Renewal of China and Burkina Faso’s diplomatic ties has been touted as the best move ahead of the upcoming China-Africa Summit scheduled for September 2018 in China.
Diplomatic ties between the two nations cut off in 1994 as result of misunderstanding influenced by the Western media in China’s view.
With this reunion, China is overwhelmed by its relationship with 53 out of 54 African nations as Swaziland is yet to join the league.
A retired Chinese Diplomat whose career ended in Namibia, Professor, REN Xiaoping at a meeting with African Journalists in Beijing said Burkina Faso deserved commendation.
She was addressing participants of the 2018 Seminar on Renowned African Journalists through which she highlighted China and Africa’s relations and China’s policy towards Africa.
She commended Africa for assisting China to regain her seat at the United Nations General Assembly saying, “China is internally grateful to Africa, and we will continue to support each other politically and economically in the international arena.”
She stressed that “China and Africa’s unity is the model for South-South Cooperation. We have a common destiny, a common history and common aspirations and China will never interfere in the political affairs of any African country.”
Professor Xiaoping recalled that the establishment of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000 cemented the mutual political trust between China and Africa.
She extolled Africa as the only continent China organises one summit with every three years which according to her is a demonstration of China’s sincerity towards Africa’s development.
“Remarkable progress has been achieved in the implementation of 606 signature projects in Africa at the cost of over 1.8 billion US dollars from tax revenues.”
She reiterated China’s forward march to help Africa address her bottlenecks of lack of quality infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel and lack of financial resources.
“China has been Africa’s largest trading partner and a major engineer of African projects over the past decade. China’s non-direct financial investment in Africa has increased over the years, and we have to synergise our respective great market potentials.”
Professor Xiaoping expressed China’s displeasure about the Western Media dominance within the African media space and called for a paradigm shift.
“China and African governments should enhance training exchange programmes such as China’s Seminar of Renowned African Journalists so that our friendship will be consolidated on the basis of our people.”
“Mutual political trust is the outstanding characteristic between China and Africa’s bilateral relations.”
Her interaction was facilitated by China’s International Publishing Group responsible for coordinating the Annual China Seminar on Renowned African Journalists which offers participants the opportunity to explore China’s rapid transformation agenda.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
