• Business 7

China’s modernisation remedy for Africa

• 3 Days Ago - 2025-06-04 00:00:00

The friendship and partnership between China and Africa provide a conceptual framework for modernisation in the Global South community. Representatives from African countries convened in Kunming, China, from 20 to 24 May 2025 for the 14th Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tank Forum to deepen collaboration and reinforce the sharing and mutual learning of academic, disciplinary and discursive networks.

Namibia was one of the participating nations.

The meeting brings together prominent experts and professors from Chinese and African universities. Approximately 100 representatives from China and more than 50 African countries attended the forum to discuss how China’s modernisation experience, which includes poverty alleviation, grassroots governance and adaptive policy experimentation, can inspire Africa’s development paths.

At a time when traditional development policies are being called into question, the philosophy of modernisation is being redefined across the Global South.

As African countries position themselves to exert more power in partnerships, African nations should realign their strategic ties with China to achieve African interests.

Modernisation is a multifaceted development process that tackles all aspects of the macroeconomic variables. China’s targeted poverty alleviation, which has lifted more than 800 million people out of abject poverty, is an important governance model for research. It is about striking a balance between concrete progress and cultural confidence, social equality, and environmental protection. It is about improving people’s lives, not just statistics.

China’s remarkable transformation over the decades has taught African countries important lessons, emphasising that modernisation is about more than just rapid economic growth; it is also about creating social fairness, institutional change, and good governance. Modernization is a multidimensional process that is unique to each country’s historical, cultural, and economic circumstances. Forging ahead

The China-Africa Think Tanks Forum brings together Chinese and African intellectuals to build on previous initiatives and cultivate friendship and collaboration.

In 2024, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit proposed that China and Africa collaborate to create modernisation. Modernisation is a common aim for Chinese and African citizens, as well as a fundamental right for developing countries like China and Africa.

In a world full of change and volatility, countries in the global South continue to face ongoing obstacles in achieving modernisation and determining what form of modernisation to pursue.

Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed that China and Africa work together to advance modernisation in six areas during his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Beijing Summit, drawing a blueprint for building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era and providing important answers to the call to advance human modernisation.

In light of this, representatives from the 14th China-Africa Think Tank Forum reached an agreement to deepen exchanges of governance experience between China and Africa, as well as to promote the alignment of Chinese modernisation with Africa’s independent development, thereby providing new impetus to the Global South’s modernisation.

Rebalancing

Furthermore, Africa needs a friend to help rebalance its current position to meet Agenda 2063, a continental strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal of inclusive and sustainable development while also transforming Africa into a future global powerhouse.

Despite its abundant human and natural resources, Africa and its people continue to face developmental and global challenges such as economic, social, cultural, and environmental catastrophes. Civil wars and other kinds of violent conflict afflict the continent, posing serious dangers to peace, security and climate change.

To create an enabling environment for achieving the economic and political gains sought by integration imperatives, a stable and predictable security environment is essential.

Governance deficiencies, in my opinion, jeopardise peace and security. The majority of violent hotspots in Africa are the result of bad politics, which include exclusion, discrimination, poor diversity management, corruption, poor natural resource management, a culture of impunity, extreme poverty and inequality, youth unemployment, land conflicts, and poor post-conflict transitional justice and reconciliation.

Transition

Moreover, Africa’s transition from its current setting should embrace China’s modernisation. China and Africa must now pursue inclusive, diverse modernisation through which they aspire to deepen cultural interactions and develop mutual respect among cultures.

As Africa prepares for future development, I believe that the path to modernisation must be just and equitable, tailored to individual national settings, and based on shared learning and mutual respect.

China and Africa collaborate to achieve modernisation that is suited to their respective developmental goals and national aspirations.

The China-Africa Institute (CAI) is instrumental in promoting cultural contact between China and Africa. It is critical that China and Africa continue to protect the global south’s shared interests, deepen their capacity-building collaboration, and uphold multilateralism, justice and fairness globally.

Africa and China are currently experiencing a new period of development. China is embracing a new paradigm of development where the domestic economy serves as the cornerstone and international participation reinforces it.

AfCFTA’s role

With the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa’s economic integration is advancing, creating new opportunities for China-Africa engagement. The two continents will work together to improve quality development and align the goals of FOCAC, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative with the AU’s Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and individual African countries’ development strategies.

Therefore, it is imperative to remember that China’s contribution to global modernisation is exemplified by initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, all of which are global public goods that reduce physical distances while encouraging shared interests and prosperity.

In conclusion, Africa’s path to modernisation should be based on peace, prosperity, openness, industrialisation, sustainable development, creative thinking, and interpersonal and cultural interactions, resulting in a China-Africa community of shared future in the new era.

Therefore, as China and Africa modernise in many sectors, the benefits of their complementarity become more obvious, and their mutually beneficial collaboration is defined by higher quality, more impact, and brighter prospects.