China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, with bilateral trade reaching a record 295.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, as announced by an official from the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Assistant Minister of Commerce Tang Wenhong highlighted that the scale of China-Africa economic cooperation has expanded steadily, showing strong growth momentum.
"In 2024, the trade volume between China and Africa amounted to 295.6 billion U.S. dollars, rising 4.8 percent year on year and setting a new record for the fourth consecutive year. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years. Specifically, China's imports from Africa reached 116.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.9 percent, while its exports to Africa stood at 178.8 billion U.S. dollars, increasing 3.5 percent. China's vast market has provided extensive opportunities for African goods," he said.
Tang noted that Chinese enterprises in recent years have significantly enhanced their development and investment activities in various economic and trade zones across Africa. That has facilitated industrial chain collaboration between China and Africa, while also making substantial contributions to local tax revenues, employment opportunities, and export earnings.
"For digital economy, Chinese enterprises have built several large-scale data centers for Africa, providing cloud computing services. 5G technology has also been widely applied in African mining and urban management. In terms of green development, the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic power stations built through China-Africa cooperation has exceeded 1.5 gigawatts, which can meet the electricity demands of over a million African households. In financial cooperation, Egypt and the African Export-Import Bank successfully issued Chinese yuan-denominated panda bonds in China in 2023 and 2025 respectively," he continued.
China remains Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years: official
China remains Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years: official
China remains Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years: official
China's 16th Arctic Ocean expedition achieved the country's first video call spanning the North and South Poles on September 25, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, using a domestically developed satellite system with a delay of no more than one second.
The expedition deployed four vessels -- Xuelong, Xuelong 2, Jidi, and Tansuo 3 -- to study extreme environmental changes in the Arctic amid accelerating global warming. On September 29, China's research icebreakers Xuelong and Xuelong 2 returned to Shanghai after completing their missions, while Jidi and Tansuo 3 continue their expedition tasks and are expected to return in mid-October following a three-month journey.
The expedition team held a satellite video conversation with China's Antarctic Qinling Station, extending festive greetings to their polar scientific research counterparts and testing a large-scale constellation designed to provide global broadband internet and support integrated space-Earth 6G networks.
"This is the first time that China has used a domestically developed communications satellite system to make a video call across the largest latitude span," said Liu Feng, a senior engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service.
The around-13,000-satellite GW constellation, led by China Satellite Network Group (SatNet), is China's first mega low Earth orbit satellite internet project. During the polar test, the maximum uplink and downlink speed reached around 30 megabits per second, equivalent to taking about 10 minutes to download a 1GB file. The equipment can also be used for emergency rescue and maritime communications.
"During the test period, it also supported real-time communications among Xuelong, Jidi, Tansuo 3, the National Marine Data and Information Service and the Polar Research Center. After Jidi and Tansuo 3 entered ice zone operation areas, their communication could not be guaranteed. So file transfers and navigation logs had to be transmitted through the SatNet equipment," said Zhang Bin, an engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service. The successful test of the domestically produced satellite communication equipment marks China's independent control over polar region communications. The equipment ensures that data remains within the country, effectively safeguarding data security.
China holds first video call between North, South Poles via homegrown satellite system
