Echoes of Bandung in China-Africa relations

THE Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Followup Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Changsha, central China's Hunan province.

- GIDEON H CHITANGA

The Changsha meeting, held last month, invoked the spirit of Bandung, calling on the Global South to unite in confronting contemporary global instability embedded in historical structural injustices that have exploited disunity within the Global South.

China is the world's second-largest economy, while the African continent is home to the largest number of developing countries. With an estimated combined population of over three billion people, Africa and China together form the backbone of the Global South, and a significant demographic and economic share of the world.

While the two sides have immensely strengthened diplomatic and economic ties over the past two decades, and share decades of closer mutual solidarity, complex and turbulent geopolitical factors pose major threats to flourishing cooperation.

The Changsha meeting, which aimed to push for the full implementation of the FOCAC Beijing Summit outcomes, reemphasised the need for countries in the Global South to work together. The meeting was attended by representatives of the People's Republic of China, 53 African countries and representatives of the African Union Commission. The delegates at the high-level gathering concluded with the signing of the Changsha Declaration, which in many ways invokes the spirit of the Bandung conference of 1955 in calling for deepened cooperation and solidarity in the Global South.