BEIJING: With border conflicts, climate change and rising prices threatening the food security of millions of people displaced from their homes in Burkina Faso, emergency humanitarian assistance funded by China poured into the country earlier this month.
The aid, from China’s Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, delivered lifesaving food and other nutritional assistance to 170,000 refugees in the West African nation, marking another effort by Beijing to bolster Burkina Faso’s food security.
“This is the demonstration of China’s role as a major country and its support for the developing nations; a vivid practice of building a community with a shared future for mankind,” said Lu Shan, Chinese ambassador to Burkina Faso, at a handover ceremony of the aid this month.
A team of Chinese agricultural experts and another of medical workers have continued to operate in the African nation.
Behind the moves are Beijing’s greater commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind by supporting global South-South cooperation, aiding developing nations in attaining a higher level of independent development and presenting a vision for countries, cultures and civilizations to better connect, said analysts and observers.
While setting out the vision for the Chinese path to modernization at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, underlined the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, which he first put forward in 2013, as an essential part of the modernization process.
Xi, who is also Chinese president, underscored in his report to the Congress that China will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress and stay dedicated to peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit as the nation follows its own path to modernization.
Over the past decade, Beijing has emerged as one of the top providers of global public goods, proposing the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative and initiating the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund. As of 2021, Beijing had sent over 2,000 agricultural experts to more than 70 countries and regions, sharing technologies and methods that directly benefited over 1.5 million rural households, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Chinese medical teams, now working at 115 locations in 56 countries, are at the forefront of China’s broader push to help developing countries improve their level of healthcare.
The nation responded quickly in February when the deadly earthquakes struck Turkiye and Syria, sending key supplies including makeshift homes, clothing, tents and medical equipment.
As China strides forward on its own path to modernization, the nation will remain steadfast in supporting other developing countries, to expedite their growth and work toward a better world, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang wrote in an article on Friday.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
