9月4日至6日舉行的中非合作論壇峰會，傳遞出最重要的訊息是，中國不僅擴大對非洲發展的援助，而且將拓展51個非洲國家的發展模式。
首屆中非合作論壇部長級會議2000年在北京舉行，目的旨在減少非洲國家債務，幫助非洲國家克服不發達問題。2000年以後，中非合作論壇共舉行了8屆部長級會議，其中2006年在北京舉辦一屆，2015年在約翰尼斯堡舉辦一屆，2018年又在北京舉辦一屆。從2000年至2003年，中非貿易額從1000億元增加到1.98萬億元（人民幣，下同），年均增長17.2%。 2024年前7個月，中國對非洲進出口額達1.2萬億元，其中船舶、車輛、風力發動機組大幅成長，較2023年前7個月分別成長45%、35%及253%；2024年前7個月，中國自非洲進口總值4908.9億元，增長15.5%。這些數字都證明，中國與非洲國家的貿易關係正在迅速擴大，以人民幣作為交易貨幣，人民幣國際化進程不斷加速。
未來3年10項支援行動
中方在中非合作論壇峰會上宣布，中國對非洲發展未來3年10項支援行動。
一是文明互鑑夥伴行動，打造治國理政經驗交流平台，設立中非發展知識網絡，邀請1000名非洲政黨人士來華交流。
二是貿易繁榮夥伴行動。中方宣布單方面擴大市場開放，給予33個非洲最不發達國家100%稅目產品零關稅待遇，推動中國大市場成為非洲大機會。
三是產業鏈合作夥伴行動，建設中非經貿深度合作先行區，啟動「非洲中小企業賦能計劃」，共建20個中非數碼技術合作中心。
四是互聯互通夥伴行動，中非在一帶一路倡議下實施30個基建項目，協同發展中非互聯互通網絡，加強自由貿易、金融貨幣合作，助力非洲跨區域發展。
五是中國將向非洲國家提供1000個中國投資的小型民生項目，包括支持非洲舉辦2026年青年奧運會、2027年非洲盃足球賽等。
六是衛生健康夥伴行動，共建聯合醫學中心。中方派遣2000名醫療隊員，支持非洲疾管中心建設，推廣中國醫藥產品。目標是幫助非洲應對疾病，增強非洲國家公共衛生能力。
七是興農惠民夥伴行動，中方將拿出10億元人民幣，向非洲提供緊急糧食援助，將派遣500名農業專家幫助非洲國家興建農業標準化示範區，同時實施500個慈善項目，鼓勵中非企業投資，為非洲創造不少於100萬個就業機會。
八是人文交流夥伴行動，推動「未來非洲職業教育」計劃，提供6萬個重點面向青年和婦女的研修名額，共同推進中非「文化絲路」計劃。
九是綠色發展夥伴行動，在非洲實施30個清潔能源項目，與非洲國家共建30個聯合實驗室，建設中非衛星遙感應用合作中心非洲中心，開展海洋空間規劃合作，支持非洲國家參與國際月球科研站計劃和中國探月探火工程。
十是安全共築夥伴行動。中國將向非方提供10億元人民幣無償軍事援助，為非方培訓6000名軍事人員和1000名非洲警察，邀請500名青年軍官訪華，開展中非軍隊聯合軍演和海上聯合巡航。
整體而言，未來3年，中國將向非洲提供3600億元的資金支持，包括提供2100億元信貸額度，中國企業在非洲的投資金額將不少於700億元。鼓勵非洲國家在華發行「熊貓債」，為其發展累積資本。 2024年峰會通過了《北京宣言》和《北京行動計劃》，標誌着中國為克服非洲欠發達問題、推動非洲國家進一步發展邁向新高度作出了前所未有的努力。
中非關係提升至命運共同體
從峰會內容來看，中國模式對非洲具有巨大的政治意義。
首先，非洲國家可以在中國的援助下實現自身發展。習近平主席在峰會上提議，將中國同所有非洲建交國的雙邊關係「提升到戰略關係層面，將中非關係整體定位提升至新時代全天候中非命運共同體」。
從分析的角度看，這個實體具有重要的政治意義，因為非洲國家和中國在過去的歷史中都遭受殖民主義和帝國主義的剝削和壓迫。如今，隨着中國的崛起，中非合作必將成為不依賴西方強國的雙贏局面。 「命運共同體」一詞不具有意識形態內涵，它可以涵蓋具有不同意識形態的非洲國家，從資本主義到社會主義，再到資本主義和社會主義的混合體。
其次，習近平主席和王毅外長強調，中非現代化屬於全球南方國家的可持續發展。王毅在峰會上表示，南南合作具有政治意義，中國在多極世界推動全球治理進程中爭取非洲的合作。這個多極世界隱含對抗西方先進已開發國家主導的傳統西方霸權。從某種意義上說，2024年中非合作論壇峰會代表了中國與非洲國家在政治、經濟、社會文化友誼的巔峰。中非願意在各方面進行合作，以克服欠發達問題，實現可持續發展，並在漫長的發展道路上盡量減少對西方的依賴。
中國和非洲歷史上同受壓迫
第三，自1980年初以來，中國的發展模式以強大的國家或政府為標誌，表現出強有力的領導和明確的方向，致力於滿足基本需求和改善老百姓的生活，從供水到供電，從公共衛生到基建設施（鐵路、公路、橋樑等），從維護法紀到更好地維持治安，從教育到人才培養，從農業機械化到工業化，從環境保護和新能源供應。在所有這些方面，中國自20世紀80年代初以來都取得了顯著進步，許多經驗值得非洲國家學習。
第四，中國奉行不干涉非洲內政的原則，尊重非洲國家選擇的發展道路。因此，中國對非洲的發展援助「不存在任何政治前提」。這種不干涉原則自然招致了西方的批評，西方指責中國在軍事上支持非洲一些獨裁政府，這是不公平的。西方批評者可能忽略了他們採取了雙重標準，因為許多非洲國家要麼在殖民時代受到西方列強的軍事影響，要麼成為20世紀50年代至80年代冷戰的受害者，當時西方列強與前蘇聯敵對，許多非洲國家站在那些認同西方意識形態、西方利益和霸權動機的政治力量一邊。
現代化改造坦贊鐵路
第五，中國的發展模式以經濟務實主義為標誌，確實着重於滿足基本需求和民生。坦贊鐵路建於1970年至1975年，全長約1860.5公里。現在中方將斥資超過10億美元對這條鐵路進行現代化改造，終點將抵達中贊大規模經貿區。因此，中國對非洲的發展援助能夠將會實現其在一帶一路倡議中的願景，利用鐵路及其「激活」計劃來實現北京的外交政策目標。鐵路、橋樑和公路對非洲國家仍然很重要，因為這些基建有助於開發周邊地區項目，激活城市化進程，並維持非洲社會經濟發展。
第六，中國在非洲的發展模式具有微妙的去政治化特徵。根據外長王毅的發言，這種微妙的去政治化意味着中國反對在非洲建立對抗陣營，也反對任何國家利用非洲謀取利益。他的言論含蓄地針對了過去的西方殖民主義，可以解讀為中國正在關注非洲國家的務實需求，而不是像帝國主義時代的殖民列強那樣，進行任何不必要的地緣政治鬥爭。
客觀地講，中國對非洲國家的發展援助有一定的政治因素。接受中國經濟援助的非洲國家必須接受並奉行一個中國原則。此外，這些國家也將成為中國在未來幾年影響的國際政治事務中的遊說和統戰目標。
務實外交推動一帶一路建設
總的來說，2024年中非合作論壇峰會表明，中國不僅在擴大對非發展援助，而且在擴大對非洲國家的發展模式。中國領導人透過舉辦2024年中非合作論壇峰會，以解決基本需求和改善民生為重點，將中國發展模式運用到對非洲國家的援助中。中國領導人將對非洲的大規模援助，視為必要的外交政策工具，可以推動南南合作、實現一帶一路倡議、克服欠發達問題，並推動與中國有着相同痛苦和殖民歷史的非洲的進一步發展。
如果說非洲國家最需要的是滿足一般民眾的基本生活問題，那麼中國的外交政策顯然就是為了滿足非洲人民的基本生活需求。中國的這種援助和發展模式，固然會招致對中國發展模式有偏見的西方評論者的不公正批評，這些人無視了中國和非洲人民在長遠的發展歷史中，遭受西方殖民主義和帝國主義統治和壓迫的深重苦難。整體而言，2024年中非合作論壇峰會代表中國和非洲以集體、共識和前所未有的方式推動經濟現代化、可持續發展和社會進步的合作高峰。
Expanding China’s Aid and Development model for Africa: Content and implications
The most significant message from the Summit of the Forum on China-African Cooperation from September 4 to 6 is that China has been expanding not only its development aid to Africa, but also its developmental model for 51 African countries.
The Forum was first set up in Beijing in 2000, aiming at reducing the debt of African countries and helping them to overcome underdevelopment. After the year 2000, eight ministerial-level forums were held, including one in Beijing in 2006, another in Johannesburg in 2015, and one in Beijing again in 2018. From 2000 to 2003, the Sino-African trade volumes increased from 100 billion yuan to 1.9 trillion yuan – an increase of 17.2 percent. In the first seven months of 2024, China’s exports to Africa amounted to 1.2 trillion yuan in which ships, vehicles, and wind turbines increased significantly by 45 percent, 35 percent and 253 percent respectively compared to the first seven months of 2023. Africa’s exports to China also increases by 490.8 billion yuan from 2023 to 2024. All these figures have proven that China’s trade relations with African countries have been expanding rapidly, utilizing the Renminbi as the transaction currency, and accelerating the internationalization of Renminbi.
China’s developmental aid for Africa is characterized by the 10-point action plan, as announced he Forum, in the coming three years.
First, China and the African countries create a mutually learning partnership platform in which twenty-five study centres and 1,000 African members of the government and political parties will be invited to enhance interactions with the Chinese side.
Second, a prosperous trade partnership action plan will be implemented with China’s unilateral action of opening its market to 33 African countries, especially those underdeveloped ones, with zero tariff, thereby allowing African products to tap into the huge Chinese market.
Third, a partnership action on industrial and logistic supply chain will be implemented by creating twenty digital technical cooperation centres and projects so that Africa’s small and medium enterprises will help the process of building up a Sino-African economic and trade cooperation zone.
Fourth, China and Africa implement thirty infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road initiative so that Sino-African networks, free trade, and financial and monetary cooperation will be enhanced, thereby stimulating interregional development within Africa.
Fifth, China will assist African countries in 1,000 small livelihood projects with Chinese investment, including sports events like the 2026 Youth Olympics and the 2027 African Cup in Africa.
Sixth, China and Africa set up a medical and health alliance in which 2,000 Chinese medical staff will be sent to Africa to help combat disease and promote Chinese pharmaceutical products. The objective is to assist Africa in coping with diseases and enhancing the public health capability of African countries.
Seventh, China uses one billion yuan for food aid, and it will send five hundred agricultural experts to help African countries in building up agricultural demonstration farms, while implementing five hundred charity projects and encouraging Sino-African enterprises to invest and create one million jobs for Africans.
Eighth, China and Africa deepen their cooperation in vocational training by building vocational and practical schools to train 60,000 African youths and women so that “a cultural silk road” will be established.
Ninth, China and Africa implement thirty clean energy projects, build up weather forecast platforms, initiate disease prevention and protection plans, and experiment with joint Sino-African techniques in using nuclear power, exploring satellite development, engaging in space exploration, and propelling green development further.
Tenth, China will train 6,000 African military personnel and 1,000 African police, inviting five hundred young military officers to visit China to initiate joint military exercises and joint naval patrols.
Overall, China will provide thirty-six billion yuan of capital support to Africa and 210 billion yuan of loans to African countries, while the Chinese enterprises will invest an amount of not less than seventy billion yuan in Africa. African states are encouraged to open their “Panda bonds” in China to accumulate capital for their development. The 2024 Summit approved the “Beijing Declaration” and “Beijing’s Action Plan,” marking the unprecedented efforts made by China to overcome underdevelopment in Africa and to propel the further development of African countries to a new height.
Judging from the Summit’s content, the China model for Africa can be seen with tremendous political significance.
First, African countries can develop themselves alongside with China’s aid. President Xi Jinping said in the Forum that China and Africa “can elevate their relations from bilateral and strategic level, building up the Sino-African destiny of a common entity.”
Such entity, from an analytical perspective, is politically significant because African countries and China suffered socially and economically from colonialism and imperialistic exploitation and repression in their past histories. Now, with the rise of China, Sino-African cooperation can and will become a win-win situation without relying on the Western powers. The term “common entity” does not have ideological connotations, and it can embrace African countries with varying ideologies, ranging from capitalist to socialist to a mixture of capitalism and socialism.
Second, Sino-African modernization belongs to the sustainable development of the Global South – a message emphasized by President Xi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The south-south cooperation is politically significant as China, according to Wang Yi in the Forum, is securing the cooperation of Africa in the process of advancing global governance under a multipolar world. This multipolar world implicitly counters the traditional Western hegemony led by the advanced and developed Western countries. In a sense, the 2024 Summit in Beijing represents an apex of the political, economic, and socio-cultural friendship between China and African countries. They can and will cooperate in all aspects to overcome underdevelopment, to achieve sustainable development, and to minimize their dependency on the West in the long developmental path.
Third, the Chinese model of development since the early 1980 has been marked by a strong state or government, which shows capable leadership and clear directions and dealing with the fulfilment of basic needs and the betterment of the livelihood of the ordinary people, ranging from water supply to electricity provision, from public health to infrastructure projects (railways, roads, and bridges), from the maintenance of law and order to better policing, from education to talent cultivation, from agricultural mechanization to industrialization, and from environmental protection and new energy supplies. In all these aspects, China has been making remarkable improvements since the early 1980s and African countries have much to learn from the Chinese experiences.
Fourth, China has employed the principle of non-interference in Africa’s domestic affairs, meaning that it respects the developmental paths chosen by African countries. As such, there is “no political precondition” in China’s developmental aid to Africa. This non-interference principle naturally has led to Western criticism, which has unfairly accused China of militarily supporting some authoritarian governments in Africa. The Western critics might have neglected that they adopted a double standard because a lot of African countries were either under the military influence of Western powers in the colonial era or became the victims of the Cold War from the 1950s to 1980s, when Western powers struggled with the former Soviet Union by siding with those political forces sharing Western ideologies, interests, and hegemonic motivations.
Fifth, the Chinese model of development is marked by economic pragmatism and does focus on the fulfilment of the basic needs, or the people’s livelihood. The Tanzania-Zambi railway, which was build between 1970 and 1975, is about 1,860.5 km long. Now China is going to use one billion yuan to refurbish and revitalize the railway in which the end point will reach a large-scale Sino-Zambian economic and trade district. As such, China’s developmental aid for Africa can and will achieve its vision in the Belt and Road initiative, utilizing railways and its revitalization plan to achieve Beijing’s foreign policy objective. Railway, bridges, and roads remain important to African countries as they help develop the regions near infrastructure projects, stimulating the process of urbanization and sustaining the socio-economic development in Africa.
Sixth, the Chinese model of development in Africa is characterized by subtle depoliticization. By subtle depoliticization, it means that, according to Foreign Minister Wang Yi, China opposes the creation of confrontational camps in Africa and that it also opposes any country seeking to profit itself through the utilization of Africa. His remarks implicitly targeted Western colonialism in the past and can be interpreted as a sign that China is focusing on the pragmatic needs of African countries rather than engaging in any unnecessary geopolitical struggles that, like the colonial powers during the era of imperialism, utilized Africa as a politico-military battlefield.
Objectively speaking, there are some political elements in China’s developmental aid to African countries. African states that receive Chinese economic aid must accept and adopt the one-China principle. Moreover, they will become the targets of lobbying and united front by China in the affairs shaping international politics in the coming years.
In conclusion, the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-African Cooperation demonstrates that China has been expanding not only its development aid to Africa, but also its developmental model for African countries. Focusing on the provision of basic needs and the betterment of the people’s livelihood, the Chinese model of development has been applied by China’s leadership in their assistance of African countries through the well-attended 2024 Forum. The Chinese leadership has perceived massive aid to Africa as a necessary foreign policy instrument that can advance south-south cooperation, achieve the Belt and Road initiative, overcome underdevelopment, and propel the further development in Africa which shares a painful colonial past as with China.
If what African countries need most is the issue of satisfying the basic needs of ordinary people, China’s foreign policy clearly aims at fulfilling the basic needs of the African peoples. While such Chinese aid and developmental model must incur the unfair criticism of Western critics who have bias against the Chinese developmental model, they have swept under the carpet the profound and painful sufferings of the Chinese and African peoples under Western colonialism and imperialism in the long history of development. Overall, the 2024 Summit represents an apex of Sino-African cooperation in the drive toward economic modernization, sustainable development, and societal betterment in a collective, consensual and an unprecedented way.
原刊於澳門新聞通訊社（MNA）網站，本社獲作者授權轉載。（原文按此）
