In an address delivered during the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing, President Xi Jinping suggested that the diplomatic statuses between China and the African countries with whom it cooperates bilaterally be elevated to the level of “strategic relations.” Further, he proposed that the relationship of his nation and the continent at large is upgraded to an “all-weather community with a shared future for the new era.” Writing two years after, not much time has passed since and yet, there is quite a lot that has been arrived at already as far as consolidating the said partnership goes.
To determine the success of the all-weather community with a shared future for the new era (ACWSFNE), we have to keep in mind the “10 partnership actions” which were set thereunder. They include; connectivity, mutual learning among civilizations, health, trade prosperity, and agriculture. For 2026 specifically, Beijing and Africa have stayed true to the FOCAC agreement by placing people-people exchanges at the heart of their diplomacy throughout the year.
At the end of the twelve months, it is expected that more than 600 activities will have been hosted under the umbrella. Moreover, this task is being implemented in a broad-based manner so as to encompass as many individuals and economic sectors as possible. These range from sports, to tourism, media, academia etc. In the preamble of the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges concept paper thus, Xi is quoted saying that; “The foundation and lifeline of China-Africa relations lie with the people. Therefore, the development of our relations should be more people oriented.”
The last two years have also seen a tremendous uptake in China-Africa economic activity. Speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in mid-2025 hence, Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) affirmed that China had already invested $2 billion on the continent post FOCAC 2024. This has been accomplished among others, through initiatives like the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo. Themed around the catch phrase “Together Toward Modernization”, the 2025 edition of the event attracted no less than 4,700 Chinese and African corporations dealing in areas such as construction, clean energy, smart mining, and modern agricultural technology.
Relatedly, just three months after the summit in Beijing, PRC extended a zero-tariff treatment policy to 33 African states a number that was expanded to 53 in June of 2026. The implications of steps like these are impossible to exaggerate. Indeed, Dennis Munene Mwaniki of the China-Africa Center (part of the Africa Policy Institute in Kenya) has affirmed that; “the zero-tariff measures will significantly benefit Africa’s least developed countries, offering them greater access to China’s market and boosting their economies.”
The accomplishments of ACWSFNE cannot be understood merely on their own account though since in one way or the other, they have only been possible because of the enduring ties between PRC and African Union member states that pre-exist the framework from which they are born. Instead, they should be perceived to be in their continuation. The Beijing Declaration on Jointly Building an All-Weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future for the New Era hence, adopts language that recognizes the principles of “sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith” which were first presented at the 2015 FOCAC summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the gathering, China-Africa relations were upgraded to “comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.” Three years post this earmark, the same fora designated the union as a “community of a shared future.” Without first passing through these stages, it unlikely that the present stature would have been possible.
With more than a year to the next FOCAC summit, it is already safe to say that the momentum with which the targets that China and Africa set for themselves in 2024 are being realized is impressive. If things stay as they are (and there is no reason to think they will not), by September 2027 the two historical allies should be ready to advance their collaboration to an even higher level of diplomatic relationship.
The writer is a lawyer and a Research Fellow at the Development Watch Centre
