China-Africa partnership will continue to help uphold multilateralism, develop an open world economy and empower the G20 to build a community with a shared future for humanity

The G20 Johannesburg Summit, which concluded on Nov 23 with a bold Leaders' Declaration urging collective action on issues disproportionately affecting developing countries, such as climate disasters, debt sustainability and inclusive growth, underscored Africa's role in addressing pressing global challenges. It also marked a striking shift in global governance, with developing countries playing a more positive role.

As a staunch supporter of South Africa's presidency of the G20, China demonstrated its sincerity and commitment to upholding international collaboration by sending a high-level delegation, initiating new cooperation programs with South Africa and injecting strong momentum into the coordinated development of China-Africa partnership with the rise of the Global South.

Engaging actively in the G20, China has helped Africa raise its voice in the global multilateral system. With its members collectively accounting for about 85 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of international trade and two-thirds of the world's population, the G20 has proven to be one of the most crucial architectures for international multilateral cooperation. South Africa made deliberate efforts to ensure that the Johannesburg Summit — the grouping's first gathering in Africa — became a symbol of global solidarity by building direct contacts among members and the whole continent represented by invited regional economic communities, such as the Southern African Development Community. The summit proved to be an important milestone, as Africa took the initiative to reorient global multilateralism around the needs and aspirations of the Global South rather than the rhetoric and paradigm of the West.

Despite the United States boycotting the event, South Africa's endeavor helped highlight the continent's priorities spanning economic growth, disaster resilience, industrialization, the energy transition and financial stability as pivots to further global solidarity and cooperation, illustrating that multipolarity can function effectively even without the participation of the traditional Western powers. China, the world's second-largest economy and the largest developing country, has been advocating better representation of Africa in global platforms such as the G20 to build a more just and equitable international order.

From the 2016 G20 Summit in Hangzhou, when China endorsed the inclusion of African industrialization on the agenda, to the 2022 G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, when China took the lead in supporting the African Union's G20 membership, the continuity of China's policy regarding Africa has been vividly manifested in the evolution of the G20, which has made Africa an equal player at the table rather than a voice on the sidelines. The full respect and firm support given by China to South Africa's G20 presidency at this summit further highlighted China's unwavering commitment to empowering Africa to improve the competence and credibility of redefining its global standing and amplifying its narratives in world affairs, so as to integrate the continent more fully into the global economy and build a stronger Global South.

China's positive contribution to the G20 effectively guarantees the sustainability and inclusiveness of African development. Despite Africa being home to the world's youngest population and abundant critical minerals, the continent has yet to embrace the cusp of its development potential and realize actual economic transformation. According to the State of Commodity Dependence 2025 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 46 out of Africa's 54 countries remain highly dependent on exports of raw commodities. Even South Africa, the continent's most industrialized economy, still recorded a 63.9 percent dependence rate from 2021 to 2023, which is above the UNCTAD threshold for classification as being nondependent.

As Africa's development is extremely vulnerable to challenges such as global price swings, climate disruptions and insufficient foreign investment and technology transfer, South Africa, on behalf of the whole continent, highlighted how structural barriers to Africa's modernization are linked to inefficiencies of ongoing international cooperation. In the policy output, it sought to promote the resilience of Africa's modernization by embedding the continent's potential development advantages into the architecture of global governance.

As Africa's trustworthy partner, China has been working with Africa through policy alignment and practical cooperation in its contribution to the G20. By putting forward the International Economic and Trade Cooperation Initiative on Green Mining and Minerals and China's action plan for implementing the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries at the summit, China further spearheaded international cooperation within the G20 architecture to comprehensively respond to Africa's priorities. It also envisaged breaking the shackles of development deficits across the continent through multilateralism, innovative ideas and pragmatic approaches.

Alongside multilateral cooperation, enhancing its bilateral partnership with South Africa is another strand of China's pitch for Africa's high-quality development. In cooperation with South Africa, China launched the Initiative on Cooperation Supporting Modernization in Africa, in which China pledged to firmly back African modernization strategies such as the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa Priority Action Plan 2 to achieve resilient and world-class infrastructure. As the latest outcome of the China-Africa partnership, the initiative has not only consolidated the two sides' modernization advances as framed by the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit, but also embarked upon another concrete plan to implement 10 partnership actions for modernization.

By further completing the matrix of cooperation, strengthened China-South Africa ties will serve as a fundamental node to unleash the greater booster power of the China-Africa partnership to the booming development of the G20, guaranteeing that Africa will always be an active participant and an equal beneficiary of international multilateral cooperation on its development path toward a more promising and sustainable future.

With the "African Moment" at the Johannesburg Summit showcasing the power of the Global South, the time-honored China-Africa partnership will continue to serve as a detailed annotation to global efforts for upholding multilateralism, developing an open world economy and promoting consensus on development cooperation, and empower the G20 to make more constructive contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

The author is the deputy director of the Division of Security Studies at the China-Africa Institute. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.