While U.S. President Donald Trump suggests that a worldwide boycott against the anti-apartheid government of South Africa is in order—that’s right, not against Netanyahu’s Israel, but against the South Africa which placed Israel’s genocide on the world’s judicial docket—Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a joint China-South Africa “Initiative on Cooperation Supporting Modernization in Africa.”
Presidents Xi Jinping and Ramaphosa had agreed on the idea for the initiative at the September 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. The announcement that the project is now to get underway was made after Li Qiang and Ramaphosa met on the sidelines of the Nov. 22-23 G20 summit in South Africa, a summit which the United States boycotted. In the statement on the initiative, China and South Africa recognize modernization as “a common pursuit and an inalienable right of all countries of the world.” It therefore calls on the international community to join in “contributing to the economic, social and technological transformation of the African Continent, and ensuring sustainable and inclusive development for all Africans.”
The initiative aims to support African countries “in their efforts to independently explore modernization paths suited to their national conditions, and fulfill African people’s aspirations for a better life.” Africa’s own Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area are cited, and emphasis is placed on “the principle of `Africa-initiated, Domestic Ownership, and Africa-led’ in carrying out trilateral or multilateral cooperation in Africa to facilitate Africa’s modernization.” Among the specific measures cited are the need for a reform of the international financial system and debt relief, and for other countries to help implement the second phase of the African Union’s Program for Infrastructure (the PIDA-PAP2), with its “blueprint for Africa to achieve resilient and world-class infrastructure that is the essential backbone for achieving Africa’s integration and industrialization.”
The initiative encourages “enterprises of all countries to expand investment in the manufacturing industry in Africa, support the development of regional value chains, advocate for a fair and equitable partnership that supports local processing and value addition of resources within Africa.”
Contrast that vision to President Trump’s latest bullying message, posted Nov. 26 on Truth Social. Trump, once again, regurgitates preposterous lies about a non-existent South African government’s “genocide” against “white people,” to then announce that “South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20.” (It is to be held in Miami, Florida.) Going even further off the rails, Trump declared that “South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”
One thing is for sure: If this policy holds, it is the United States that will be isolated, not South Africa.
