The Royal African Society

China and Africa: The Development of Relations over Many Centuries

Author(s): Gao Jinyuan
Reviewed work(s):
Source: African Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 331 (Apr., 1984), pp. 241-250
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/721561 .
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 CHINA AND AFRICA:THE DEVELOPMENT OF
RELATIONS OVER MANY CENTURIES

GAO JINYUAN

CHINA AND AFRICA are geographically far away from each other, separated by
immense land mass with huge mountains and stretching deserts, as well as by
vast Oceans. The distance covers several tens of thousands of miles either
on sea or on land. In ancient times when there were no steamships, no rail-
ways, no aeroplanes, communicationsand contacts between the two continents
were extremely difficult. Historianshave tried to establish when Chinastarted
to have contacts with Africa. But so far opinions differ. According to the
Chinese historicalrecords ('Shi Ji') written by the famous historianSi Machien
over one hundredyears BC, the EmperorWuti of the Han Dynasty sent envoys
to the far west to make alliance with friendly tribes against the powerful but
often trouble-makingHuns in the north. These envoys reached many distant
countries originally unknown to China, including Pathia, Babylonia, Seleuid
Media, and lastly a place named Likan. They also brought back a Likan
magicianpresented as a gift by the King of Pathia. It is this place name Likan
and its whereaboutsthat has drawninteresting discussions and differing views.
This is partly because the descriptions in the Chinese records are too simple
and sometimes, confusing. One particular French sinologist named Pelliot
held Likan to be Alexandriaof Egypt,' which was a tradingcentre under Greek
rule and was later annexed by the Roman Empire. A Chinese scholar Feng
Chenjun seconded Pelliot's views.2 And Joseph Needham in his great work
Science and Civilization in China also equates Likan with Egypt.
If this is the case, it would mean that as early as over two thousand years
ago Chinese officials were sent and visited Africa and an Africanmagiciancame
to China, thus starting the earliest human contact between the two continents.
But while the supposition remains exciting for historians, there are yet quite
different opinions about it. A German Sinologist Friedrich Hirth holds in his
book China and the Roman Orient(1885) that Likan was none other than Syria,
which was then a part of the Roman Empire. A Chinese historian Qi Siho,
who disagrees with Hirth's view, however identifies Likan with Byzantium, in

This is the text of a talk given at a joint meeting of the Royal African Society and the Africa Centre
on 7 September 1982. The speaker was visiting London University at the time under a British
Academy exchange scheme. He is based at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies,
Peking.
1. Qi Siho, Relations Between China and the Byzantine Empire, Shanghai People's Press, 1956,
p. 5.
2. ibid.

241

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242 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

the east Balkan3area which was later the capital of the Roman Empire. In
fact, Joseph Needham, while equating Likan as Egypt, refrains from asserting
that the Han's envoys did actually reach there.
However, there are other indications that indirect exchange of products
between China and Africa could go back to two thousand years ago. It was
said that the beautiful Queen Cleopatraof Egypt who reigned between 51 and 30
BC was wearing a dress made of Chinese silk. She might have benefited from
the famous Silk Road which started from Sian, then the Capital of China,
stretchingacross mid-Asia and reachingup to the MediterraneanSea. Or per-
haps the Chinese silk might have been importedinto Egypt through middlemen
from India and other Asian states with which China had trade. Accordingto
Basil Davidson, 'Chinese goods were certainly reaching the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean, by the sea routes, as early as the beginning of the Christian
era';4he also mentions some bronze pots of 'undoubtedlyChinese shape'5dis-
covered in Meroe, the capital of ancient kingdom of Kush which was situated
largely in the present Sudan. He thinks that these metal pots 'which Meroitic
smiths copied at about this time probably came by sea'6 from China.
On the other hand, African products also found their way to China. It is
recorded in Chinese official history (Chronicle of Late Han Dynasty: records
of WesternStates) that in about 166 AD, the Han EmperorWanti received gifts
from the Roman EmperorAntoniaswho also ruled Egypt then: the gifts among
other things were elephant's tusks, rhinocerus's horns, hawks' bills, etc.
These were apparentlyAfricanproducts and had probablycome from northeast
Africa.
Starting from the late Han Dynasty, roughly from 200 till 618 AD, when
the Tang Dynasty (618-907) was established, China was thrown into intermit-
tent wars, split into many independent and sometimes warringstates or dynas-
ties. Such situations lasted for about 400 years until Li Shiming, the second
emperor of the Tang Dynasty, unified the whole country and China became
once again powerful and prosperous. It was also around this period, i.e. in
7th Century, that the Arabsbecame powerful and conqueredlarge areasof west
Asia and north Africa. The ancient Chinese name for the Arabs was Ta Shi
('big-eaters' literally, but it most possibly was merely a transliteration). Any-
how, the two powerful empires were on the whole on friendly terms and there
were many and frequent contacts between them. Within about 150 years
(651-798) the Arab Empire sent its envoys to Tang's imperial court no less
than 36 times: one mission on averagein each four years. Besides, manyArabs
went to China for trade and other occupations. It was registered that at one
time (about 760 AD) there were several thousand Arabs and Persians living

3. Qi Siho, Relations,pp. 1, 4.
4. Basil Davidson, Old Africa Rediscovered (1959), p. 158.
5. Davidson, Old Africa, p. 53.
6. Davidson, Old Africa, p. 158.

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 CHINA AND AFRICA: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS 243

in and around Yangchow, then a booming trading city on the lower reaches
of the Yangtze River. There were even more of them in Canton.
These Arabs were presumably largely from west Asia, but it is also probable
that some might have come from north Africa. And they also brought with
them black slaves or servants, most of whom had their source in south Asia
but some were noticeably from Africa.
In 1954 a clay figurine was found in a Tang tomb in a suburb of Sian, once
the capital of the Tang Dynasty. It has every feature typical of an African,
with black skin, flattish face, curly-swirly hair, broadnose and thick lips. The
figure-makermust have become very familier with the image of black Africans,
possibly by watching them closely. Even more interesting is that many short
stories in Tang Dynasty tell anecdotes about black servants or slaves who often
display bravery, wisdom, unusual behaviour and a sense of justice.
It is also reported that Chinese porcelain pieces, stone wares and coins of
the Tang Dynasty have been found in Egypt, Kenya and Zanzibarin the course
of archaeologicalexcavations there.
However, human contacts between the Tangs and the Arabs or Africans
tended to be one-way traffic. So far, no records have been found that China
during Tang Dynasty had ever sent any large number of envoys or civilians
to West Asia or Africa on either official or commercialerrands. But there is
one outstanding case which concerns a Chinese officer named Du Huan who
did visit Africa in the mid-eighth century. Incidentally, he was taken captive
in a battle by the Arabs but was later released. He then travelled a lot. And
after ten years he managedto return home. In his memoir 'Notes on Travel'
(Jin Shin Ji) he wrote about his visit to a country namedMo-lin, that was 2,000
or 1,000 kilometres southwest of Chiusalou (or Yansaluo, both transliterations
possible), after traversingan immense desert. The inhabitantsare said to have
been black with rough customs. The country had no vegetation and little rice
or wheat. They fed horses on dried fish, and lived themselves on 'hu-mang',
a kind of Persian date. It was malaria infested. Similar descriptions about
Mo-lin can be found in other official historical records like the Chronicle of
the Tang Dynasty.
Historianshave differing interpretationsabout the locality of Mo-lin. Some
say it was in north Africa, others say it was Malindi or Manda, both in present
Kenya. Still others, like Hirth, hold that Mo-lin was to be found along the
west coast of the Red Sea or the eastern coast of Egypt. Hirth asserts that
the desert mentioned 'is no doubt the desert of Sin on the Peninsularof Sinai',
and the name of Yansaluo was none other than the transliterationof Jerusalem;
and that the barren parts of the eastern coast of Egypt were more likely to
have furnished dried fish in quantities as fodder for horses than any part of
the interior of Africa7,and so forth. The CambridgeHistory of Africa (Vol. 3)

7. F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient (1885), p. 204-205.

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244 AFRICANAFFAIRS

however, tends to identify Mo-lin (printed as Malin) with Meroe. As men-

tioned above, Meroe was further south than Egypt, in the present day Sudan.
Right or wrong, Du Huan is the only Chinese whom we know might have
visited Egypt or even the Sudanin person duringthe time of the Tang Dynasty.
During China's Sung Dynasty (960-1279) China's agriculture, commerce
and handicraft industry including iron-smelting, porcelain-makingand ship-
building, achieved big advances. Chinese ocean-going ships were of better
quality than most if not all foreign ships at that time, and the compass was
already in use. As the Sung rulers were threatened by hostile states to the
north, they encouraged foreign trade by sea in the south as a source of
revenue. Thus trade between Chinaand foreign countries as far as Persia and
Arabia and even Africa became more frequent and on a bigger scale. Egypt
remained the most importantcentre of traffic so far as Sino-Africantrade was
concerned. But archaeologicaldiscoveries show that trade relations between
China and the east African coast were also increasing either directly or
indirectly at this time. Chinese coins and porcelains or fragments of them of
Sung Dynasty have been found in Zanzibar,Brava, Kilwa and even as far inland
as Zimbabweand at a site on the south shore of the Limpopo.8
With the development of trade, China's knowledge about Africa also in-
creased. Zhao Rugua, a Provincial commissionerfor maritime trade wrote a
book with the title 'Ju Fan Zhi' (Records of Foreign Countries) in which the
author describes a number of African States such as Berbera, Shenli (both in
Somalia), Zanj (Zanzibar), Fris and Alexandria (in Egypt), Mulanbi (in
Magrib) and Kunlun Zanj (which historians identify as Madagascar).
China's knowledge about Africa took a further a leap forward in the Yuan
Dynasty (1279-1368). A cartographernamed Ju Siben drew in about 1315 a
map with Africa shaped like a triangle pointing southward as indeed it does.
This was a marvellousachievementfor that age. For up till then, maps drawn
by either Europeansor Arabs all showed Africa with a tip pointing eastwards,
and this was not corrected until mid-15th Century. In a map drawn by Ju's
contemporaries, 35 African place-names are marked. The Sahara is shown
black like the Gobi desert in many Chinese maps. Joseph Needham explains
that the extensive knowledge of the Chinese cartographers'must no doubt have
been gained from Arab, Persian and Turkish contacts'.9
It is a pity that no records have been found about Sino-Africanrelationsdur-
ing the Yuan Dynasty amongst Chinese historical works. But the renowned
Moroccantraveller Ibn Batutadescribed his itineraryto Chinaduring the reign
of the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. Because of apparentmisrepresen-
tation about life in north China, such as the use of elephants for pulling loads,
which could have hardly taken place in that cold part of the country, some
8. Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: 'Africa-A
General Survey', p. 329.
9. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilizationin China, p. 555.

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 CHINA AND AFRICA:THE DEVELOPMENT
OF RELATIONS 245

people have cast doubt on whether he ever visited China or not. However,
some Chinese scholars do believe that Ibn Batuta did appear in south Chinese
cities like Chuanchowin Fujien and Hanchow in Chekiangprovinces.
Now we come to the most important period of Sino-African relations in
history. That is China's Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Within 29 years, from
1405-1433, the famous eunuch admiralZheng Ho made 7 voyages and visited
southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean. In the course of at least 2 or
3 of his voyages, he and his fleet reached the east African coast and visited
Mogadishu, Brava, Juba, and Malindi (the former three in present-day
Somalia, the latter in Kenya). It is said that a village in north Somalia still
bears the name of 'Zheng Ho Village' in memory of Zheng's historic visit.10
Many of these visits were in fact of a reciprocal nature. As is officially
recorded in China, the state of Mogadishu had sent its ambassadorsto China
three times between 1416 and 1423. Other Africanstates such as Brava,Juba,
Malin, Behosal, as well as Misr (i.e. Egypt), also sent their envoys, and each
more than once. One Chinese author of that period noted that in one of the
visits, the king of Malin actually came himself, but he failed to reach the capital
and died on the way in Fujien Province. He was buried there. The Chinese
emperor gave him a memorialtitle and ordered a seasonal sacrifice be offered
to him. All these African envoys brought with them traditionalgoods: ivory,
rhinocerus's horns, frankincense, ambergris and other African products.
They also brought animals strange to China such as zebra, ostrich and, most
wonderful of all, a giraffe from Malin, which was regarded by the Chinese as
a special kind of auspicious heavenly beast. A solemn ceremony was held for
the Emperorto receive the envoys and accept the gifts.
On the other hand, Zheng Ho's fleet carried large amounts of gold, silver,
silk, porcelains and coins, to exchange with the local products. Fragments
of Chinese porcelains of Ming Dynasty have subsequently been found in many
African countries, including Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tan-
ganyika, Madagasgarand even Zimbabweand the Transvaalof South Africa.
Zheng Ho's voyages to the African coast were the climax of China's efforts
to develop relations with Africa. It also reflected China's technological level
in ship-building. The flagship which Zheng Ho commandedwas said to be
about 150 metres long, and could contain over one thousand men. In one of
his voyages, Zheng Ho wrote: 'we have traversed more than one hundred
thousand li (equivalent to fifty thousand kilometres) of immense water spaces,
and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountainsrising sky-high, and
have set our eyes on barbarianregions far away and hidden in the blue trans-
parency of vapours, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds, day and night
continued their course'.12
10. Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academyof Social Sciences; 'Africa-A
General Survey', p. 333.
11. Ibid. p. 335.
12. Zheng Hesheng (ed.), A Collectionof ZhengHo's Deeds, p. 117;Davidson, Old Africa, p. 162.

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246 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

Zheng Ho's voyages were in Basil Davidson's words 'remarkableon any

terms'.13 But then there was a sudden withdrawal. Sino-African relations
cooled down, communications and contacts abruptly came to a stop. The
reasons were at least two-fold, one internal, the other external to China, and
to stress only one of them would be inadequate.
First was the change of policy on the part of the Ming court. This change
might itself have resulted from the court rivalry or power struggle between
the eunuch faction and the official faction.14 And the maritime trade itself
became one of the issues in this power struggle. The change certainly had
much to do with the frequent harassmentby the Japanesepirates who assaulted
the Chinese coastal areas and caused lots of damage and losses in human life
and property. Above all, the politically corrupt Ming rulers were no longer
in the same position as their forefathers to pursue a heroic maritimecause; and
they also forbade ordinarypeople to undertakethis task."5
Second was the invasionof Europeancolonialistsin both Asia and Africa. By
the end of the 15th Centuryand duringthe early 16th century when the Chinese
rulers issued edicts prohibiting ship-building and sea-going trade, Vasco da
Gama and his crew turned round the Cape of Good Hope and entered the
Indian Ocean. Afterwards, Kilwa, Mombasa and other east African coast
areas were repeatedly attacked, looted or burnt down by Portuguese colonial-
ists. It can be imagined how a devastated Africa lost any mood or power to
send any more envoys or traders to such a faraway country as China. Even
had they wished to do so, the way to China was no longer clear to them; it
had been blocked by the European invaders who by then had invaded India,
Indonesia and other Indianand Pacific states as well. The Portuguese and the
Dutch invaded China's coast areas too, and occupied some islands.
By the later years of the Ming Dynasty, the administrationdid try to reopen
the oversea trade, mainly for levying tax, but the Manchus in the northeast
took advantage of the weakened strength of both the Ming court and the
peasant insurgents, and succeeded in conquering the whole of China and set
up a new nationwide regime, the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911).
The Manchu rulers of the Ching Dynasty adopted largely a closed-door
policy with regard to foreign relations. Thus while the industrial revolution
gave teeth to western capitalismand colonialism, China remainedin the tether
of a backwardand decaying feudalism, which proved to be utterely powerless
before the gunboats as well as the opium coming from the west. Eventually
the closed-door policy was shattered by the guns of British imperialismin mid-
19th Century (the Opium War). But the way was cleared only for the imperi-
alists to have a free hand to oppress, exploit and bully the Chinese people;

13. Davidson, Old Africa, p. 162.

14. Davidson, Old Africa, p. 163.
15. Chang Wihua, Short Review of the Oversea Tradein Ming Dynasty, ShanghaiPeople's Press,
1956, pp. 36, 43.

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 CHINAAND AFRICA:THE DEVELOPMENT
OF RELATIONS 247

it was not meant for China to resume contacts and friendly relations with the
outside world including Africa, which itself had fallen a prey to the greedy
colonialists and imperialists, and was sinking ever deeper into darkness.-
If there were any subsequent contacts worth mentioning, these were the
Chinese labourersor coolies recruitedby the white colonialiststo work in mines
in South Africa during the early 20th Century. They shared a similarlot with
the native black Africans. It is interesting to note that the question of Chinese
labour aroused such contrasting responses in South Africa. In September
1903, as manyas 42 inhabitantsin a district in TransvaalColony, signed a letter
to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, complaining that their mines and
even farms were at a standstill for want of labour, and begging to petition that
Chinese labour or labour from elsewhere might be brought in, so that 'the
country may be developed and present stagnant state may be brought into a
flourishing condition'.l6 However, other places like Port Elizabeth in Cape
Colony vehemently pronounced their 'opposition to Asiatic and especially the
Chinese immigration'. Some newspapers there exhausted themselves 'in ef-
forts to decry Chinese immigration and paint the consequences of it in the
blackest colour' (Governor of Johannesburg'sletter to the Secretary of State
for Colonies, 18 January 1904).17
In the end, it is calculated, about 70,000 to 100,000 Chinese labourerswere
imported and worked in mines in South Africa from 1904-1907.18 Some of
their descendants run restaurantsand backstreet stores there today. Chinese
labourerswere also recruited by the French and British to work on plantations
in Mauritius, Madagasarand Reunion during the 19th Century. And many
were employed by the Germansfor building the central railwayin Tanganyika
at the beginning of this century.
Sino-African relations were negligible during G(uo-Mintang'srule of China
(until 1949). They have become significantand thriving only after the found-
ing of the People's Republic of China and the emergence of an independent
Africa. This has been a gradual process. When the People's China was
founded, there were altogether only four independent countries in Africa:
Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and the South African state. Owing to the racist
policy of the South African government, there could be no normal relations
to be spoken of with it. Egypt under King Farouk was not eager to approach
China either. Ethiopia and Liberia at that time were under American
influence, with Ethiopia even sending troops to Korea in the early 1950s to
fight on the side of the Americansunder the cloak of the United Nations against
the Chinese Volunteers. However, after the Korean war, first civilian
(including labour and youth organizations) and then official contacts started.

16. PRO, CO 291, Transvaal, Vol. 1, p. 347.

17. Ibid. pp. 200-207.
18. P. Richardson, 'The Recruiting of Chinese Indentured Labour for the South African Gold-
mines, 1903-1907', Journal of African History 18 (1977).

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248 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

During the historic Bandung Conference of the Asian-African countries,

Chinese Premier Chou Enlai met President Nasser of Egypt and other African
delegates. Egypt became the first African country to establish diplomaticre-
lations with Chinain 1956. Since then, altogether 45 (or 90%)of the indepen-
dent African countries have established such relations with China. The only
exceptions are Ivory Coast, Malawi, Angola and Lesotho. China has de-
veloped extensive cooperation with Africa in trade, in economic and technical
development, in culture and sports and in other fields. Almost all the heads
of African Governments with which China has had diplomatic relations have
visited China, some more than once. Late Chinese Premier Chou and Vice-
Premier Marshal Chen Yi visited Africa three times in the 1960s. They went
as far as Ghana, Guinea and Mall in the west, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and
Tunisia in the north, and Ethiopia, Somalia, the Sudan and Tanzania in the
east. In the late 1970s, three Vice-Premiers paid official visits to a number
of African countries separately. Besides, there have been numerous
exchanges of visits by government or non-governmentdelegations.
On the whole, Sino-African relations have developed quite satisfactorily,
thanks to common interests. China's policy has undoubtedly played its role
in this respect. During his visit to Africa in 1963-64, late Premier Chou
enumerated the five principles on which China's relations with African and
Arab countries were based. He also expounded the eight principles which
China must adhere to in rendering economic and technical aid to African
countries. After nearly two decades, the spirit as well as the wording still
stand, but some slight modificationsmight be made in light of changingcircum-
stances. From my personal observation, with regard to African policy, the
Chinese government has tried to act on the following principles:
1. Support Africansin their struggle to win independence and safeguardtheir
national sovereignty against colonialism, imperialism, and hegemonism;
2. Try the best to establish and enhance friendly relations with them on the
basis of equality, mutual benefit and co-operation; provide them with material
and technical assistance in accordancewith China's ability;
3. Support the African governments in pursuance of a policy of peace,
neutrality and non-alignment;
4. Advocate the solution of disputes between African countries through
peaceful negotiations, the upholding of African solidarity, and opposition to
aggression and interference by alien forces;
5. Support the Africancountries in their efforts to develop their nationaleco-
nomies and seek a new economic world order.
Such, to my mind, is the policy China has consistently pursued and it was
not interrupted even during the disastrous period of the Cultural Revolution.
That is why importantdevelopments in Sino-African relations still took place
during that chaotic period in China. As a matterof fact, the numberof African
countries having diplomatic relations with China increased by 22, almost an

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 CHINA AND AFRICA: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS 249

100%increase during that period. It was also in this period that China com-
pleted the building of the Tan-Zam Railwaytogether with the Tanzaniansand
Zambians, as well as some other aid projects. China also received many
African leaders and government delegations on their visits to China. In 1974
alone, no less than nine Africanpresidents came to Chinaone after another. It
was in course of his talks with the visiting President Kaunda of Zambia that
ChairmanMao Zhedong for the first time put forth his views about the division
of three worlds. And it has been repeatedly stressed since then that both
China and Africa belong to the Third World.
The above-mentionedfacts reveal the importancewhich Chinahas laid upon
developing friendly relations with Africa. What are the reasons behind that?
There are chiefly two, one political, the other strategic.
First, the political reason. It must be said that China has always stressed
the political factor in doing things. It is her belief that the liberated people
must help those who are not yet liberated to win liberation, and that China
has the obligation to help the African people to achieve and defend their
national independence. According to Marxism, this is an internationalistduty
they are committed to. The Chinese government and people are quite serious
towards this belief, and do not regard it as a mere slogan or propaganda.
There are a number of African countries-Algeria, Mozambique, Angola,
Zimbabwe, etc-which won their independence after long years of armed
struggle. China actively supported them by providing materialhelp including
military aid to them in the course of their struggle, free of charge of course.
China has also been giving economic assistance to African countries, mainly in
the field of agriculture,light industry (such as textiles, farmimplements, match-
making) and in railway and road building. China has also sent medical teams
to many African countries, and they prove to be one of the most welcome aid
projects for the African people. Recently, a new agreement was signed by
which China is to send a medical team to Libya within a year. Interest-free
loans have been extended to Africa on very soft terms. Of course, as China
is herself a poor developing country with limited resources, the amount of her
aid to Africa is not large. The destruction brought about by the Cultural
Revolution and the large investment needed for her own economy's rehabili-
tation and development, have further constrained her ability to assist the
African countries. Even so, China is still extending aid as her ability allows.
It is believed that with the growth of her economic power, China's assistance
to Africa will also increase, as it conforms to the political principles which
China has earnestly adhered to.
Second, the strategic reason. According to ChairmanMao's theory, when
the world was divided into two camps, one capitalist and the other socialist,
Africa together with Asia and Latin America formed the intermediate zone;
they were places which either camp must strive to win over. China, being in
the socialist camp, certainly should do the same thing. Since the Sino-Soviet

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250 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

split and the disintegrationof the socialist camp, the Soviet Union has become
hegmony-worshipping and engaged itself in expansion. In such circum-
stances, the late ChairmanMao Zhedong worked out his theory about the three
worlds, pointing out that the greatest threat to world peace lies in the rivalry
of the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, for world
hegemony, whereas China and other Asian, African and Latin American
countries constitute the third world. In order to oppose hegemonism in the
interests of world peace, it is necessary for China to unite first and foremost
the third world countries including African countries as well as the second
world countries; and the more the better. Chinacertainlytakes into consider-
ation the great number of African states and their role in the United Nations.
It goes without saying that they made the greatest contributionto the recovery
of China's legitimate seat in the United Nations Organisation. And judging
by the voting records of the past several years, the majorityof the Africancoun-
tries voted against the armed aggression of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan,
for the withdrawalof the Vietnam invading troops from Kampuchea, and so
on. These have rendered blows to the hegemonists, big or small, but they are
in conformity with the Chinese stand.
Therefore, the enhancementof Sino-Africanrelationsmeets the political and
strategic aims of China, while it is also in the interest of the African nations
and beneficial to their common objective of opposing both imperialism and
hegemonism, and safeguardingworld peace.
Are there any problems and setbacks in Sino-African relations? I don't
think everthing has been perfect. There were sometimes minor problems or
incidents which were not so pleasant. But a Chinese saying goes: they are just
'a negligible spot on a solid white jade'.

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