Sino-Tanzania for new heights as Xi re-elected

From CHRISTOPHER MAJALIWA in Beijing

RE-ELECTION of the incumbent Xi Jinping as China’s President renews hope for the cemented bilateral relations between Dar es Salaam and Beijing, Tanzania’s Ambassador to China, Mr Mbelwa Kairuki, has remarked.

In an interview with the ‘Sunday News’, Amb. Kairuki said Tanzania and Africa in general supported Mr Xi’s re-election, with confidence that he will firmly stand for all good development initiatives between the continent and the East Asian economic giant.
“Tanzania supports Mr Xi’s re-election. We hope his second term in office will be of greater importance not only for Tanzania, but also for Africa in general,” the diplomat noted. He mentioned the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a multi-billion dollar project envisages to benefit Africa, as areas he believes will get special attention and thrust from Mr Xi.
The Tanzanian envoy affirmed that he sees a brighter and more enhanced future between the two sides due to the fact that President Xi’s current economic diplomacy is similar with President John Magufuli ideology - basically dwelling on ‘win-win situation.’ China, Tanzania’s major trading partner, yesterday re-elected the incumbent Xias the country’s president, barely a week after the legislature approved the removal of the two-term limit on presidency.
The 64-year-old politician was also elected Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the East Asian economic giant. China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top decision making organ, besides unanimously picking Mr Xi to remain at the core, also chose Mr Wang Qishan as the Vice- President.
Right after the election, the process which was held in the country’s capital, Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Mr Xi took a public oath of allegiance to the constitution. Mr Xi’s re-election comes at a time when the world’s second largest economy was implementing the Road and Belt Initiative and FOCAC - all aimed at shared benefit and ‘win-win situation’ as opposed to ‘winner takes all’.
Besides implementation of the BRI which is his brainchild, President Xi back in 2015, pledged a staggering 60 billion US dollars in grants, loans, credit and preferential financing for cash-strapped African countries. At a press conference held here recently on the sidelines of the legislative body sessions slated for closing Tuesday, the Chinese government vowed that changes in the world will not break China- Africa friendship.
The country’s Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, is on record insisting that “Nothing will change China’s promise of sincerity, real results, friendship and faith to Africa.” The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Han Changfu, made it clear that China would continue to offer condition-free assistance to African countries and that such helps were sincere and without any strings attached.
Political analysts and NPC members who talked to the ‘Sunday News’ here were of the view that a new era of diplomatic cooperation based on win-win situation was going to gain more thrus