China has announced $60bn (£40bn) of assistance and loans for Africa to help with the development of the continent. “Originally, we were comrades in arms in the quest for liberation and freedom, at the height of colonialism and apartheid”, he said.
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“China is still very active in Africa”, Deborah Brautigan, of the US-based China Africa Research Institute, told AFP.
China is willing to encourage more Chinese companies to actively participate in the process of industrialization and modernization of the remote continent, he added. “Some countries raised this at bilateral meetings”.
Sticking to that Chinese tradition of non-interference in local politics, Xi said: “China strongly believes Africa belongs to the African people and African problems should be handled by the African people”.
Analysts say that resource-rich Africa has become yet another battleground for influence between Washington and Beijing, following the establishment of the U.S. Africa Command.
Ismail praised as historical relations between Egypt and China, stressing the importance of boosting joint cooperation.
The two documents made clear the future development goals and missions for the two sides’ relations, and proposed major measures for win-win cooperation and hand-in-hand development.
An attack last month by Islamist militants in Mali killed 19 people, including three Chinese citizens.
China will work together with Mali and the global community to safeguard world peace, he stressed.
He also vowed greater cooperation with African countries in the fight against violent extremism and said its troops would take part in United Nations peacekeeping forces on the continent.
Recently China has come under a lot of criticism for bringing their own workers on the continent to work for Chinese state-owned firms instead of hiring Africans.
“Here is a man (Xi) representing a country once called poor”.
China’s support has opened a new era lifting it from a “new-type strategic partnership” to “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”.
The Chinese president also reaffirmed the importance of the five major pillars he highlighted a day earlier that China and African countries should focus on.
The Johannesburg meeting is the second summit of the 15-year-old FOCAC, which groups China, 50 African countries that have established diplomatic ties with China and the Commission of the African Union.
“It includes $5 billion zero interest loans, $35 billion on preferential facilities and export credit lines, concessional loans on more favourable terms; an increase of $5 billion to the China-Africa development fund and a special loan for the development of SMEs”, Xi said.
The Government of China also pledged to construct the new Parliament in Mt Hampden among other several deals signed between the two countries.
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He added that the message Mr Xi was sending was that the slowdown in China was not going to “derail their long-term commitment to Africa”.
