Africans In China

Sino-African friendship goes back to ancient times and the brave and bright Chinese and African people had joined the two miraculous continents through their contacts long long ago. The newly-established People’s Republic of China conducted friendly contacts six full decades ago with those African countries, which had won their independence. And a new era for Sino-African ties ushered in 1956 when Egypt formerly recognized and officially forged diplomatic ties with China.

Since then, batch after batch of gifted, hard-working Chinese experts, engineers, technicians and medical workers have gone to work for African countries. They helped build, among other “historical monumental works” of friendship, the Tanzania-Zambia railway line, the Cairo International Convention Center, the Friendship Port in Mauritania, and rural water supply projects in Tanzania on the continent, thus contributing to Africa’s construction and development.

With the creation of China-Africa Cooperation Forum mechanism in the new millennium and particularly since the successful convocation of the Beijing Summit of November 3-5, 2006, a new type of strategic partnership has integrated more closely China, the world’s biggest developing nation, and Africa with the highest concentration of developing nations.

First, the strategic mutual trust is further deepening. Sino-African ties have advanced and developed by leaps and bounds over the past two years and more. With a frequent exchange of high-level visits between the two sides, Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary Hu Jintao and other CPC and state leaders in their numerous trips to Africa brought the cooperative outcome or prospects evidenced in the Beijing Summit to the African people, and sincerely helped the continent to bring about development and prosperity.

Leaders from some 40 African countries converged in Beijing for the 2006 summit. Afterwards, numerous African political leaders came to the Chinese national capital to view or witness the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008 as a concrete expression of their attention and support to China’s development and expansion as well as an embodiment of their brotherhood.

China and African countries have set up a mechanism of regular political dialogue between foreign ministers. It has become a general practice for the Chinese foreign minister to visit Africa on his first trip every year.

Chinese peacekeepers, both men and officers, scrupulously abide by their obligations to work for the cause of African peace. Moreover, China’s judicial organs, political parties and youths or women’s organizations have also launched multi-round dialogues or exchanges with their African counterparts.

Besides, Sino-African economic and trade cooperation is gratifying. China has actively been implementing the eight general principles and objectives designed for Sino-African substantial cooperation, so as to bring them real, substantial benefits. In 2008, China-Africa trade volume reached 106.8 billion US dollars, up 45.1 percent from a year earlier, and realized the trade goal two years ahead of schedule, according to the Chinese government statistics.

The Chinese side announced to cancel debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owned by the heavily-indebted and the least developed African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. The country has also encouraged Chinese companies to increase the scale in their investment in Africa.

China’s direct investment in Africa has so far exceeded 5 billion US dollars, and the China-Africa Fund has invested 400 million dollars in 20 projects, which brought cumulative investment by Chinese enterprises to about 2 billion dollars.

China is currently exerting its utmost to fulfill its commitments and implement to the letter various policy measures toward Africa adopted at the China-Africa Summit held in Beijing in early Nov. 2006, though it is also in difficulty itself for being hit and impacted by the ongoing global financial crisis.

Third, Sino-African cultural exchange is a feast for the eyes of people the world over, all being amazing and wonderful. To date, Africa is a host of thee Chinese cultural centers, and 21 Confucius Institutes around the continent have been turned into showcases or platforms for the spread of Chinese culture on the continent, giving rise to the “Chinese culture fever” and the “Han Chinese language fever”.

An increasing number of Chinese art troupes have made tours of Africa, during which performing artists treated people in Africa to a diversity of performances, including acrobatics, martial arts or Wushu, as well as song and dance items. Meanwhile, the African “flower of art” is in blossom on the Chinese soil. The “Night of Africa”, a song and dance spectacle took the stage at the Great Hall of the People on the eve of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and some 100 performers from seven African nations were warmly welcome as if they had “brought Chinese viewers to the faraway, beautiful African continent”.

Africa is absolutely a continent of great hope, with a new lease of life and an unbelievable potential for development. The growth of Sino-Africa relations has given an eloquent proof that China and Africa are good friends, good partners and good brothers and the growth of Sino-African ties conforms to the fundamental interest of both sides.

The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), due to be held in Cairo, Egypt in the last quarter this year, will be a great gathering for an all-round appraisal of the outcome scored by the Beijing Summit held in 2006 and to make new planning for Sino-Africa cooperation in the next three years. So, it is widely believed that the upcoming grand assembly would raise or uplift Sino-African cooperation to a new height.

By People’s Daily Online and contributed by Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Wu Chunhua

BEIJING, (Xinhua) — The upcoming Egypt conference will vigorously expand China-Africa cooperation, Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Wu Chunhua said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The fourth ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is scheduled for November at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“The conference will be held to comprehensively evaluate the achievements after the Beijing summit of the FOCAC in 2006 and draw up a plan on China-Africa cooperation for the next three years,” Wu told Xinhua.

“Africa is a continent full of hope and potential,” Wu said. “It is to the benefit of China and Africa to maintain and further advances bilateral ties.”

The FOCAC was jointly proposed and established by China and more than 40 African countries in 2000. It consists of meetings at three levels: the ministerial conference, senior officials meeting, and talks between the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum and the African Diplomatic Mission in Beijing.

The first ministerial conference was held in Beijing in October 2000. The second was held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, in December 2003 and the third in Beijing in November 2006.

CAIRO, (Xinhua) — Visiting Chinese Special Envoy on African Affairs Liu Guijin and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit met here on Monday, pledging to boost bilateral ties.

During their meeting, Liu said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the strategic cooperative relations between China and Egypt. China would like to make joint efforts with the Egyptian government to promote bilateral ties.

China appreciates Egypt’s support to Chinese government’s handling of the deadly riots in Urumqi, capital city of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The separatists-inspired riots in Urumqi, which broke out on July 5, killed 197 people and injured more than 1,680 others. The Chinese government took immediate and decisive measures and quickly restored order in the city.

Abul Gheit said Egypt attaches great importance to Egypt-China relations and his country understands China’s stance on the Urumqi riots.

On the same day, Liu also met with Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Cairo-based Arab League (AL), and exchanged views on Sudan issue and the China-Arab relations.

Egypt is Liu’s first stop in an African tour which will also take him to Morocco, Guinea, Congo and Niger.

Editor: Deng Shasha

The Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi met the Egyptian coordinators of the Forum for China Africa Cooperation Affairs (FOCAC), Ambassadors Ibrahim Ali Hassan and Mahmoud Ahmed Abdel El Gawad, on May 6th 2009.The two sides discussed the growing, profound friendship between Egypt and China as they prepared for the fourth ministerial meeting of the FOCAC. The year 2009 is significant as it is the final year of the period of implementation of the eight measures announced by the Chinese President Hi Jintao at the Beijing Summit, for promoting economic cooperation with Africa. The meeting, scheduled for later this year, will assess the success of the implementation of the steps listed at the Beijing Summit in 2006. The meeting will be co-hosted by China and Egypt.

FOCAC is a platform that has been established by a set of African countries with China for consultation and knowledge sharing, to develop a cooperation mechanism between developing nations. This forms part of the South-South cooperation endeavors. Besides political initiatives, it reiterates the need for mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation that would lead to higher developmental levels in both Africa and China.

Till now, three FOCAC inter-ministerial Summits have taken place, the first in Beijing in the year 2000, the second in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2003, and the third again in Beijing in 2006. The fourth one is being held in Egypt later this year. Attended by representatives from 48 African countries and senior Chinese officials, each of the meetings have delineated steps taken by China and Africa to strengthen Sino-African friendship. The two sides have been receiving information and details about business opportunities and the needs and requirement s of each. China has pitched in with investments and technical expertise wherever these African nations have felt the need and Africa in turn, has assisted China with raw materials, minerals and opened its mining sector for China.

However, this has not been a haphazard process but a detailed, meticulously planned cooperation initiative and in the 9 years since its inception FOCAC has kept track of the successes in each country.

Source : ChinAfrica.asia

Egyptian archaeologists have found the tombs of two court officials, in charge of music and pyramid building, in a 4,000-year-old cemetery from the reign of Pharaoh Unas.

The tombs were found buried in the sands south of Cairo and could shed light on the fifth and the sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, said Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities chief.

“We announce today a major important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300 years ago,” he told reporters at the site on Monday.
One of the tombs belonged to Iya Maat, the supervisor of pyramid-building under the reign of Unas, Hawass said.

Iya Maat organized the acquisition of granite and limestone from Aswan and other materials from the Western Desert.

The second tomb housed the remains of Thanah, who was in charge of singers in the court of Unas.

Both tombs feature hieroglyphics at their entrances but the contents of the tombs have long since been stolen, Hawass said.

The entrance of Thanah’s tomb shows carved images of her smelling lotus flowers.

“The discovery of the tombs are the beginning of a big, large cemetery,” Hawass said.

“We are continuing our excavation and we are going to uncover more tombs in the area to explain the period of Dynasty 5 and Dynasty 6,” he said, adding that 70 percent of Egypt’s ancient monuments remain buried under sand.

The death of Unas brought the Fifth Dynasty to an end, as he did not have a male heir. His daughter is widely believed to have become a queen to the first king of the Sixth Dynasty.

The Sixth Dynasty, a time of conflict in Egypt’s royal family and erosion of centralized power, is considered to be the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2,613-2,494 BC), after which Egypt descended into famine and social upheaval.

Archaeologists have been working at the site for six months, Hawass added.

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