CHINA FOR THE DIGNITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF AFRICA

China supports good governance based on respect over African countries' sovereignty, dignity

www.chinaview.cn
2008-06-04

June 4 (Xinhua) -- China fully supports good governance,
human rights and rule of law in Africa, but African countries'
national sovereignty and dignity have to be respected, Liu Guijin,
China's Special Envoy on African Affairs, said Tuesday.

It is the Chinese government's long-standing policy to
encourage and support good governance, human rights and
rule of law, but we have to respect African people's own
choice for their way of development, he said in an open
speech at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs
(NIIA).

Any country, no matter with any reason, should not impose a
particular "value" or way of life on African countries, he
added.

"I am here to discuss with my Nigerian friends on how to
promote Sino-Africa relations and how to strengthen
bilateral ties between China and Nigeria," he said.

"We will not impose our model of development on any of
country in this continent, otherwise, we want to share our
experience on opening-up and economic development with
African brother nations, who may adopt its own suitable way
of development," he said.

On Sino-Africa economic cooperation, the senior Chinese
diplomat rebuffed some "western countries' accusations that
China is robbing natural resources" from this continent,
saying that China's investment not only flows to natural
resources sectors, but also to manufacturing, finance,
human resources, infrastructure construction, healthcare
and agriculture.

He attributed some western countries' "over-reaction" to
their "fear of the losing traditional monopoly" over Africa
affairs.

"The international community should make joint efforts to
help African countries to go ahead. Any measures and
actions, only if they benefit Africa, we will render our
full support," he said.

According to Liu, China's direct investment stood at about
11.1billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2007.

Actions have been taken to implement the agreements reached
between China and African countries since the 2006 summit
in Beijing, especially projects to build schools,
hospitals, agriculture cooperation, debt-cancellation and
governmental development loans, which were illustrated in
Chinese President Hu Jintao's guideline on Sino-Africa
cooperation.

On answering a Darfur question in the interactive section,
Liu said the decades-old question was very complicated and
talks among different groups are necessary to the process.

China would work closely with the international community,
African Union and major peace-keeping countries like
Nigeria to encourage a quick solution to the problem, he
said.