No matter how the international landscape may change, China will always stand firmly with Africa, offering strong support for the continent's modernization and serving as a true friend and sincere brother in Africa's journey toward development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, the capital city of central China's Hunan Province.
He said that the expo will create more opportunities for China-Africa cooperation and yield more results.
Achieving modernization is a shared aspiration of the more than 2.8 billion people in China and Africa, and a key objective of a China-Africa community with a shared future, Wang said.
He said China will continue to carry out exchanges of governance experience with African countries and strengthen the synergy of development strategies between the two sides to fast-track the implementation of the ten partnership actions for modernization.
Wang pledged China's efforts to further open up to Africa by signing more deals of economic partnerships and encouraging the import of more African goods.
China will also deepen practical cooperation to facilitate Africa's industrialization and digital transformation, Wang added.
Ugandan Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Liberian Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung and Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi also attended the opening ceremony.
Nearly 4,700 Chinese and African companies as well as over 30,000 participants will attend the four-day event, themed "China and Africa: Together Toward Modernization." The value of cooperation projects preliminarily agreed upon surpasses 11 billion U.S. dollars, according to organizers.
Chinese foreign minister reaffirms China’s support for Africa at economic and trade expo
The descendants of Japanese combatants in China during World War II, who last year knelt in apology to the Chinese people on behalf of their fathers in northeast China's Jilin Province, stressed the crucial need for Japanese people to recognize the atrocities committed by their ancestors and offer sincere apologies as an obligation.
On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops attacked Chinese forces at the Lugou Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing, marking the beginning of Japan's full-scale invasion of China and China's nationwide resistance against the Japanese invaders, initiating a whole-of-nation war effort that opened the main Eastern battlefield in the global war against fascism.
In September 2024, Kuroi Akio, along with five other descendants of Japanese soldiers who had invaded China, came to Gongzhuling City in Jilin Province with historical documents to apologize to the Chinese people on behalf of their fathers.
Kuroi's father, Kuroi Keijirou, participated in two separate campaigns in northeast China in 1932 and 1941. These campaigns included violent acts against civilians, something Kuroi is determined to address and atone for.
"As far as I can remember, my father was always a quiet man who rarely spoke. I hardly ever saw him smile -- he always wore a gloomy expression. I never had any experience of him patting my head or giving me a hug; no affectionate father-son interaction ever passed between us," Kuroi said.
Kuroi recalled watching a video featuring an American veteran of the Vietnam war. The veteran disclosed that he continued to dream about the killing of Vietnamese civilians and woke up screaming in the dead of night.
Kuroi observed that the veteran's harrowing experiences bore a striking resemblance to his father's sorrowful countenance. This led him to believe that his father suffered from the same kind of war trauma.
"Some people have shared with me their experiences of fathers who, due to war trauma, have subjected their families to domestic violence, such as beating or kicking their mothers, or struggling with alcohol abuse. As a matter of fact, in Japan, soldiers who suffered psychological breakdowns due to war were deliberately concealed by the authorities during wartime. I believe that my father also understood that it was the wrong war. I think it is crucial to convey the sentiment of 'I am truly sorry to the Chinese people' to express this feeling," Kuroi said.
During last year's apology ceremony at Gongzhuling Zhanqian Primary School, under the Chinese national flag, Kuroi removed his shoes and socks and knelt down to kowtow before the students.
"For Japanese people, kneeling in apology is considered the most solemn way," Kuroi said.
"At Gongzhuling Zhanqian Primary School, it is the actual ground where many murdered Chinese people are buried, and where the blood of numerous Chinese people has flowed. As a Japanese, I believe that I cannot wear shoes while standing on this land," he said.
"China is our neighboring country, with which we should live in harmony. We must openly confront the painful facts of the atrocities and aggression committed in the past and sincerely apologize from the bottom of our hearts. I believe this is something that must be done," said Kurokawa Yasuko, another descendant of a WWII Japanese soldier.
Japanese WWII descendants urge recognition, apologies for wartime atrocities against Chinese people
