JOINT PURSUIT OF MODERNIZATION

On Sept 4, 2024, Xi, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) revitalization project in Beijing. The project has since entered full-scale construction.

The railway embodies deep China-Africa bonds and shared aspirations. During talks with Hassan in 2022, Xi noted that even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this railway.

"Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, help our African friends achieve common development, and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era," Xi said.

"The railway changed my life," said retired Tanzanian TAZARA driver Alois Shimbaya, who spent his lifetime running trains on the railway. The groundbreaking ceremony for the revitalization project has renewed his hopes for future development.

For Zambian youth Michael Nchovo, who is now studying high-speed rail technology at Central South University in China's Hunan Province, the news was thrilling.

He said that among the Chinese builders who once travelled to Zambia to help build the railway were alumni of his university, and as a new-generation railway builder, he was ready to contribute to the upgrading of the TAZARA railway and to Africa's modernization drive.