Xiplomacy: China-Africa reciprocal cooperation prospers thanks to close people-to-people bonds

PARTNERS FOR COMMON DEVELOPMENT

Judith Wanzila Peter, who is responsible for maintaining the signaling system of the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, said she would never forget the time with her "Chinese teacher" in the past four years.

Judith recalled the early days of her career when her hands could not stop shaking because she was nervous at work. "While checking the equipment, our hands have to be as skilled as a surgeon to ensure the safety of the train."

After training and practice, Judith is fully capable of handling her job and will take over the maintenance work from her Chinese colleagues. "When they go back to China, I will miss them," she said.

Since the railway was put into operation in 2017, more than 10 million trips have been made and more than 25 million tonnes of goods have been delivered, which has driven the economic and social development of the areas along the route in Kenya.

Algeria's first communication satellite Alcomsat-1, the Malawi Parliament Building, the Merowe Dam in Sudan ... and many other flagship projects jointly launched by China and their African counterparts have become landmarks in those African countries. Some projects are printed on the nations' banknotes, bearing witness to the China-Africa friendship.

Chinese companies genuinely support Africa by building infrastructure, including roads and bridges, said Alexis Gisaro Muvuni, minister of state for infrastructure and public works of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Chinese companies and investors have vigorously promoted bilateral infrastructure cooperation and made concrete contributions to local communities over the years, Muvuni said.

Thanks to cooperation mechanisms such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative, Africa's infrastructure development has undergone tremendous changes. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years. The two sides have together constructed and commissioned over 10,000 km of railway, nearly 100,000 km of highway, and an array of important infrastructure projects, including airports, docks, bridges and power plants.

China's modernization has the means to galvanize and effect modernization elsewhere in the world, especially among the developing nations, said David Monyae, director of the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

As China has embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country through a Chinese path to modernization, developing countries in Africa and beyond ought to take advantage presented by China's localized type of modernization, Monyae said.