Kuda Bwititi in YIWU, China
A BOOK exploring China-Africa relations, development cooperation and the role of young people in driving Africa’s modernisation was launched in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province in China, on Saturday.
The book, co-authored by Tsinghua University Professor Zhao Yuezhi and China-based Zimbabwean academic Mr Tungamirai Eric Mupona, was unveiled at the Yiwu China-Africa Dialogue Forum, which brought together scholars, officials and other stakeholders from China, Africa and the Global South.
The publication documents the growing academic and people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa, with particular attention to the experiences that have shaped cooperation between Zimbabwe and China.
Speaking at the event, Professor Zhao who is the Humanities Chair at Tsinghua University said the publication was important in advancing understanding of development experiences in the Global South.
She said modernisation should not be viewed as the adoption of a single development model, but rather as a process through which countries pursue paths suited to their national circumstances.
“Modernisation is not the copying of a single model, but a choice each country makes on the basis of its own national conditions,” she said.
Professor Zhao said China-Africa cooperation should go beyond individual projects to promote a shared understanding of development and strengthen the voice of developing countries in international discourse.
She noted that the development experiences of African countries were often narrated by outsiders, creating an imbalance in how the Global South was represented internationally.
“The gap in communication capacity is, in a sense, a gap in the power to define,” she said.
Professor Zhao said the book and other academic exchanges could help strengthen the capacity of China and African countries to tell their own development stories through research, evidence and international communication.
Calling for stronger collaboration between universities, governments and media institutions, she said young people should be given greater opportunities to contribute to discussions on development.
In his remarks, Mr Mupona said the book was born out of his academic research and an encounter with Professor Zhao in 2023.
He said he had travelled to Professor Zhao’s family home in Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province, while conducting fieldwork for his master’s thesis.
During the visit, he discovered that Professor Zhao had a longstanding vision of bringing scholars from the Global South to Jinyun to exchange ideas and experiences.
“I said, then let us start with Zimbabwe,” he said, explaining how the initiative that eventually contributed to the publication began.
Mr Mupona said the book also captured developments that followed the initial engagement, including the visit of Zimbabwean students to Jinyun, subsequent exchanges involving Chinese scholars in Zimbabwe and the establishment of the Harare Africa Forum.
The book was authored in Chinese, with the English version set to be launched in Harare next year.
At the same event, China-Zimbabwe Exchange Centre chairman and Harare Africa Forum secretary-general Mr Zhao Ke said the publication came at a time when China-Africa economic and people-to-people relations were expanding.
He said young people should be placed at the centre of Africa’s modernisation agenda, arguing that infrastructure development alone was insufficient to achieve meaningful transformation.
“Young people are the core driving force behind African modernisation and where its future lies,” he said.
Mr Zhao said the Harare Africa Forum and the China-Zimbabwe Exchange Centre would continue promoting practical skills development among African youths, particularly in cross-border e-commerce, international trade, rural revitalisation and green energy.
He said cooperation with institutions in Yiwu would create opportunities for African youths to acquire skills and apply them in their home countries.
Mr Zhao also invited participants to attend the Fourth Harare Africa Forum in Zimbabwe in 2027.
The Yiwu China-Africa Dialogue was held under the theme Promoting the Global Development Initiative.
