Zhou Enlai set the tone for bilateral ties

Since the 1960s, china has stood with africa on the most crucial matters

At the start of last year, China-Africa relations were on a high, particularly given that both Gambia and Sao Tome had severed links with Taipei in late 2013 and recognized Beijing. China now in effect has diplomatic relations with 54 out of 55 countries in Africa, and a brick and mortar presence in all of these countries.

The high point for China-Africa last year was the weeklong visit by Premier Li Keqiang on a trip in which he touched base in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya from May 4 to 11. Li's visit to the continent - the first of foreign trips in which he was accompanied by his wife Cheng Hong - was significant diplomatically on many fronts. In doing so, Li was following in the footsteps of President Xi Jinping, who had favored Africa as one of his first destinations of choice shortly after rising to the top of the Chinese leadership in early 2013.

Li's visit last year echoed many visits by Chinese leaders over the years. An example of such visits is that of the founding People's Republic of China Premier Zhou Enlai between Dec 13, 1963, and Feb 5, 1964, to Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.

From an economic viewpoint, Li's visit was an affirmation of China's commitment to the Africa rising narrative, one in which China has been lionized for contributing unprecedented capital infusion. On this crucial economic front, Li did not disappoint as the thread of his message was the continent's need for pan-African infrastructure to spur the missing link that is intra-continental trade.

In what has come to be labeled economic diplomacy, which African leaders often call the "Look East policy", Li made the momentous proposal for the construction of cross-continental road and railway infrastructure. This is a proposal that watchers of China-Africa relations will be observing closely in the coming months as evidence that Chinese diplomacy toward Africa is not mere rhetoric.

On the reverse side, one almost loses count of the number of African leaders who made official visits to China. After the visits of Denis Nguesso (Republic of Congo), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania) and Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) among others earlier in the year, the icing on the cake was the visits by Jacob Zuma (South Africa) and Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi (Egypt) late in the year.

The important point to note is not so much the number of presidential visits as the agreements signed. Because of the mutual benefits that African leaders secure from China, many beat a path to Beijing during the year. Even when the United States fashioned its US-Africa Summit in August it was quickly interpreted as a US return to the continent in the wake of China's ascendancy.

Probably in recognition of the fact that economic diplomacy cannot proceed without peace and tranquility, China expended a lot of energy in the peace and security dimension of its diplomacy toward Africa. Both Foreign Minister Wang Yi and China's special envoy to Africa Zhong Jianhua have been frequent visitors to the continent, particularly in pursuit of a peaceful resettlement of the South Sudan civil war. One of the momentous developments on this front was the deployment of a contingent of 700 troops to South Sudan to bolster the overstretched UN peacekeeping mission there. This was a first for China because to that point it had deployed non-infantry troops, and because it now boasts the highest number of UN boots-on-the-ground peacekeepers on the continent.

The peace and security dimension of China's diplomacy somewhat mirrors China's medical diplomacy to Africa. Intensifying its early lead in sending medical teams to Africa since the early 1960s, China spared no effort in making life-saving human, financial and technological contributions to the fight against Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

On a wider front, Africa and China stood together on crucial matters, particularly with regards to calls for the reformation of the UN system, seen as tilted in favor of the Western world and in disfavor of the global south.

This year promises to be an equally important year on the China-Africa diplomatic calendar. Key among the factors that augur well for even better relations is the fact that the sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation triennial conference will be held in South Africa. The forum is not a mere talking shop but a major diplomatic event during which action plans pledged at the previous event are reported on and new projects unveiled.

The author is a PhD candidate at Communication University of China and research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/09/2015 page8)