Chinese President Xi Jinping spent a considerable part of Sept. 2-3 in bilateral meetings with African heads of state. At least 50 of Africa’s 54 national leaders gathered in Beijing for the Forum of Chinese-African Cooperation (FOCAC), over Sept. 4-6.
Xi met with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, the head of Africa’s most populous nation with 234 million people and the largest economy, and elevated the China-Nigeria relationship to that of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. In Beijing, Tinubu will visit two major companies, Huawei Technologies and the China Rail and Construction Corporation, as Nigeria looks to complete a high-speed rail line linking Ibadan in the southwest to the capital, Abuja. Tinubu will also meet with ten Chinese corporate CEOs in information and communications technology, oil and gas, aluminum production, seaport and harbor construction, financial services, and satellite technology development.
Xi also met with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sept. 3, “Noting the profound traditional friendship between China and Zimbabwe, Xi said that consolidating and deepening the two countries’ ironclad friendship aligns with the common expectations of the two peoples. He proposed establishing a “five-star ironclad” cooperation framework underpinned by five key areas: politics, economy and trade, security, culture, and international coordination.”
Xi met the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and stressed to him, that “the AU is a flag guiding Africa’s unity and self-strengthening and an important platform for international cooperation,” and further that China will raise the “China-Africa community with a shared future to a new level.”
Some 15 other African heads of state met personally with Xi. The FOCAC gathering is a strategic planning session, where the sinews of a new development-based world economic order are worked out. The Summit will also adopt two outcome documents: the Declaration and the Action Plan, to build major consensus between the two sides and chart a path for implementing high-quality China-Africa cooperation in the next three years.
On Sept. 5, Xi will keynote the FOCAC plenary session. China-Africa trade reached $282.5 billion in 2023, of which $100 billion is the export of African goods to China, a fivefold increase over the past 18 years. China has built tremendous amounts of infrastructure in Africa, from ports and bridges, to rail and hydropower electricity plants with an installed capacity of 25 GW.
