Moving around the Rwanda's capital city Kigali, the fine roads, the rising up buildings and the pleasure climates which makes people feel that this is definitely a vibrant place and everything is just perfectly in its order. When I was meander through Kigali's streets, I was overwhelmed and amazed by the Rwandan's enthusiasm and hospitality, so many people here greet you with ' Ni hao' ( Chinese means hello), some are with very fluent Chinese speaking. More suprisingly, I have ever met a pair of young Rwanda girl and boy with proficient Chinese preach the Christianity to me with the craft designed Chinese written booklet, with more and more Chinese influx to Rwanda, which seems Chinese gradually become the religion preaching target.
All these experiences I have experienced here suggests that the appearance and influence of the China and Chinese here in Rwanda. There are more than 5000 Rwandans registered at Confucius Institute which opened in 2009. According to China's official record, 55 Confucius Institutes and 30 Confucius classrooms set up in 42 African countries and Mandarin has been incorporated into the national education system across 11 African countries during year between 2015 to 2018. China by far is Rwanda's largest trading partner and contractor, with 70% of roads in the country built by Chinese firms. Currently, in Rwanda, there are over 20 Chinese companies in the sectors of construction, manufacturing, mining, engineering and services that have set up shops in Rwanda. Under the backdrop of Rwanda's made-in-Rwanda program and trade tensions between Rwanda and the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, last year, Rwanda announced the ban on used clothes and increased the levy on imported used clothes. The China's C&H garment firm which has began operations in 2015 in the Kigali special Economic Zone and by now is the Rwanda's largest textile manufacturer and has employed over 800 Rwandans working here.
In this year's July 23th, Xi Jinping as the first ever Chinese president visited Rwanda, at two days visit, bilateral side signed 15 deals ranging from trade to infrastructure, especially about infrastructure development and agriculture modernization and Rwanda signed loan agreements worth more than $300 million with China.
China and Rwanda's bilateral ties established in 1971, during the past 4 decades, there are broad economic and culture changes . According to the united Nations COMTRADE database, Rwanda imports from China was US$377.77 million during 2016, according to this data, Rwanda's import value from China is increasing trend since 2008, Rwanda's importing products from China are mainly mechanical and electrical products, farm tools, vehicles, high-tech products and textiles, whereas China's importing products from Rwanda are mainly minerals, coffee beans, tea and cowhide.
China's Africa initiatives and narratives
With the 7th China-Africa cooperation forum( CACF) Beijing summit approaching, Beijing as the hosting city, spare its full efforts and spirits to welcome this grand event, in order to control the traffic, almost Beijing's all primary school's school start day was postponed two days during the summit underway. Meanwhile, many main streets were decorated with the themed flower beds and landscape lighting at nighttime to showcase the friendships between China and Africa.
China-Africa cooperation forum funded in 2000, which aims to boost the dialogue and collaboration between China and 53 Africa countries and hosts every 3 years.
Unlike the western media's concerns and questioning about the China's presence and engagement in Africa, like most used statement "neocolonism", China is trying to use its own narratives to talk about the China and Africa relationships. Just few days ahead of the CACF, Chinese media had reported the Africa-related messages in an unprecedented way. All Chinese mainstream medias bombard the readers domestically and abroad with all kinds of reportage forms like How China contributing to Africa's development documentaries, CACF's developing history infographics, interviewing with experts and African officals, Africa knowledge prompting and etc, all these are for setting a more positive China's Africa engagement image.
For now, China is Africa largest trading partner since overtook America's position nine years ago. In 2017, China and Africa trading volume reached to US $170 billion, with year-on-year growth of 14%. During the CACF summit, Xi Jinping announced Chinese government will provide Africa US $ 60 billion aid.
