CPC's governance experience beneficial to Africa, say African experts, officials

Staff members unload cargos at the new harbour of Lamu Port in Kenya, on May 20, 2021. Lamu Port, which is being built by China Communications Construction Company, is part of Kenya's bid to become the major trade hub in East Africa. It can handle large vessels with a carrying capacity ranging from 12,000 to 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). (Zhang Nanfang/Xinhua)

The Communist Party of China (CPC)'s experience in governing China is valuable and worth learning for African countries in terms of maintaining stability, poverty alleviation, people-centered development and COVID-19 prevention, African leaders and experts have said.

They made the remarks as the CPC celebrates its centenary, saying that the CPC has led the Chinese people from one victory to another since its founding in July 1921.

Stability, development

For Africa, the most valuable experience from the CPC is "that long-term stability of political parties is absolutely necessary for sustainable development," said Peter Kagwanja, CEO of the Africa Policy Institute (API), a Nairobi-based pan-African think tank.

The CPC has united China's 56 ethnic groups and guaranteed government safety and stability, which has laid the foundation for China to become the second-largest economy in the world, said Kagwanja.

"As a result of the trinity of political stability, anti-corruption and green development, China has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty since its reform and opening up in 1978, a milestone hailed by the World Bank as one of the great stories in human history," said Kagwanja.

"By first eradicating (absolute) poverty in China and then moving forward to help other countries, the CPC has played a great role in eliminating one of the greatest diseases in the world, and it should be commended for such," said Donald Rushambwa, a researcher at Harare-based China-Africa Economic and Culture Exchange Research Center, who was once a foreign student at a university in China's eastern Zhejiang Province.

Workers work on the construction site of the China-aided future headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 2, 2021. Construction work on the China-aided future headquarters of the Africa CDC is running "very smoothly with full force," a long-serving African Union expert has said. (Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)

People-centered philosophy

Rushambwa said that the CPC's people-centered approach has played a huge role in China's remarkable development, bringing prosperity to all sections of society.

Ernest Moloi, chief sub-editor of Botswana Guardian, said that "Keeping the party intact, managing inter-party democracy and maintaining cadre discipline as well as addressing pressing developmental issues and charting national policies that speak to the needs of the masses has been the CPC's trump card."

Moloi said the Botswana Democratic Party should learn from that as a party that has ruled the country for over 50 years.

Abdullah Juma Sadala, a senior official of Tanzania's ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that "by maintaining close ties with the Chinese people, the CPC has achieved great success in economic and social development."

Decades ago, the CPC led the Chinese people to overthrow imperialist oppression and achieve national liberation, and now, under the leadership of the party, China has scored a complete victory in its fight against absolute poverty, which has greatly improved the people's living standard, said Sadala.

Deeming the CPC as "a party of the people, and more importantly, a party for the people," Sadala said that "when a party is close to the people, the people will respond positively to the party."

Chinese doctors provide medical services to local patients in the Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark in Luanda, Angola, Oct. 20, 2017. The Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark arrived at the shores of Angola on Oct. 19, 2017 for the first time, with a mission to deliver free medical services to the local people within eight days. (Han Yingnan/Xinhua)

Covid-19 prevention

Humphrey Moshi, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, said that "there has always been close communication between the leadership and the people."

“These top-down and bottom-up communications have facilitated swift execution of decisions because the people and the leaders sing the same chorus," said Moshi.

"The unprecedented success in fighting COVID-19 in China was informed by this effective structure of communication, coordination, and execution," said Moshi.

Despite the huge domestic demand and limited supply, China has done its best to supply more than 480 million doses of vaccines to the international community, making it the largest supplier of vaccines in the world, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Friday.

So far, China has provided vaccine assistance to nearly 100 countries from five continents. The WHO has added Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines to the Emergency Use Listing. More than 30 foreign leaders have taken the lead in receiving jabs of Chinese vaccines.

Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang said Chinese vaccines have brought a ray of hope to his country's struggling fight against the epidemic. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the vaccines donated by China were like the light at the end of the tunnel.

China-Africa relations

"In international affairs, China advocates seeking common ground while shelving differences with other nations, and contributes to maintaining world peace and global environmental governance through global cooperation," said Sadala, adding that China and Tanzania maintain close economic and trade cooperation as well as party-to-party exchanges.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu said that China has been providing assistance to Zambia within frameworks such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which has consolidated their relations featuring mutual benefit.

"China's success story anchored by vision, hard work and perseverance must provide serious lessons especially for the African continent," said Lungu.

Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique, who witnessed the frequent friendly exchanges between his party Frelimo and the CPC, told Xinhua in an interview that China's success is "encouraging."

Speaking about China's vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, Chissano refuted claims that there are impositions and that China wants to seek hegemony or leadership in global order.

"China is offering more open cooperation, which is a good vision," he said, adding that countries must identify their own needs and benefit from multilateral cooperation without sabotaging their own interests to achieve win-win outcomes.

"Africa must not be detached from the world of science, technology and innovation led by China," said former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

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