A total of 151 countries from different continents have joined the Belt and Road Initiative since it was launched in 2013, which has already brought numerous infrastructure projects, particularly to African and Latin American countries. This cozy relationship between these developing nations has seen some countries and media cast their doubts and even use smear campaigns, hoping to drive a wedge among these partners.   

In this interview, Kyeretwie Opoku, convener of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, and Marco Fernandes, Brazilian researcher with the Tri-continental: Institute for Social Research, analyzed why cooperation with China is fundamentally different from the one they had with some previous partners.

"China had walked the talk with Africa right from the beginning, back to at least the post-war area; it is not simply modern-day powerful China," Opoku said. "Even when China had nothing, they shared that nothing with us; China always collaborated with us." 

With that longstanding history of cooperation between the two, Opoku said he had absolutely no doubts about China's sincerity in strengthening solidarity and cooperation with developing countries and safeguarding the common interests of the developing world.

At China's 20th Party Congress in 2022, China promised to promote world peace and development and build a human community with a shared future. "China is prepared to invest more resources in global development cooperation. It is committed to narrowing the North-South gap and supporting and assisting other developing countries in accelerating development," according to the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

"China is showing to the whole Global South that there's an alternative to neoliberalism. The key decisions about our politics, economy and resources should be decided in our countries." Fernandes believes China's successful development has inspired other developing nations.

"In the deep of my soul, I feel they (Chinese) are one of us. We are people of color; we are people from the Global South. They made it; maybe we can do it too," Fernandes said.

Reporter and Host: Li Jingjing

Video editor: Jin Yulin, Sun Yuxuan

Subtitle translator: Zhang Xiaonan, Jin Yulin