On August 27, 2024, President Xi Jinping replied to a letter written by scholars from 50 African countries, encouraging them to continue to provide intellectual support for building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding the common interests of the Global South.

Xi Jinping pointed out that not long ago, the successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) sounded the clarion call of the times to open up broad prospects for Chinese modernization through further deepening reform. The continuous development and growth of China that pursues peaceful development and is committed to reform and opening up will surely further strengthen the forces for world peace and international justice, and inject inexhaustible impetus into the global modernization process, especially the development and revitalization of the Global South.

Xi Jinping stressed that China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future. In the face of an evolving and turbulent world situation, China and Africa need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation more than ever before. The upcoming Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will bring together Chinese and African leaders once again to discuss China-Africa cooperation, which will open up even more magnificent prospects for China-Africa relations. Xi Jinping expressed the hope that based on the China-Africa Dar es Salaam Consensus, the African scholars will step up research and exploration on the development path of Global South countries, China-Africa and South-South cooperation, and continue to provide important intellectual support for building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding the common interests of the Global South.

A few days ago, former veteran diplomat of South Africa and honorary professor of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University Gert Grobler and 63 scholars from 50 African countries sent a joint letter to President Xi Jinping, warmly congratulating on the successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, highly commending the historic achievements of the FOCAC, and expecting that the upcoming Summit of the FOCAC would write a new chapter in building a China-Africa community with a shared future and the joint modernization of the Global South.