US President George W. Bush said on February 20 in Accra, Ghana that the United States and China "can pursue agenda without creating a sense of competition." "I don't view Africa as a zero-sum for China and the United States (either win or lose)," he noted. This gesture of Bush's deserves endorsement and affirmation.
The so-called zero-sum idea represents the rules of the game. If one party wins in the game, the other party is bound to lose, as the total score for the game remains zero. So some people apply a zero-sum concept to the appraisal of social relations or global relationships. Since the entire globe is taken as a sealed setup with limited fortune, resources and opportunities, if some individuals or certain regions or nations obtain more fortune, they would be considered taking the possession of other peer individuals, regions or nations.
Such an idea has defects with itself and has been proven outmoded and even harmful in the present era with rapid advances in the science and technology and social development, as countries and regions around the world can attain a "win-win" outcome through the means of cooperation in the course of development.
Certain forces in the West, are nevertheless used to view Sino-African ties and the relations between the West and Africa as a zero-sum. For this cause, they spare no effort to distort facts, create so-called the "neo-colonialism" and a "threat theory" to discredit China and sow dissension between China and Africa. To put it bluntly, they fear that the growth of Sino-African ties will impair their interests in Africa.
China is the biggest developing nation on earth, whereas Africa has the most concentration of developing nations, and their combined population makes up over one third of the total global population. So, without peace and development for China and Africa, there will absolutely be no peace and development of the entire globe. China and Africa have all along adhered to the correct principle of fostering sincere friendship, with each other standing on an equal footing and being supported for the common development.
Sino-African cooperation represents an important component part of the international cooperation, and the enhancement of such cooperation not only benefits the people of China and Africa but spurs the prosperity and development of the entire world.
China has repeatedly made clear with its open, constructive approach that it is willing and ready to make its positive and unremitting efforts to peace and development in Africa along with the international community. Likewise, African countries do not pit the development of their relations with China against their efforts for the expansion of their ties with the West.
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame once said his country was striving to retain its good relations with China, the U.S. and Europe. He particularly appreciated the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) the U.S. had signed with African countries, which provided unprecedented opportunities and aims to promote increased trade and investment between the U.S. and Sub-Saharan African countries.
On AGOA, President Paul Kagame said he deemed the Act would bring more African commodities to the U.S. market. So the Western nations have no reason to consider the relationships between China and the West in Africa as a zero-sum.
To date, with gratifying changes occurred in the continent, the political situation in Africa has been stable on the whole, the African economy has grown in a sustained way and its external contact and cooperation become more and more bustling.
The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing in November 2006. Leaders of France and the Africa Union (AU) met, and the EU/Africa Summit was held in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2007. Meanwhile, leaders of India, Brazil and Russia have also visited Africa one after another.
Moreover, the 10th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government has been held recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the theme "Industrial Development of Africa." The session called on African countries to adopt measures to speed up the process of industrial development, so as to expand empolyment and improve the wellbeing of their people. All this has created opportunities and space of sound cooperation for Africa with China, the Western nations and other countries across the world.
Only when the parties involved discard the zero-sum concept and other related prejudices, can opportunities be truly seized to attain the "win-win" result on the vast, promising continent of Africa.
By People's Daily Online and its author is Wang Nan
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