of economic and trade collaboration between China and Africa. The Chinese government has signed intergovernmental trade agreements with the majority of African governments, established bilateral regular mixed commissions on economic, trade and technical cooperation and set up mechanisms for multilateral and bilateral consultation. In terms of project-contracting, China and Africa have maintained cooperation of considerable scale. In 1999, the turnover in this aspect reached 2.036 billion US dollar. For long, the Chinese government has rendered assistance of various kinds to African countries, leading to 640 completed projects. Besides, Chinese companies are investing in more and more projects in Africa and expanding the scale of investment. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of June 2000, Chinese companies have established nearly 480 companies in 47 African countries with a total contractual investment of 820 million US dollar in which Chinese capital was 530 million. Since 1995, China have subsequently set up 11Investment Development and Trade Promotion Centers in Africa, which have created favorable conditions and played a positive role in facilitating multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation[3] .
2. The introduction about the first forum on China-African Cooperation Ministerial Conference
2.1 backgrounds
China and African countries enjoy close political relations and frequent high level exchanges. Chinese leaders, including Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, and Hu Jintao have made trips to African countries in recent years. Since 1997, nearly 30 heads of state or heads of government from African countries have visited China. Both sides reached broad consensus on developing comprehensive cooperative Sino-African relations of long-term stability oriented towards the 21st century. There are also extensive exchanges between Chinese and African parliaments and parties. Both sides strengthen consultation, support each other in international affairs, especially on a series of major issues such as human rights, safeguard the legitimate rights of developing countries and make efforts to promote the establishment of a new just and rational international political and economic order. African countries support China's great course of unification. Most African countries firmly adhere to the One China Policy.
In order to strengthen consultation and cooperation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has established consultation mechanisms at the ministerial level with Foreign Ministries from over a dozen African countries. The China-Africa Cooperation Forum——Beijing 2000 ministerial meeting held in October is the first collective dialogue between China and African countries, and will lay the foundation for the development of Sino-African relations in the new century. The aim of the forum is “conducting equal consultation, broadening common consensus, increasing mutual understanding, strengthening friendship and promoting cooperation”. The forum has a historical meaning in the China-Africa relations，and is planned to be held alternatively every three years in China and Africa. More than 80 ministers, 20 international and African regional organizations came from more than 40 different African countries on the invitation from China.
2.2 The main contents of the forum
At the opening ceremony of the forum, President Jiang Zemin made a keynote speech. During his speech, Jiang offers 4 point proposal on China-African cooperation.
The first point is to strengthen solidarity and promote South-South cooperation, because South-South cooperation is an important means through which developing countries can effectively respond to changes in the international situation and meet challenges that may be brought about by economic globalization. Developing countries must enhance their capacity for self-development and increase their national aggregates. This is a fundamental guarantee for accelerating their development.
The [...]
). If you have the permission, you can login now.