China Voice: Let Africans decide their own destiny

With the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Friday in Johannesburg, the template for South-South cooperation is transformed from mere investment and trade cooperation to experience sharing and capability building.

New measures to help Africa announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping covered infrastructure, industrialization, food security and public health.

Accusations that China is pushing for "neocolonialism" in Africa are misunderstandings of the country's contribution to the continent and do not hold water.

China has always supported solving African issues in an African way, and assistance comes without any political strings attached.

Africans, like people everywhere, should decide their destiny by themselves. During his ongoing Africa visit, Xi pledged China's adherence to the principle of noninterference in internal affairs of the African countries amid strengthening economic ties.

The assistance and cooperation will absolutely not deprive Africa of real economic independence like Western colonialists did in the past. Instead, the two sides are working towards capacity cooperation, in which China's high-quality capacity, created at a key moment of economic transformation, is poised to be transferred, while a majority of African countries seek to upgrade their basically agrarian and manufacturing industries.

In such an atmosphere, China-Africa cooperation will help the continent improve its industrial structure. By offering concrete technology, China is ready to provide assistance to Africa in addressing its problems.

Personnel training and education is at the core of the cooperation. Over the past 15 years, China has trained more than 81,000 Africans in various fields. Each year, China provides 7,000 government scholarships for African students in China and has helped build more than 200 schools on the continent.

As Xi announced support for the coming three years, the cooperation will help Africa produce internal momentum for its own development.

Based on experience sharing and capability building, China-Africa cooperation will dispel concerns that China's slower growth will affect the cooperation in the long run.

China-Africa cooperation is a reflection of the concept of "sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith," which Xi espoused during his maiden trip to Africa in 2013. Endit