On 11 January 2023 during his visit to Ethiopia, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang stated that "Africa should be a stage for international cooperation, not an arena for major-force rivalry. . . . If African friends wish, China is also ready to carry out trilateral or multilateral cooperation with any other country in Africa to jointly make greater contributions to the development and rejuvenation of Africa."
While still ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang stated even more explicitly during an interview in Washington on 12 December 2022: "And we believe that Africa should be a place for international cooperation, not for major-power competition for geopolitical gains. We welcome all other members of the international community, including the United States, to join us in the global efforts to help Africa. . . .
We need to extend, broaden our vision and expand our cooperation in Africa. This is one of the very interesting areas for the two countries to work on.
In recent years, we have had good examples. For example, in 2015, China and the United States together helped African countries like Liberia to fight against Ebola. It is a good example. Several good economic projects in Africa are jointly participated by China, the United States and African countries. There's a textile industry park in Ethiopia that is jointly sponsored, built and operated by China, the United States and Ethiopia. It's very productive, and exports garments to Europe and North American markets. That's very successful. I hope that we can work with the United States on peace, security and prosperity in Africa."
Comment: The possibility for US-China-Africa cooperation has rarely been mentioned since 2015 primarily because of the deterioration in US-China relations and focus on great power competition. Foreign Minister Qin Gang is suggesting there is an opportunity to revisit China-US cooperation in Africa.
