In the 12 years I have lived in Beijing, bilateral trade between Africa and China has ballooned from $10 billion in 2001 to more than $220 billion. But such statistics, the pride of government officials and business consultants, are meaningless to ordinary Africans looking for a better life.
Understanding and appreciating finer cultural nuances can help expatriates succeed in China
Chinese troops help UN maintain lives and livelihood in conflict-ridden African nations.
In their UN peacekeeping missions, Chinese military doctors and nurses need to heal people's minds as well as their bodies.
If there is one film director who knows more about Chinese peacekeepers than anyone else, it must be Shang Changyi, a military documentary director from the August First Film Studio of the People's Liberation Army.
On Dec 4, China's first batch of peacekeeping troops arrived in the capital of Mali, Bamako. The initial team included engineers and medical and security people, about 135 people in all. It was the 30th time that China had sent its peacekeepers on United Nations peacekeeping operations since 1990, but what is particularly noteworthy is that it was the first time China had sent a peacekeeping force to perform security duties.
Peacekeeping missions in Africa have a Dual role
Few foreign leaders have been written about in Chinese textbooks, but millions of Chinese high school students know Nelson Mandela as "a modern hero".
As President Jacob Zuma of South Africa was announcing to the world late on Dec 5 that Nelson Mandela had died, I had just got home from work. I became aware of the news breaking in Johnannesburg only when I made a routine check of the Internet just as I was about to go to bed. It was going to be a long and sleepless night.
Looking at the tributes and eulogies that were delivered during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Dec 10, one just cannot help being in awe of the late African leader, someone whom South African President Jacob Zuma described as "like no other".
One of the most precious photos for the first special representative of Chinese government to African affairs Liu Guijin, was of him with the former South African president Nelson Mandela that hangs prominently in his home.
Nelson Mandela visited China twice. The first was in October 1992, when he met Chinese leaders and also went to the Great Wall. Seven years later, he visited China as the president of South Africa. He was welcomed by then Chinese leaders, president Jiang Zemin and premier Zhu Rongji in Beijing, and delivered a speech at Peking University.
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