For the 36th consecutive year, Africa is once again the first overseas destination of China's foreign minister in a new year — an enduring diplomatic tradition that speaks volumes about the depth, consistency and strategic significance of China-Africa relations.

From Wednesday to Monday next week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Lesotho at the invitation of the respective governments. During the trip, Wang will also attend the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges launch ceremony at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The trip is aimed at promoting the implementation of the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, strengthening mutual learning between China and Africa as two major civilizations, and injecting new impetus into building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

This consistent diplomatic engagement highlights the nature of China-Africa ties, which represent the archetype for bilateral relations based on mutually beneficial cooperation.

Through these visits, China aims to strengthen economic partnerships, enhance political mutual trust and promote cultural exchanges. Such interactions are part of China's broader Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to increase connectivity and cooperation among Asia, Africa and Europe, demonstrating the African continent's integral role in China's diplomacy and international cooperation.

In 2024, China established or upgraded strategic partnerships with 30 African countries when the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held in Beijing. As a result, China has established a strategic partnership with all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations. The country is also making efforts to help African countries develop renewable energy, treat environmental pollution and realize green development.

Over the past 26 years, China has helped build 100,000 kilometers of highways, more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 1,000 bridges and dozens of ports for African countries. In the past three years, China has created more than 1 million jobs, and initiated actions to empower small and medium-sized African enterprises, as well as hosted China-African trade fairs that have brought extensive benefits to African people.

China has blazed a path for its development with its own characteristics. So China believes that all countries should respect other countries' choice of development path. African countries have the right to choose their development path according to their own conditions and inclinations.

In this light, China has been helping African countries to seize the initiative of development in their own hands so that they can generate more endogenous motivation to take advantage of their comparative advantages to gradually ascend along the global value chain in the world economic system. In the process, African countries — with a combined population of over 1.5 billion that is the youngest among all continents and rich natural resources — can have their voices better heard in global governance.

To that end, China has been implementing the Sino-African partnership actions to advance the development of African countries' industries and their agricultural modernization, and helping them cultivate new growth engines such as digital, green and artificial intelligence technologies.

The modernization of Africa is of great importance to the world. It is hoped that the continent can strive to realize modernization that is people-centered, diverse yet inclusive, environmentally friendly, peaceful and secure.

That is not only conducive to enhancing African countries' own ability to keep their development on the right track in the face of the strong global headwinds, but also conducive to the common development of the Global South and the building of the community with a shared future for humanity.