Ai Ping, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (SHI GANG)

Though far away from each other in distance, relations between China and African countries have moved ever closer in recent years. No doubt, inter-party exchange has played an important part in this process. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's ruling Party, has maintained friendly relations with its counterparts in African countries, greatly promoting cooperation in various fields between China and Africa.

At the beginning of the year, Ai Ping, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, sat down with ChinAfrica to talk about his views on inter-party exchanges between China and African countries, and to outline his work for the new year.

ChinAfrica: The 18th CPC National Congress, held in November 2012, elected new leaders of the Party. How, in your opinion, will this leadership transition influence China-Africa relations?

Ai Ping: The Report to the 18th CPC National Congress, by then Party General Secretary Hu Jintao, says that China "will increase unity and cooperation with other developing countries," and "will remain a reliable friend and sincere partner to other developing countries." No doubt, the "developing countries" mentioned here also include African countries.

It has been the Chinese Government's consistent policy to pursue China-Africa friendship and establish a new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa. This policy will by no means change after the CPC leadership transition.

In fact, many of the new Party leaders have a deep understanding of Africa and Sino-African relations, as they have been to Africa on several occasions. For instance, the newly-elected General Secretary Xi Jinping has been to Africa five times.

I think our new leaders will focus more on Africa, its development and the China-Africa cooperation. While visiting South Africa, Angola and Botswana in November 2010, Xi reiterated on many occasions the important position of Africa in China's diplomatic policies, saying that China would like to make joint efforts with African countries to advance the new type of strategic partnership.

The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held in Beijing in July 2012, put forward new measures to promote Sino-African cooperation over the next three years, with a focus on infrastructure, agriculture, the manufacturing sector and the development of small and medium enterprises in Africa.

I believe the Chinese Government will continue to support the commitments made at the conference to strengthen the basis of Sino-African cooperation, enrich new strategic partnerships and promote Sino-African relations to a new height in the new era.

Currently, what is the greatest challenge facing China-Africa inter-party exchanges? How should we deal with this challenge?

It is true that both China and Africa have undergone great changes owing to the rapidly shifting international situation in the new century. Correspondingly, China-Africa inter-party exchanges face challenges brought about by these changes.

After widespread democratization in the 1990s, African countries saw a lot of new political parties replace old ones and take power. These parties know less about the CPC, causing difficulties in inter-party exchanges.

Meanwhile, the rapid development of Sino-African relations in recent years has also come to the attention of some Western media. They claim that China's engagement with Africa is a form of "neo-colonialism." This has negatively influenced relations and inter-party exchanges between China and African countries.

But I think these are only problems arising in the process of development, and they will not deter the general trend of friendly inter-party exchanges between China and Africa.

To deal with the challenges, I think the most important thing for the CPC to do is to strengthen communication and exchanges with its African counterparts so as to discover our common interests for common development.

In the future, I think our research on African affairs should be further enhanced to gain a better understanding of African politics, the African political parties in particular, so that we can adjust our work in accordance with changes to the world situation.