After 20 years, there’s more than mere economic exchange in China’s trade relationship with Africa

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has helped projects get built in Africa and China find resources and new markets

Observers say African partners mostly negotiated from position of weakness but the dynamic is shifting

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China's President Xi Jinping, left, is pictured with Senegal's President Macky Sall in 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/STR

Published: 6:30pm, 18 Oct 2020Updated: 10:36pm, 18 Oct 2020

China last week marked 20 years of coordinated trade with African countries but analysts warn of one-sidedness in the relationship and unsustainable debt.

On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall, who are co-chairs of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), marked the anniversary.

They said the forum had become an “important and dynamic platform for dialogue between China and Africa” and was an important model and banner for south-south cooperation. The two presidents want China-Africa cooperation to become “a model of multilateralism and mutual benefit”.

China would fulfil all promises made under FOCAC since it “always delivers” and does “not make empty promises”, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Wang said China-Africa cooperation had made impressive achievements, growing direct Chinese investment stock in Africa to US$49.1 billion in 2019, up nearly 100 times from 2000. He said China-Africa trade last year reached US$208.7 billion, 20 times the size it was in 2000 when the forum was formed to help grow China-Africa trade.

“China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for 11 years in a row, and has contributed more than 20 per cent to Africa’s growth for a number of years,” Wang said on Thursday.

Wang said Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative was progressing well and that 44 African countries and the African Union Commission had signed cooperation documents.