To strengthen the China-West Africa community of destiny

“Mountains and hills are no obstacle for friends who want to walk together”. This Chinese adage was widely shared by participants at the First West Africa Forum held in Dakar on Wednesday, 23 April 2025. As a result, a China-Africa Regional Institute for Social Science Research is to be set up at the National School of Administration of Dakar, to strengthen the China-Africa strategic partnership.

Héribert-Label Elisée Adjovi – Specialist in International and Sino-African Issues

“Working together to promote modernization”. This was the theme of the First West Africa Forum co-organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) of Beijing, China, and the National School of Administration of Dakar (NSA), Senegal, with the participation of Chinese and African experts. The event was marked by four (4) key stages: the opening ceremony, keynote speeches, panel discussions and the closing ceremony.

At the opening ceremony, chaired by Ye Hailin, President of the China-Africa Institute (CAI), the Director General of ENA, Mor Fall, the President of CASS, Gao Xiang, the Business Officer of the Chinese Embassy in Senegal, Li Yan, and the Cabinet’s Director of the Senegalese Prime Minister, Ibrahima Guèye, all paid tribute to the model of Sino-African cooperation in general and Sino-West African cooperation in particular.

The first speaker at the opening ceremony was Mor Fall, General Director of NSA, who praised the efforts made by the two centres of learning (NSA) of Dakar and CASS in Beijing and the Senegalese and Chinese governments to make this First West Africa Forum a reality.

He underlined the personal commitment of the General Director of the CASS, Gao Xiang, to put into practice the Chinese government’s commitment to the development of research in Africa and China. He also pointed out that the creation of a social science research institute represents an enormous opportunity for African countries, especially those in the sub-region.

“Intellectual exchanges, cross-fertilization, joint research and training initiatives are powerful levers for building more equitable, ambitious and resilient South-South and North-South cooperation”, he concluded. Head of the Chinese delegation at the forum, Gao Xiang, President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and a Chinese historian, praised the remarkable contributions made by Senegal’s NSA to promoting academic exchanges and educational cooperation between Senegal and China.

Premier Forum de l’Afrique de l’Ouest

China, whose Business Officer of its Embassy in Senegal, Li Yan, noted that the First West Africa Forum is undoubtedly building an important new platform for deepening dialogue and mutual inspiration between China and West African countries. “As a key driver of African development, West Africa is playing an increasingly important role in continental and international affairs,” she said. She assured the audience that developing countries today, more than ever, need solidarity and cooperation in the face of global upheaval and unprecedented challenges.

She reaffirmed China’s support for the countries of West Africa on issues affecting their fundamental interests and major concerns, with a view to preserving their sovereignty and national unity. Opening the forum’s proceedings, Ibrahima Guèye, Cabinet’s Director of the Prime Minister of Senegal, expressed his satisfaction that the work of the forum would enable China and the countries of West Africa to bring about the desired transformations and breakthroughs, and to introduce innovations in various sectors.

Prior to the panel presentations, there were keynote speeches by Huang Ping, President of the Hong Kong Chinese Institute, Oumar Demba Ba, Minister Counsellor for Foreign Affairs and trainer at NSA of Senegal, Mohamed Lebatt, outgoing Chief pf Cabinet of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Charles Romain Mbele, Professor at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, with Mamadou Sarr, Chairman of the Forum’s Organising Committee, as moderator.

They all hammered home the point that China is a credible and reliable partner for Africa. For as far back in history as the famous Chinese maritime explorer Zheng He in East Africa, through the Bandung Conference of April 1955, to today when we mark 25 years of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, FOCAC, relations between China and Africa have always been guided by Sincerity, Effective Results, Friendship and Good Faith.

The world’s leading trading power and second largest economy, China’s achievements in Africa cover all areas of activity on land (roads, railways, agriculture, health, education, etc.), at sea (ports, hydroelectric facilities, etc.) and in the air (airports), not forgetting digital and green technologies.

This has enabled the African continent to make great strides forward in terms of development, especially with President Xi Jinping’s initiatives relating to the “Belt and Road”, Global Development, Global Security and Global Civilization, and the concept of a “Community of Shared Future for Humanity”.

What’s more, with the 9th FOCAC held in Beijing from 4 to 6 September 2024, Sino-African cooperation was raised to the rank of strategic partnership, and China released an additional 50 billion dollars to support President Xi’s new initiatives for the African continent, particularly in the fields of industry, agribusiness and talent training.

By all accounts, the multi-sectoral cooperation between China, the world’s largest developing country, and Africa, the continent with the largest number of developing countries, has become a successful model of South-South partnership and a benchmark for reformulating the cooperation policies of Africa’s other development partners.

The third stage of the forum was the panel discussions. Entitled “The modernization process in China and West African countries”, the first panel featured presentations by Deng Yanting, Associate Researcher at the China-Africa Institute (China), Malick Sané, University Professor and trainer at ENA (Senegal), Barwo Olaniyi, Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos (Nigeria), Héribert-Label Elisée Adjovi, Specialist in International and Sino-African Issues and President of the Pan-African Journalists Caucus (Benin), Diakité Brahima, Lecturer and Researcher at the Université Alassane Ouattara (Côte-d’Ivoire) and François Joseph Cabral, Professor at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal), with Wu Chuanhua, Associate Researcher at the China-Africa Institute as moderator and Elhadji Alioune Diouf as rapporteur.

I presented a paper on “Chinese-style modernization and FOCAC 2024. The Six Lessons for Africa’s Development”, which takes into account China’s independence in its development path, openness as a means of forcing reform, Chinese pride in “meritocracy”, refusal of Western “shock therapy”, the Chinese-style market economy with its different categories of enterprises, and leadership of the community of shared future for humanity.

These are lessons for Africa to revisit, but not in a spirit of mimicry, but rather as a mirror, to trace the furrows of its own development path. All the presentations highlighted China’s unfailing support for “Initiatives for Development, Security and Civilization in West Africa and the World”, the theme of the second panel. Youssou Mbargane Guisse, Researcher at the Pan-African Institute of Strategies (Senegal), Zhao Yating, Associate Researcher at the China-Africa Institute (China), Tiémoko Boubacar Diarra, Vice-President of the Federation of China-Africa Friendship Associations (Mali), Akambi Mudasiru Ilupeju, Professor at the University of Lagos (Nigeria), Soma Abdoulaye, Professor at the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso) and Nke Ndih Jean (Cameroon), Executive Secretary of the Research Centre for the Environment, Development and Indigenous Peoples in Africa (CREDPAA), with Souleymane Nasser Niane, former Director of the Civil Service and former international civil servant as Moderator (Senegal) and Charles Romain Mbele, Professor at the University of Yaoundé (Cameroon).

At the closing ceremony of the First West Africa Forum, chaired by the Minister, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal, Oumar Samba Ba, who gave the final speech, participants heard a summary of the proceedings presented by Professor Olivier Sagna, words of thanks from the General Director of NSA, Mor Fall, and a speech by the President of the China-Africa Institute, Ye Hailin.

At the end of the Dakar forum, it was clear that the “Chinese Miracle” is due to the ability of the “Middle country” to be self-critical, to undertake the reforms necessary for its development, and to fight corruption effectively by being strict about respecting the cardinal values inherited from China’s millennia-old civilization.

These are just some of the avenues that Africa, the “Cradle of Humankind”, needs to explore if it is to consolidate its development. In this process, it can count on China, which has always been at its side and which intends to build with it a community with a shared China-Africa future

(C) Geopolitique