HAND IN HAND: African development benefits Sino-African ties XINHUA/AFP

For the African continent, 2011 was a year of change, protest and and uncertainties. The unrests in North Africa led to regime changes in the three North African countries of Tunis, Egypt and Libya; a new country, the Republic of South Sudan, became independent and got its seat in the United Nations; a total of 17 countries held presidential elections, and a grave famine devastated the Horn of Africa.

"It is true that what happened in Africa may influence Sino-African relations to some extent, but the chaos and uncertainty cannot fundamentally change the bilateral relations," said Zhang Zhongxiang, Deputy Director of African Studies Center of Shanghai Normal University. "You can see in the past year that both sides are taking measures to maintain the bilateral relations on the right track," he told ChinAfrica.

According to Zhang, these measures included high-level exchange visits, trying to smooth bilateral relations from a political perspective, and a large number of non-governmental organizations becoming more active in promoting people-to-people contacts. Meanwhile, earlier 2011, the Chinese Government took a series of measures to crack down on the practices of exporting low-quality and fake goods to Africa.

High-level exchanges

The past year sees an increasing number of high-level exchange visits, such as the visit of the Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who is in charge of agriculture, to Mauritius, Zambia, the DRC, Cameroon and Senegal on January 6-19, and the visit of the Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, who is in charge of finance, to Kenya, Zimbabwe and Angola on March 17-23. Meanwhile, a number of African leaders, such as Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir, Mozambique President Armando Emílio Guebuza and Cameroonian President Paul Biya, also visited Beijing.

"Viewing from the visits, we can see that both Chinese and African leaders have the political wills to further develop bilateral relations because we have traditional friendship," said Zhang. "The friendship can help in solving the hot issues in Africa; in return, the process of solving hot issues in Africa can further deepen the bilateral relations."

According to Zhang, China has played an important role in promoting peace in Sudan. "Owing to the good relations between China and the Al-Bashir Government, China has done a lot of work in persuading various parties into talks," commented Zhang. "China has also made its contribution to the deployment of AU/UN Hybrid Forces for Durfur and the independence of the Republic of South Sudan."