China's tradition of launching each diplomatic year with a visit to Africa is now in its 36th consecutive year, a consistency that is as much strategic orientation as it is symbolic. In an era of fractured geopolitics, this annual first overseas trip by Foreign Minister Wang Yi underscores China's sustained commitment to a continent that has emerged not just as a partner of growth but as a co-architect of a new global narrative.

What sets this year apart is both the historical context and the realignment of cooperative agendas. In 2026, China and African countries celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations, and Beijing designated this milestone year as the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges. This framing deliberately places emphasis on enduring social and cultural connectivity, a foundation intended to outlast political cycles and market volatility. It signals a more mature phase of bilateral engagement, one that appreciates that infrastructure and trade are necessary but not exclusive drivers of durable international partnership.

While traditional pillars such as investment, trade and infrastructure remain essential to China-Africa cooperation, Wang's itinerary, which included Ethiopia, Tanzania and Lesotho on invitation of the respective governments, also highlighted cooperation in new strategic areas. In Addis Ababa, China and Ethiopia reaffirmed their commitment to elevate their relationship to an all-weather strategic partnership, with an explicit focus on leveraging recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation outcomes not just for bilateral gain but as a model for broader China-Africa cooperation — economic, digital and cultural.

Similarly, dialogue with Tanzanian officials broadened the conversation from long-standing traditional cooperation to deeper friendship and continuity of shared goals, reiterating the principles of sincerity and mutual benefit that have anchored bilateral ties for decades.

Importantly, Wang's visit also involved substantive engagement with the African Union. In strategic dialogue with AU leadership in Addis Ababa, he positioned the African bloc as a central partner in addressing shared development challenges and advancing a modernization narrative rooted in mutual respect and co-determination. This engagement articulated a vision of cooperation in which African agency and institutional partnership play defining roles, a stance that resonates deeply across the Global South.

At a time when major powers increasingly view global engagement through the lens of competition and alignment, China's approach is both subtle and consequential. Rather than conditioning cooperation on political models or policy prescriptions, Beijing continues to emphasize sovereign equality, shared development priorities and collective agency. This posture allows African partners to define cooperation in terms that align with their own projections of national development and continental leadership.

Wang's calls in Tanzania for upholding multilateralism and international law further speak to China's attempt to position itself as a champion of the rules-based order. In contrast to narratives that describe Beijing as a disruptor of existing norms, this framing seeks to anchor China-Africa cooperation within broader commitments to stability and predictability in global governance.

Taken together, these developments reflect a broader evolution in Sino-African relations from a partnership rooted in development assistance and infrastructure investment to one increasingly concerned with strategic coherence, institutional cooperation and global multilateral engagement. This does not diminish the significance of economic ties. Rather, it situates economic development within a larger framework that includes cultural exchange, technological collaboration, shared leadership within the Global South and mutual support in international forums.

In a global landscape characterized by shifting power balances, rising protectionism and contested narratives about globalization's future, China's strategic approach in Africa is neither simplistic nor static. It is anchored in continuity, yet adaptive to emerging realities. It emphasizes mutual agency over dependency, shared problem-solving over unilateral prescriptions, and institutional partnership over episodic diplomacy.

As the world recalibrates its understandings of cooperation and influence, Wang's Africa tour reveals a deliberate attempt to shape a more balanced, pluralistic international order, rooted in shared development, cross-cultural engagement and collective agency among Global South nations.

The author is a PhD scholar in international relations based in Nairobi, Kenya.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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