Xi Jinping pledges $50 billion in aid to Africa to modernize the Global South

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged that his country will provide about $50 billion in financial aid to Africa over the next three years and jointly pursue the modernization of developing and emerging countries, collectively called the Global South.

According to Kyodo News, in his opening speech at a China-Africa summit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi proposed elevating relations between China and all African nations that maintain diplomatic ties with the Asian power to strategic ones and building a “community with a shared future for the new era.”

At the previous summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2018, the Chinese leader promised to extend $60 billion in financing to Africa.

Observers say China is keen to promote unity with African nations and other countries in the Global South as part of its efforts to establish alternative global governance institutions to those led by the West.

Participants at the three-day forum, which will run until Friday and involves China and 53 African member countries, are expected to discuss, among other issues, strengthening cooperation through the Belt and Road global infrastructure program signed by Xi.

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Xi said China is willing to deepen collaboration with Africa in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment and promote high-quality cooperation through the Belt and Road Initiative, including 30 projects to improve connectivity.

He added that China will launch 10 partnership actions with Africa in the next three years, including projects to boost green development and public health capacity, as well as training of military and police personnel.

The president also said China will unilaterally open its market further to African economies, granting zero-tariff treatment to less developed countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Beijing.

The China-Africa forum was established in 2000 to boost trade and investment between the two sides and meets every three years in Beijing and an African country alternately. Its less frequent leaders’ summit was first held in the Chinese capital in 2006.

Since 1993, Japan has hosted a summit with African countries known as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. The next TICAD summit is scheduled to be held in Yokohama, near the Japanese capital, in August 2025.