Full Text: China's second Africa policy paper (8)

6. Promoting peace and security in Africa

(1) Supporting Africa in realizing peace and security

China supports African countries' efforts in independently resolving their continent's issues in their own way. Based on the principles of respecting the wills of African countries, not interfering in African countries' internal affairs and observing the basic norms governing international relations, China will play a constructive role in maintaining and promoting peace and security in Africa. It will explore means and ways with Chinese characteristics to constructively participate in resolving hot-button issues in Africa and exert a unique impact on and make greater contributions to African peace and security. The Special Representative of the Chinese government on African Affairs will continue to play a contributing part.

China will strengthen dialogue and consultation with African countries and regional organizations on peace and security issues, pursue the principle of securing peace through development and promoting development with peace, and implement the consensus on achieving common, cooperative, comprehensive and sustainable security. It will support the efforts by African countries, the AU and sub-regional organizations to build capabilities in safeguarding peace and stability in Africa, and other relevant efforts. It will implement the Initiative on China-Africa Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Security and continue to provide, within its capabilities, support to Africa for its development of collective security mechanisms such as the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises.

China will uphold justice and safeguard the common interests of Africa and developing countries in multilateral organizations such as the UN. China attaches great importance to and supports the UN's important role in safeguarding peace and stability in Africa, and will continue to support and expand its participation in the UN's efforts in Africa aimed at maintaining and building peace.

(2) Deepening military cooperation

China will further strengthen military exchanges and cooperation with African countries. It will deepen military-related technological cooperation and carry out joint military training and exercises. China will scale up training of African military personnel according to the needs of the African side, and innovate on the training methods. It will continue to help African countries enhance their capacity building in national defense and peacekeeping to safeguard their own security and regional peace.

(3) Supporting Africa in confronting non-traditional security threats

China will strengthen cooperation with Africa in intelligence sharing and capacity building, and improve capabilities to confront non-traditional security threats together with African countries. It will support the international community's efforts to crack down on piracy, continue to send naval vessels to participate in the missions for maintaining navigation safety in the Gulf of Aden and in waters off the coast of Somalia, and assist African countries in ensuring navigation safety in the Gulf of Guinea.

China will support the efforts of African countries and regional organizations in improving counter-terrorism capabilities and fighting terrorism, and help African countries develop their economy and root out the causes of terrorism, with the aim to safeguard regional security and stability and promote long-term peace and sustainable development in Africa. It will strengthen counter-terrorism exchanges and cooperation with the AU and priority countries in the region.

7. Strengthening exchanges and cooperation in consular, immigration, judicial and police areas

China will support institutional arrangements for the facilitation of personnel exchanges with Africa and guarantee the expansion of friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation and orderly personnel exchanges between the two sides.

China will work with African countries to establish more consular organizations in each other's territory in a planned manner. It will strengthen consular consultation with African countries for both sides to have amicable discussions on urgent problems or issues of common interest in bilateral or multilateral consular relations. China stands for closer exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African immigration departments to fight illegal immigration, supporting African countries to strengthen capacity building in enforcement of immigration-related laws.

China stands ready to promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African judicial and police departments and the two sides may learn from each other in legal system development and judicial reform. It will support the efforts of Africa to strengthen capacity building in riot control, maintenance of stability and law enforcement. It stands for concrete and effective measures by both sides to protect the safety, rights and interests of personnel and organizations from the other side on their own soil.

China will work with African countries to enhance cooperation in judicial assistance and extradition and repatriation of criminal suspects. They will expand cooperation in signing judicial assistance treaties, cracking down on crimes, and pursuing fugitives and recovering criminal proceeds. They will work in concert to crack down on cross-border crimes and ensure the order of and the just and legal rights involved in trade and economic and personnel exchanges. It calls for the two sides to increase communication and cooperation in the areas of jail management, community correction, drug rehabilitation and transfer of convicted persons.

Part IV. FOCAC and Its Follow-up Actions

Since its establishment in 2000, FOCAC has become an important platform for collective dialogue between China and Africa and an effective mechanism for their pragmatic cooperation, thanks to the efforts of both sides. In the past 15 years, China and Africa have co-hosted the Beijing Summit and five ministerial conferences, drawn up a series of important programmatic documents on cooperation, and promoted the implementation of measures supporting African development and deepening the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, reaping fruitful results.

China and Africa have held dialogues through equal-footed dialogue mechanisms such as the Ministerial Conference, the political consultation between Chinese and African foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly sessions, the Senior Officials Meeting, and the consultation between the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC and the African Diplomatic Corps in China, further enhancing mutual understanding and political mutual trust. The forum has served as a platform for all-round pragmatic cooperation, pushing for leapfrog increase in China-Africa trade and mutual investment and promoting mutual benefit and common development. The forum has been a bridge for closer people-to-people exchanges and friendship between China and Africa, promoting bilateral exchanges in all areas, and consolidating and expanding the social and popular support for the friendship between China and African countries. It has helped enhance communication and collaboration between China and African countries in the international arena, facilitating them to work together in safeguarding the overall interests of the two sides and developing countries.

China is willing to work with African countries to enhance the mechanism building of the forum, expand areas and ways of cooperation, enrich mutual cooperation, promote the establishment and improvement of sub-forum mechanisms in the fields of industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, human resources development, industrial capacity cooperation, finance, science and technology, education, culture, health, poverty reduction, law, locals, youth, women, people-to-people exchanges, think tanks and media, and deepen cooperation in relevant areas. All these are aimed at enabling China-Africa cooperation to be more pragmatic and effective and achieve more tangible results under the framework of the forum, thereby bringing greater benefits to the Chinese and African people.

Part V. China's Relations with African Regional Organizations

China values and supports the AU's leadership in building a united and strong Africa and promoting African integration, its centrality in safeguarding peace and security in Africa, as well as a bigger role for the organization in regional and international affairs. It appreciates and supports the AU's adoption and implementation of Agenda 2063 and its first 10-year plan. The creation of the Mission of the People's Republic of China to the AU in 2014 has taken China-AU relations to a new stage. China is ready to increase high-level exchanges with the AU, give full play to the China-AU strategic dialogue mechanism, and enhance political dialogue and mutual trust. It will promote cooperation with the AU in areas such as development planning, experience sharing in poverty reduction, health, peace and security, and international affairs.

China appreciates the positive role of African sub-regional organizations in promoting peace, stability and development in their respective regions. It stands ready to strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation with these organizations, and support their capacity-building efforts.

China is eager to establish and improve various dialogue and cooperation mechanisms with the AU and sub-regional organizations in Africa, thereby enhancing China-Africa cooperation at both regional and sub-regional levels in a wide array of fields including political affairs, the economy, trade and culture. Endi