China to scale up assistance to Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - China supports Africa's choice to develop independently and will scale up assistance and cooperation with African countries to help them build greater capacity toward this goal.

Top Chinese political adviser Jia Qinglin delivered this message as he spoke at the opening ceremony of the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) on Sunday in the AU's Chinese-funded conference center in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

"We will firmly support African countries' independent choice of development path. We maintain that all countries, big or small, are equal and we are opposed to the big, strong and rich bullying the small, weak and poor," said Jia, who ended his two-day visit to Ethiopia and the AU on Sunday.