The exchange of congratulatory messages between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday, marking the 70th anniversary of Sino-Egyptian relations, also highlighted a larger milestone: seven decades of relations between China and Africa.
Xi Jinping stressed that over the past 70 years, China-Egypt relations have been a model of friendship, solidarity and cooperation among developing countries, but also a benchmark for cooperation between China and Arab states as well as between China and Africa.
Today, Sino-African relations have evolved from a friendship forged in common struggle to a dynamic partnership dedicated to the development, modernization and rise of the countries of the South.
From solidarity to strategic partnership
The foundations of Sino-African friendship were laid during a period of profound political upheaval.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, China firmly supported African countries in their struggles for national independence and liberation. In return, African nations played a key role in restoring the rightful seat of the People’s Republic of China at the United Nations in 1971. Of the 76 votes in favor of the resolution, 26 came from African countries, which then cast the foundations of particularly solid mutual trust between China and Africa.
Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Africa. In doing so, he continued a 36-year-old tradition of making the continent the first annual foreign destination for China’s foreign minister, a choice that reflects the importance placed on China-Africa relations.
Over the past two decades, China-Africa cooperation has seen rapid development. In 2000, the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) provided an institutional framework for cooperation, while China’s Africa policy, based on sincerity, concrete results, friendship and good faith, continued to guide bilateral relations. In 2015, the two sides upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership by launching the “Ten Cooperation Plans”, an event that laid the foundation for rapid modernization of the African continent.
Then, during the 2024 FOCAC summit, China and Africa further strengthened their relations in order to establish them as a true community of destiny for the future. China has also expanded, in 2025, its tariff-free access regime, which previously concerned 33 African countries, to all 53 African countries having diplomatic relations with Beijing. It thus became the first major economic power to offer unilateral, duty-free access to all categories of products to all African countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations.
Humphrey Moshi, a renowned Tanzanian economist, called China-Africa cooperation a significant example of solidarity from the Global South. He said this solidarity helped transform developing countries from “passive participants” into “active actors in the development of international rules.”
Pursue modernization through concrete cooperation
If political trust constitutes the foundation of Sino-African relations, economic cooperation has become both a pillar of stability and an engine of growth of this partnership.
According to data published by the GACC (General Administration of China Customs), trade between China and Africa reached a record level of 348 billion dollars in 2025, an increase of 17.7% compared to the previous year. China thus retained its position as Africa’s main trading partner for the seventeenth consecutive year. This dynamic continued in 2026. In the first quarter alone, China’s trade with African countries totaled 646.56 billion yuan (or $92.2 billion), up 23.7% year-on-year.
At the same time, the Belt and Road initiative has profoundly transformed the connectivity of the African continent by modernizing the rail network through flagship projects such as the Tazara line and the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge line. These projects set a benchmark for high-quality cooperation between China and Africa under this initiative.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China had signed debt relief agreements or concluded agreements to this effect with 19 African countries in 2023, making it the main contributor to the debt service suspension efforts within the framework of the G20.
At the same time, China has trained tens of thousands of African professionals through scholarships, professional training and educational exchange programs. As of June 2025, China had established 17 Luban workshops in 15 African countries, while the China-Africa University Cooperation Plan, a higher education initiative that pairs Chinese universities with African institutions, had already forged links between 114 educational institutions superior.
Paul Frimpong, executive director and senior fellow of the Africa-China Center for Policy & Advisory, a think tank and advisory center specializing in China-Africa relations, said China’s contribution to Africa’s development is producing increasingly tangible results.
“China’s sharing of its knowledge, skills and experience in sectors such as manufacturing and green energy has a profound impact on Africa’s transition to modernization and self-reliance,” he added.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-05-30/China-Africa-ties-at-70-Path-to-a-shared-dream-of-modernization-1NzbT7rDWhy/p.html
