The world is at a crossroad. It is witnessing the restructuring of global power, a pandemic and national development transformation driven by a global climate change agenda. The shock is universal to all but unfair to Africa. African countries are much more fragile to the shocks and may lose more than others. Africa is experiencing its worst economic recession in half a century, the population in extreme poverty is increasing in large numbers, and the peace and security situation is deteriorating during the pandemic.

Africa needs the world. However, it's a disunited world with a global development deficit and in which the voices of Africa are neglected and an African crisis response capability is limited. The worrying truth is that Africa has the lowest COVID-19 vaccine accessibility, the lowest climate financing, and the heaviest shock by climate change even though the emission of greenhouse gases by the continent is very small.

China shares the same feeling on Africa's difficulties. Against that backdrop, China and Africa gathered at the Dakar conference of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the end of November. The conference turned out to be a timely and significant event for China and the continent. In giving a keynote speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered strategic proposals and commitments on China-Africa cooperation for the next three years and for the longer term. The "Four Proposals" and "Nine Projects" encourage everyone who cares about Africa to bring impetus and confidence to the continent.

China is responding to the demands of Africa. A friend in need is a friend indeed. The real difficulty and requirements of African countries are the main determinants of commitments to the FOCAC. It is very clear that concrete measures are what African countries need most, and mostly in the form of aid. In order to support Africa's fight against the pandemic and improve the capability of public health, China will provide another one billion doses of vaccines in the form of 600 million doses as a donation and 400 million through joint production by Chinese companies and African countries. China also provides other grants to support Africa's poverty reduction, green development and digital innovation.

Regarding fiscal and liquidity challenges, China continues to support Africa's industrialization, infrastructure and private sectors by backing ten regional connectivity projects, ten industrialization and job-creating projects, increasing imports and investments in the following three years. China is among the very few countries or maybe the first country pledging to transfer 10 billion U.S. dollars from its IMF SDRs relocations to Africa. This has been applauded warmly by African countries and is setting an example for the world, especially for Western countries.

To be frank, these very practical measures are what African countries need most and can bring quick development impacts. They are the best illustration of what real friendship means. The loud applause in the conference hall provided the answers.

China is shouldering its international responsibility and calling on other countries to follow in contributing to global governance and African development. As the largest developing country, China strongly upholds the common global value of humanity, which is crystallized into peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom. It is based on this value that China develops relations with Africa and the rest of the world. By agreeing on common values, China and African countries have developed their partnership to a high level that is well explained by the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation. The spiritual and practical experiences are meaningful and valuable for international cooperation with Africa and global development as well.

Building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future has been set as the new aim for China-Africa cooperation. This highlights the importance of the high-quality, high standard and sustainability of China-Africa Cooperation. This also requires bold common actions between the two based on common interests and ambitions. As President Xi proposed, what the two should do right now is to focus efforts to consolidate the fight against the pandemic and on deep practical cooperation, the promotion of green development, and upholding of fairness and justice.