China-Africa Cooperation Within the Framework of the United Nations

Zhang Yunfei

       The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held on November 4 and 5, 2006, has drawn world-wide attention. The Summit has laid a more solid foundation for the new-type China-Africa strategic partnership.
       Since China inaugurated diplomatic ties with Egypt in 1956, it has established such ties with 48 African countries. Over the past half a century, China and Africa, though far apart geographically, have enjoyed close political relations and frequent exchange of high-level visits and people-to-people contacts.  China has provided assistance to the best of its ability to African countries, while African countries have also rendered valuable support to China.  China-Africa cooperation not only exists at bilateral level.  Their collaboration within the framework of the United Nations is also a model for South-South cooperation.
       “It is our African brothers who carried us into the United Nations.”
       After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it made great efforts to restore its seat in the United Nations.  However, due to the willful obstruction of some Western countries, the People’s Republic of China could not resume its legitimate status in the United Nations until October 1971.
       From the 1960s onwards, nations friendly to the People’s Republic of China, led by Albania, Algeria and other countries, tabled annual motions in the General Assembly, calling for transfer of China’s seat at the UN to the People’s Republic of China.  Every year the motion was blocked by the United States and some other Western countries by a majority vote.  However, as more and more newly independent developing nations joined the United Nations in the 1960s, the landscape of the UN General Assembly was gradually changed and the newly independent countries that were sympathetic to Beijing became the majority in the General Assembly.  As a result, on 25 October 1971, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.  Among the 76 votes in favor, 26 were from African countries, accounting for more than one third of the total.  When the final result was displayed on the screen of the General Assembly Hall, the audience burst into thunderous cheers and lasting applause. The permanent representatives to the United Nations from 17 African countries stood up, hailing the victory.  The permanent representative of Tanzania even began to dance in the hall.  It was the most moving scene ever seen in the United Nations since its inception in 1945. 
The resumption of China’s legitimate status in the United Nations was largely thanks to the support of developing countries, especially many African countries.  Therefore, Chinese leader Mao Zedong had a famous assertion on China’s relations with Africa – “It is our African brothers who carried us into the United Nations.” 
       China knew little about the United Nations at that time. From 1949 to 1971, it was kept out of the organization, which it once viewed as a club of capitalist countries.  During the first few years since 1971, it was again the African friends who generously shared their experience and helped their Chinese colleagues get familiar with the issues of the United Nations. 
       In the past 35 years, China and Africa have supported each other in the United Nations.  The former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed China-Africa cooperation.  He once said, “China and Africa have always spoken with one voice. Their cooperation in the United Nations has set a good example for South-South cooperation.”  In his message to the Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, he said, “The United Nations will support your renewed commitment to South-South cooperation, and will spare no effort to back any initiative that may contribute decisively to the reduction of poverty.  China and African nations are firm friends in the United Nations and other multilateral fora.  China, through its support to infrastructure development, health, education, agriculture, commercial exchanges and many other areas throughout Africa, has remained true to its commitment to South-South cooperation and can help Africa take real steps toward meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.”
       I would like to highlight the following points as examples of China-Africa cooperation within the frame of the United Nations:
       1. Decolonization
        Decolonization was one of the major achievements of the United Nations.  The People’s Republic of China was founded at a time when most of today’s developing countries were still under the yoke of colonialism.  China was a staunch supporter of the decolonization movement in and outside the United Nations and it made its own contribution to the termination of colonialism by supporting UN resolutions and training and providing selfless material assistance to those who fought for liberation and freedom. The mutual sympathy and support at times of difficulty laid a solid foundation for the sincere and decade-long friendship and cooperation between China and Africa.
       2. Peace
       Both China and African countries are peace-loving nations.  At the request of the United Nations, China dispatched a peacekeeping force to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April 2003.  It was the first time for China to take part in UN peacekeeping operations in Africa.  Since then, China has taken part in 12 UN peacekeeping missions in Africa and played an active role in safeguarding peace and stability in that part of the world.  Over 3,000 Chinese military personnel have been involved in UN peacekeeping operations in hot-spot areas in Africa and some even lost their lives there.
       The Chinese peacekeeping personnel have worked arduously to perform their duties regardless of their working conditions.  For instance, in April 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with harsh natural conditions and turbulent domestic situation, the Chinese peacekeeping troops built their barracks on a hillside surrounded by weeds, stones and garbage.  The chief staff of the UN special mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo was surprised when he saw the Chinese barracks. Two months ago he had asked another country’s troops to reinforce the hillside but was refused on the ground that it was too difficult to camp there.  In May 2006, China sent a peacekeeping force to Sudan, an extremely hot place known as the “world’s stove”, to carry out the task of building a 3-kilometer road within a week.  Despite the scotching temperature of over 50 degrees Celsius, the Chinese soldiers completed the road within three days and received praise from the UN official who said “Chinese engineers, good!” when he inspected the project. In Liberia, where mosquitoes, snakes, malaria, and flu are rampant, the Chinese peacekeeping personnel had to use a pole to tap the ground to drive away snakes in grass on their way to carrying out tasks.
       The Under-Secretary-General of the UN in charge of peacekeeping operations once said, “China has sent military observers and civil police officers to UN missions to engage in engineering, transportation and health care.  China has made great contributions to the UN peacekeeping operations. The strong sense of discipline, high quality and remarkable dedication of Chinese military officers and soldiers in the UN peacekeeping missions have left a deep impression on the international community and the local governments and people”. 
       China also sees great value in its cooperation with the African Union (AU) in peacekeeping operations.  It contributed US$300,000 to AU every year since 2000, and provided a special fund of US$400,000 in 2005 and 2006 for AU peacekeeping missions in Darfur.
       3. Development
        Peace, development and human rights are three pillars of the United Nations. As developing countries, both China and Africa have attached great importance to development and have enjoyed fruitful cooperation in the economic and social fields.
       China has helped many African countries build numerous infrastructures, which are essential vehicles for development.  It has completed some 900 projects of economic and social development in Africa, including the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA), and provided scholarships for 18,000 students from 50 African countries.
       In 1963, at the request of Algeria, China sent its first medical team to Africa.  Since then it has sent 16,000 medical personnel to 47 African countries and they have treated 240 million patients.  In recent years, the cooperation between China and Africa in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, Ebola, avian influenza and other communicable diseases has been intensified.  China has pledged to help African countries build new hospitals and establish a quarantine and public health emergency response mechanism.
       At the UN World Summit held in September 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that China would increase its assistance to developing countries, African countries in particular, by giving zero-tariff treatment to certain products, writing off or forgiving all the interest-free and low-interest governmental loans owed by Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) that were due at the end of 2004. 
       To forge a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership and strengthen cooperation in more areas and at a higher level, Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward an eight-point proposal at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in November 2006, pledging that the Chinese Government will take the following eight steps to assist our African brothers:
       1. Double its 2006 assistance to Africa by 2009.
       2. Provide US$3 billion of preferential loans and US$2 billion of preferential buyer's credits to Africa in the next three years.
       3. Set up a China-Africa development fund, which will reach US$5 billion, to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and provide support to them.
       4. Build a conference centre for the African Union to support African countries in their efforts to strengthen themselves through unity and support the process of African integration.
       5. Cancel debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China.
       6. Further open up China's market to Africa by increasing from 190 to over 440 the number of export items to China receiving zero-tariff treatment from the least developed countries in Africa having diplomatic ties with China.
       7. Establish three to five trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa in the next three years.
       8. Over the next three years, train 15,000 African professionals; send 100 senior agricultural experts to Africa; set up 10 special agricultural technology demonstration centres in Africa; build 30 hospitals in Africa and provide RMB 300 million of grant for building 30 malaria prevention and treatment centres to fight malaria in Africa; dispatch 300 youth volunteers to Africa; build 100 rural schools in Africa; and increase the number of Chinese government scholarships to African students from the current 2000 per year to 4000 per year by 2009.
       All these measures are geared to help African countries achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.  I am confident that China will make more contribution in this regard as it develops itself.  It is also our hope that this initiative will encourage other countries, particularly the developed countries to enhance their assistance to Africa, which remains the poorest continent in the world.  Without substantial progress in the 53 countries in Africa, the world will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
       4. Human rights
       China and Africa have all long sympathized with and supported each other in their fight for sovereignty and national dignity.  They have held similar views on human rights issues and have always coordinated their positions.  Sharing similar historical experience, they enjoy mutual understanding and support.  They are opposed to interference in other countries’ internal affairs and advocate dialogue and cooperation among cultures and civilizations.  China has provided sincere support to African countries in ending apartheid and fighting racism while African countries have given China strong support in foiling anti-China motions introduced by some Western countries at the UN Human Rights Commission.
       5. UN reform
       China and Africa share similar positions on many issues related to the UN reform.  Many African countries are members of Group 77.  China and African countries have always coordinated their positions on the UN reform through the mechanism of Group 77 and China.  They emphasize the importance of development, holding that development bears on the well-being of billions of people in developing countries and concerns global stability, and therefore should be given top priority.  They urge the United Nations to reinforce international cooperation and provide more powerful support and assistance to developing countries. Both China and Africa supported the establishment of the Peace-building Commission and Human Rights Council.  With regards to the reform of the UN Security Council, China has always emphasized the need to expand the representation of the developing countries, especially those in Africa.
       China and Africa share similar views and concerns on a broad range of important international and regional issues, such as promoting multilateralism, establishing a new international political and economic order that is fair and just to developing countries.  As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has always attached great importance to all issues involving African interests that have been taken up by the Security Council, taking into full consideration the views and positions of African countries, and consistently supporting the African continent in playing a more important role in international affairs. 
       Despite the profound changes both in the international environment and in China and Africa in the past half a century, China-Africa friendship has stood the test of times, gained in strength and is thriving with vigor and vitality.  The fundamental reason behind this is that the two sides have always treated each other with sincerity and as equals, pursued mutual benefit, solidarity and common development and have never attached strings to any support and cooperation.  This is the valuable asset of China-Africa friendly relations and cooperation in the past fifty years, and it will continue to drive the strong and long-term growth of China-Africa relations and cooperation.