South Africa was one of the first African countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative. China has so far signed memorandums of understanding on cooperation in co-building the Belt and Road with 52 African countries.

The bumper harvest of results from Xi's visit to South Africa marks the great maturity of the two leading emerging economies, and shores up hope around future two-way practical cooperation as well as infrastructure buildup on the African continent, experts said.

"In recent years, China-South Africa relations have been running at a high level and exchanges among political parties have deepened," said He Wenping, a senior researcher on African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"At a time when South Africa's economy is faced with difficulties, China has offered a helping hand for overcoming its bottlenecks, such as tackling the African country's electricity shortage through new energy cooperation," she added.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn