Beginning from the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt in 1956, friendly China-African cooperation has seen steady development in the past 44 years. China and African countries have been expanding and deepening cooperation in the areas such as politics, economy, trade, culture and education and health, resulting in remarkable achievements.
Great and profound changes have taken place in the international situation since the end of the Cold War. As a result, developing countries are now facing challenges as well as opportunities. Taking into account the new international situation, China and African countries share the strong desire to further consultations and cooperation, and to jointly meet the challenges posed in the new century.
China is the biggest developing country, while Africa is the continent with the greater concentration of developing countries than any other continent. China-African friendly relations are deep-rooted, as they share similar historical experiences and are free from any historical conflicts.
Furthermore, China and African countries are both faced with the common task of development and share extensive common interests in international affairs. It is, therefore, in the interests of both China and African countries, and in conformity with the world trend towards peace and development, to establish even closer friendly cooperative relations.
In this new situation, some African countries have proposed to China that China and African countries should establish a new mechanism for collective dialogues and cooperation. The Chinese government has decided after deliberation to accept this proposal and put forward the initiative of hosting a China-Africa Cooperation Forum, so that China and African countries can exchange their views and coordinate their positions on major issues through this multilateral consultation mechanism.
The Forum has set course for the development orientation of China-Africa relations in the new century.
The founding of the forum is a requirement posed by the changes in the situation, as well as an inevitable result of the half-century-long development of China-Africa friendly cooperative relations.
In a sense, the founding of this forum is an important measure to promote South-South cooperation. Through this channel, China and African countries, a major component of developing countries, can seek common development and effectively address common challenges ahead.
In October 1999, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent letters to heads of state of all African countries that have diplomatic ties with China and Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), officially proposing convening Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000 of the FOCAC and spelling out the principles of "carrying out consultation on an equal footing, enhancing understanding, increasing consensus, promoting friendship and furthering cooperation."
Two topics for discussion were also introduced: "How to promote the building of a new international political and economic order so as to safeguard the common interests of developing countries in the 21st century" and "How to further China-Africa cooperation in trade and economy in the new situation."
The African leaders gave immediate responses to President Zemin's letters, voicing their support to the proposal and the will to send ministers to attend the proposed conference. In January 2000, then Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and then Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng jointly issued invitations to the foreign ministers and the ministers in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation affairs of the African countries that have diplomatic ties with China and soon received positive feedbacks.
Thereafter, China began to make full preparations for the conference and both sides began to hold consultations on matters related to the conference as well.
It is for the very first time in China's diplomatic history to hold such a large-scale multilateral conference between China and Africa, and there were a host of new topics concerning preparations for the conference. The FOCAC Conference Preparatory Committee was set up in November 1999, with then Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and then Minister Shi Guangsheng serving as honorary chairmen, Vice Foreign Minister Ji Peiding and Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Sun Guangxiang as chairmen. With the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation as leading departments, leading officials of the other 18 central departments closely associated with China-Africa cooperation were also included in the committee.
The Secretariat of the Conference Preparatory Committee was established under the Department of African Affairs of Foreign Ministry, with seven functional teams respectively in charge of political affairs, trade and economy, conference affairs, protocol matters, information, logistics and security. Under the leadership of the Conference Preparatory Committee, the teams, in the innovative and pragmatic spirit, managed to put forward the plans for all preparations soon after they began to operate. They also worked out details for the plans and carried the plans out, laying a solid foundation for the successful convocation of the first Ministerial Conference of FOCAC.
In the course of preparing for the first Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, preparations for and discussions about the documents by both sides were regarded as essential.
China extensively solicited the opinions of African countries shortly after completing the draft of the documents. Chinese officials and African ambassadors in Beijing held 11 rounds of consultations. In order to get more advice and suggestions, Ji Peiding and Sun Guangxiang, chairmen of the Preparation Committee for the first ministerial conference of FOCAC, visited a number of African countries to discuss the documents and the arrangement for the conference.
Frankly voicing their opinions, the two sides expanded common interests and respected and addressed each other's concerns. After important revisions of the documents were made three times, Africa’s position and points of view were fully respected and reflected. As a result, the documents eventually important ones which were of a far-reaching influence, which served as a great guideline for the development of China-Africa ties and which could greatly promote South-South cooperation.
Following one year of efforts of the two sides, the first Ministerial Conference of FOCAC was held in Beijing from Oct. 10 to 12, 2000, which turned out to be a great success and scored substantial results.
It had two characteristics: first, participants in the conference were state leaders and high-ranking officials.
Then Chinese President Jiang Zemin, then Premier Zhu Rongji and then Vice President Hu Jintao, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of the Democratic People's Republic of Algeria, President Gnasinbe Eyadema of the Republic of Togo, President Frederic Chiluba of the Republic of Zambia, President Benjamin William Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity Salim Ahmed Salim attended the opening ceremony and delivered important speeches. Also attending were 80 ministers from 44 African countries with diplomatic relations with China, representatives of 17 regional and international organizations, executives from the business communities in China and Africa. The conference was attended by more than 500 people from African countries.
Second, the conference had rich contents. In order to deepen understanding and cooperation between Chinese and African enterprises and encourage Chinese enterprises to break into the African market, the leaders from 20 provinces and about 100 representatives of more than 50 Chinese enterprises were invited by the Organizing Committee to the meeting, where they also held in-depth discussions with African officials on how to expand in trade and economic cooperation. Four theme meetings, in the form of symposiums and with different subjects, were arranged on the sidelines of the forum, while the main conference was going on, so as to promote substantial cooperation between China and Africa.
The themes of the meetings were: 1. Cooperation in education, science and technology, and health ; 2. Exchange of experience in reforms carried out in China and African countries; 3. China-Africa investment and trade; 4. Eliminating poverty and achieving sustainable agricultural development. In addition, to enable African participants to gain a better understanding of China, the Guangdong Provincial government invited foreign delegates to visit Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
