The much-anticipated Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) took place on Sept. 3-4, where Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech with the theme of "Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future."

In his relatively brief speech, Xi sent a clear message that China would further strengthen relations with Africa with even greater determination, confidence, and commitment.

First of all, China will adhere to the existing principles of China-Africa relations.

President Xi summed up China's long-standing position toward Africa as five "hands-off" principles, namely, China doesn't interfere with African countries' search for development paths suited to their national realities; China doesn't interfere with Africa's internal affairs; China doesn't impose its will on others; China doesn't attach any political conditions to aid to Africa; and China doesn't seek political self-interest in its investment in and financing to Africa.

In recent years, the West often argues that its "conditional aid to Africa" is conducive to promoting democracy and liberalization while China's "unconditional aid" helps African governments abuse their power and is not conducive to sound governance and political progress in Africa.

The West also launched the Libyan war and various military interventions under the pretexts of "humanitarian intervention" and "human rights above sovereignty."

However, the chaos and political disorder in Libya today is the most powerful proof of the failure of such military interventions.

Therefore, President Xi called for continued adherence to the five "hands-off" principles by China in its cooperation with Africa while expressing hope for all countries to adopt such non-interference approaches to African affairs.

In addition, to counter the smear and criticism of Sino-Africa relations by the West in recent years, President Xi emphasized in his speech that no one can undermine the great unity of Chinese and African people; no one can stop the revitalization of China and Africa; no one can deny or doubt the remarkable achievements of Sino-Africa cooperation; and no one can stop or disrupt the actions of the international community in support of the development of Africa.

The four forceful statements demonstrate China's readiness to counter Western attempts to discredit Sino-Africa relations, given that no one is better positioned to evaluate the relationship than the Chinese and African people themselves.

President Xi's speech also sent a strong signal that China would promote its cooperation with Africa with greater determination.

Despite the tendencies of some countries to "clean the snow in front of one's own door and ignore the frost on the roofs of others" and the rise of unilateralism and protectionism and self-centric discourse, China will take on the historical responsibility of building a community of shared destiny, developing a global partnership, expanding friendly cooperation and forging a new path to country-to-country exchanges featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation together with other countries in the world.

In the next three years, China will carry out "eight major initiatives" in cooperation with Africa in the fields of industrial promotion, facilities connection, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health and hygiene, cultural exchanges, and peace and security with 60 billion US dollars of promised financial support.

This has shown that against the backdrop of profound changes in the international landscape, China will further strengthen Sino-Africa friendship, unity and cooperation with greater fortitude and determination and address international challenges by building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.