China's President Xi Jinping (centre) with leaders from African countries at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 5, 2024. China and Africa have consistently emphasised respect for sovereignty and independence as part of their vision of modernisation, says the writer.
Dr. Sizo Nkala
The theme of modernisation is becoming increasingly prominent in the discourse on Africa-China relations.
At the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit held in Beijing, China, modernisation was the main theme, which called on Africa and China to jointly “advance modernisation and build a community with a shared future”.
The term modernisation appeared 40 times in the 2024 FOCAC Action Plan. In comparison, it appeared only two times in the 2021 FOCAC Action Plan. A little over a year after the 2024 FOCAC Summit, China and South Africa signed the Initiative on Cooperation Supporting Modernisation in Africa on the sidelines of the G20 Summit that was hosted in South Africa in November 2025.
