Fostering good feelings

As Chinese leaders embark on their first overseas trips in the lunar New year - President Hu Jintao is visiting Saudi Arabia and Africa, and Vice President Xi Jinping's to Malta and Latin America - international media are rife with talk about Chinese ambitions.

For the Chinese, visits like these are but some of many meant to cement ties or reassure good feelings. Which may not necessarily fit in with immediate pragmatic concerns. Some have found President Hu's itinerary unusual, because several of his host countries are not known for resources to quench the well-hyped Chinese thirst.

That is a lamentable misrepresentation of the nature of the Sino-African relationship. The People's Republic of China has been on good terms with African countries for decades. Till this day, "African cousins" remain a popular reference to African countries and people among ordinary Chinese citizens. That is a legacy of the Mao Zedong era, when the nation was full of revolutionary passion for the ultimate liberation of mankind. The Chinese people's good feelings towards Africa extended from sympathy for their struggles for independence to gratitude for their support for the People's Republic's return to the United Nations. Similarly, the shared third-world complex has brewed a sentimental attachment between China and Latin America.