• By Josef Kefas Sheehama

The friendship and partnership between China and Africa provide a conceptual framework for modernization in the Global South community. Representatives from African countries convened in Kunming, China, from 20-24 May, 2025, for the 14th Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tank Forum to deepen collaboration and reinforce the sharing and mutual learning of academic, disciplinary and discursive networks.

 Namibia was one of those who participated.

The 14th China-Africa Think Tank Forum meeting brings together prominent experts and professors from Chinese and African universities. Approximately 100 representatives from China and more than 50 African countries attended the forum to discuss how China’s modernization experience, which includes poverty alleviation, grassroots governance  and adaptive policy experimentation, can inspire Africa’s own development paths. 

At a time when traditional development policies are being called into question, the philosophy of modernization is being redefined across the Global South. As the African countries position themselves to exert more power in partnerships, African nations should realign their strategic ties with China to achieve African interests. FOCAC advances Africa’s Agenda 2063 by promoting regional integration through road, rail and other infrastructure projects. Modernization is a multifaceted development process that tackles all aspects of the macroeconomic variables. 

China’s targeted poverty alleviation, which has lifted more than 800 million people out of abject poverty, is an important governance model for research. It is about striking a balance between concrete progress and cultural confidence, social equality and environmental protection. It is about improving people’s lives, not just statistics. 

China’s remarkable transformation over the decades has taught African countries important lessons, emphasizing that modernization is about more than just rapid economic growth. It is also about creating social fairness, institutional change and good governance. Modernization is a multidimensional process that is unique to each country’s historical, cultural, and economical circumstances. 

The FOCAC’s China-Africa Think Tank Forum brings together Chinese and African intellectuals to build on previous initiatives and cultivate friendship and collaboration. In 2024, the FOCAC Beijing Summit proposed that China and Africa collaborate to create modernization. Modernization is a common aim for Chinese and African citizens, as well as a fundamental right for developing countries like China and Africa.

 In a world full of change and volatility, countries in the global South continue to face ongoing obstacles in achieving modernization and determining what form of modernization to pursue.

 Chinese President, His Excellency Xi Jinping proposed that China and Africa work together to advance modernization in six areas during his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), drawing a blueprint for building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era and providing important answers to the call to advance human modernization.