The China-Africa cooperation has contributed positively to the promotion
and protection of people’s rights to subsistence and development in Africa, a Chinese envoy has said.
Xu Jinghu, the Chinese Government’s Special Representative for African Affairs, made the remarks while
addressing a side-event of the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Xu said the China-Africa cooperation has provided a powerful boost to the improvement of people’s livelihood and
sustainable development in African countries, thus helped improve the overall development of the
human rights cause in Africa.
The event, titled “The Contribution of Development and Poverty Reduction to the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights,” was jointly sponsored by the African Group and the Permanent Mission of China to the UN
office in Geneva.
According to the Chinese envoy, Chinese-funded enterprises have helped to create a large number of jobs in Africa.
For example, she said, some 46,000 jobs had been created just by the Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi railway.
She said China built more than 200 schools in Africa and trained 120,000 local talents.
Since 1963, she said, China has sent about 20,000 medical team members to Africa and treated nearly 300 million
patients.
Xu said by the end of 2017, China had helped to build 5,600 km of highways, more than 6,200 km of railways,
and a number of ports, bridges, power stations, stadiums and office buildings in Africa.
“The contribution of China-Africa cooperation to African economic growth has exceeded 20 per cent,” she said.
