Chinese and African scholars will soon find it easier to research issues related to each other after the Chinese Government stepped in to offer support via a new interactive initiative.

On March 30, a China-Africa joint research and exchange program was launched in Beijing to encourage academicians to share development experiences and academic achievements. That means scholars and think-tanks in both China and Africa can be sponsored in activities such as exchange visits, seminars and publishing research achievements.

"The main purpose of the program is to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges," said Lu Shaye, Secretary General of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), at the program launching ceremony. Lu is also director general of the Department of African Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

He added that the program will also enable scholars and think-tanks from both sides to increase exchanges and cooperation, share development experience, and provide intellectual support for improving cooperation policies.

Good model

The program was launched under the framework of FOCAC. In November 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced eight new measures of boosting Sino-African cooperation in the coming three years on behalf of the Chinese Government. At that time he proposed to initiate the China-Africa joint research and exchange program.

"We recognize as Africans the fact that China has come first in engaging the pan-African research and policy think-tank community, and this will serve as a good model," said Eddy Maloka, Special Advisor to the Minister of DIRCO (Department of International Relations and Cooperation) of South Africa at the ceremony.

Angola's Ambassador to China Joao Manuel Bernardo agreed with Moloka, and he told ChinAfrica that there's a need for Africa to be better known by the Chinese people and vice versa. "I think this program can help both peoples to understand each other better," he said.

According to a research of Li Xinfeng, a researcher at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the number of Western experts and scholars studying China, Africa and Sino-African relations are much higher than the total number of their Chinese and African counterparts. "That's why we need to strengthen our joint researches," he said.

Scholar's thoughts

At the launching ceremony, ChinAfrica collected the views from Chinese and African scholars and officials on the exchange program. Excerpts follow:

Christophe Kougnia Zonde

General Secretary of African Association for Strategic Studies of Benin

This program is a wonderful step toward taking on board intellectuals and academies from Africa and China to think over what can be achieved together in order to improve the partnership and relationship between China and Africa. In itself, it is a very good initiative. But what we make of it depends on the people and members of the joint committee of the program to give their sincere input to bring it to fruition, so that it becomes a dynamic tool in promoting the best interests of Africa along the best interests of China.

As far as Benin is concerned, the benefit is already there. Thanks to the program, I am visiting China for the first time. So, that means that it is a window of opportunity for academics from Benin, and Beninese will learn more about Chinese culture, politics and strategic interests around the world. Meanwhile, Chinese people can also learn more about Benin's politics, culture and dynamics so that each side enhances understanding of the other.

It is a program that can benefit Africa, and also Africans living outside of Africa. In the future, there will be more exchange visits of scholars from China and African countries.

Li Xinfeng

Researcher of Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Compared with economic and trade relations between China and Africa, the bilateral research and exchange in cultural and academic sectors lags behind. Owing to the geographical distance, historically blocked information exchanges and other internal and external factors, Chinese and African peoples do not understand each other very much. As far as I know, most Chinese people's understanding of Africa is several decades behind, and many African people also have little insights about China.

Currently, both China and African countries have some experts and scholars studying Sino-African relations. But these experts and scholars are separated from each other and fail to make joint efforts. This is the main reason for the small number of research achievements in this field.

Lacking exchange mechanisms, Chinese and African scholars do not have many opportunities to visit each other to carry out investigations and research. I can give you an example. For a long period of time, nearly all the Chinese scholars studied African issues with second or even third hand material. They could not go to Africa, which is constantly changing, and failed to gain meaningful insights while studying the continent.

I was once told by a South African tourist that he prepared for 30 years before coming to China, trying to understanding everything about China through reading books. However, when he was here, he found that his knowledge of China was very limited. This is the view of the average African tourist, which, I believe also represent many scholars. So, it is really necessary for us to integrate our current research strength for joint research.

Against this background, I think the China-Africa joint research and exchange program will provide a new exchange platform for scholars and think-tanks in China and Africa, as well as solid financial support for their joint researches.

Adam Gaya

Founder of Africa China Consulting Group, Senegal

In my opinion, it is a very good initiative taken by the Chinese Government. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced the program. It is very important as part of the improvement of the China-Africa relations to engage people-to-people, academy-to-academy and other social sectors to be part of this joint effort of building rather powerful China-Africa relations.

One has to remember that in the 1950s when China and Africa met for the first time after the founding of the new China [in 1949], it was through people-to-people meetings during the conference of Bandung in 1955 that the new Chinese leadership met the African leaders who struggled for independence. So I think it is good that we are coming back to this to improve the already strong relationship between the two sides. More important is the trade relations, as trade has exceeded $100 billion at the moment, making China Africa's third largest trading partner.

Under the program, the scholars should play the role of increasing the knowledge between the two partners because Africans need to know more about the culture of China, know more about how China does business, how to extend its guanxi (relations), traditions and how to avoid its partners to lose face. Meanwhile, there are an increasing number of Chinese people working in Africa and they need to be educated about Africa. We have had some experiences that are different from the ones that China has gone through. Through solid research [of scholars of China and Africa], it is very possible to device better policies and more informal policies so as to develop solid relations. Through research you can clear the way for a better understanding between China and Africa. Even though we have good relations, we still need to improve on them.

Zhai Jun

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China

In recent years, the traditional friendship between China and Africa has been deepening, especially after FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2006, when the new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges was agreed on. The Fourth FOCAC Ministerial Meeting held in Egypt in November last year injected new momentum to Sino-African development in the new situations. Currently, the bilateral relations have been broadened and deepened to an unprecedented level.

I am very glad to see the increasingly closer academic exchanges between China and Africa with the research achievements keeping growing. However, we still need to be aware that China's academic circle is still weak in terms of African studies. Compared with the rapid development of Sino-African relations, the scale and level of our bilateral academic exchanges should be improved urgently. It was against this background that Chinese Government initiated the joint research and exchange program.

The program will be conducted based on academic institutes in both China and African countries and FOCAC Chinese Follow-up Committee will provide assistance and facilitate Chinese and African scholars to participate in this program.

Through launching the program, we hope to encourage and support more scholars to be engaged in researches and studies of Sino-African relations and African development, strengthen bilateral academic exchanges and enhance mutual understanding so that they can provide intellectual support for the development of China-Africa relations.

I also hope that Chinese and African scholars can strengthen exchanges with their counterparts in other countries so as to help the international community view China-Africa cooperation in a more objective and comprehensive way and further support and show concern to African development.