African Countries' Democratization Process And Its Influence On China-africa Relations

As a prolonged and complex process involving political, social and cultural transformation, African countries' democratization dated back to the first days of their independence. This process went through the trial of multiparty system in the early days of independence, the collective transformation toward one-party system and military regime from the 1970s to the 1980s. The multiparty movements taking place in the 1990s are merely one of the specific stages of this historical process.The history of China-Africa relations shows that, China has long been an important participator and active facilitator of the democratization process and played a unique role by helping African countries to realize national liberation and political independence and promote economic development and social progress, which is widely welcomed and highly appreciated by African countries.In the coming years, African countries' democratization process is expected to keep its good momentum and move forward steadily along with uncertainties. The multipartyism will be further africanized so as to better adapt the concrete situations in different African countries. Western countries remain the most important external driving forces, and the African Union and other regional organizations will be given a chance to play their role.African countries' democratization brings to China-Africa relations both opportunities and challenges. It offers China-Africa cooperation a more steady political environment and fresh opportunities, and African countries attach more and more importance to their cooperative relations with China. At the same time, election politics bring about some impacts upon China-Africa relations, western countries try by every possible means to interfere with and restrain the development of China-Africa relations, and uncertainties in the democratization process represent major political risks to China-Africa pragmatic cooperation.