South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and China’s President Xi Jinping during a ceremony for the delegation of South African Cabinet ministers on a state visit to China ahead of the 2024 FOCAC summit. African scholars’ interaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to FOCAC 2024 underscores the important role of academics in China-Africa relations. – Picture: GCIS / September 2, 2024
By David Monyae
Gert Grobler, a senior research fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University and former senior diplomat in the South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation, together with 63 scholars from 50 African countries, sent a joint letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping in early August 2024.
Their letter expressed appreciation of the historic achievements of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) and hopeful anticipation of the ninth Summit to write a new chapter for China-Africa relations.
It is unlikely that they expected a reply and must have been amazed when President Xi wrote back weeks later acknowledging the contribution of African scholars towards building a community with a shared future and modernisation of Africa and the global South.
President Xi expressed appreciation of the scholars’ commitment towards Africa-China studies and endeavours to inform educate and shape the relationship in productive ways. According to Xi, “Research and teachings about China’s history, culture and development trajectory as well as further studies on the development paths of China-Africa, the Global South and South-South co-operation continue to offer important intellectual support for building a high-quality China-Africa community with a shared future and upholding the common interests of the Global South.”
He expressed confidence that further deepening of reforms and commitment to peace and development will bolster world peace and international justice and catalyse modernisation and revitalisation of the Global South. In this regard, African scholars should interrogate and contribute towards an inclusive participation of African stakeholders and provide the right context for Africa-China development co-operation.
Following the example of leaders from both countries engaging in high-level visits and discussions under FOCAC that has led to cordial state-to-state relations, African scholars can similarly inform and make recommendations to inform policy and promote people-to-people relations.
Several platforms exist for scholars to engage and participate in the promotion and enhancement of China-Africa relations. Most importantly, President Xi’s reply demonstrates the willingness to engage and consider African perspectives from all stakeholders. In his closing remarks, he called for “greater solidarity and co-operation than ever before”, hoping that African scholars will build on the China-Africa Dar es Salaam Consensus and produce more insights.
The China-Africa “Dar es Salaam Consensus” is a product of an existing platform, the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum (CATTF) that held its 13th meeting in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and brought together over 100 experts from more than 40 countries with expertise on China-Africa relations.
In partnership with Zhejiang Normal University’s Institute of African Studies, the forum deliberated and produced a strategic policy document titled ”Consensus among African and Chinese Think Tanks on Deepening Global Development Co-operation”.
The experts drawn from academia, the diplomatic community, journalists, technocrats, and other experts took stock of prevailing international power dynamics and collectively acknowledged an emerging multipolar world and “new globalisation” driven by the Global South.
They agreed on the need for greater wisdom, increased interdependence between countries and a broader consensus on knowledge and ideological harmony. “This consensus is from us, the Global South, reflecting our ideas and our commitment to deliver a better future through our co-operation.”
Three key themes emerged from the consensus: the need to prioritise Technological co-operation, looking beyond Agriculture and the need for more financing. According to Professor Justin Yifu Lin, Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, raising productivity through technology is the key to improving the well-being of Africans.
”It is a must to have new technology in all the sectors of our production chain and economic system now. Also, industrialisation in the countries is needed. We need to use better modern technology to raise the level of productivity and push back poverty,” he said.
To implement the consensus, it was argued that to become high-income countries, “relying on agriculture alone is insufficient”. We need to diversify from agriculture towards manufacturing sectors, and then gradually move towards high value-added services. This requires a peaceful global environment, the right ideas for improvement and working together as important foundations for common development.
Lastly, it was argued that developing countries in the Global South are lagging in many indicators and need to concerted efforts to realise of SDG and other important global development initiatives. However, to make those efforts possible according to Prof. Lin, “we need to have more financial support for the multilateral development institutions”.
“The Consensus suggests promoting reform of the international financial system, for instance, the multilateral development banks should be given more resources to increase their capital so they can give more support to the developing countries.”
The “Dar es Salaam Consensus” is just one of the many platforms available for African scholars to contribute to China-Africa relations. They remain important stakeholders to drive informed opinions on the state of the relationship and a source of innovative ways to collaborate and promote better results.
As Chinese and African leaders converge in Beijing for the ninth FOCAC Summit, it is vital that scholars make their contributions through in-depth research and knowledge sharing as well as public engagement and strategic implementation of FOCAC development agenda. The experience of the African scholars’ interaction with Xi Jinping should inspire others to engage proactively in the friendly and open dialogue mechanism where their voices will be heard and the interests of the African Continent considered.
It is without a doubt that the “Dar es Salaam consensus” has found its way into the policy making and it will be nice to see the scholars recommendations in the outcome document of the “Beijing FOCAC summit 2024”.
* David Monyae is the Director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg
** The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African