True story of China-Africa cooperation

At the third summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which starts in Beijing on Monday, President Xi Jinping will welcome distinguished guests from 54 FOCAC member states to a gathering of unprecedented size, the biggest in Africa's relations with any country in the world.

The long-standing friendship between China and Africa dates back 600 years to the legendary expeditions of Chinese navigator Zheng He, whose fleet reached East African shores four times. In more recent history the Tazara Railway between Tanzania and Zambia built in the 1960s stands as a monument of what China and Africa can achieve together.

Building on the China-Africa traditional friendship, the Beijing summit of the 18-year-old FOCAC will review past work and plan for the future of China-Africa cooperation in all areas, in order to forge greater synergy in the development strategies of the two sides. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for nine years in a row, and Chinese investments in Africa have increased more than 100 times in the past 18 years. This cooperation has seen a new boom since 2013, when the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative provided fresh momentum for upgrading cooperation from trade in goods and project contracting to that in industrial capacity and capital investment.