Landmark Tanzania trip fortified friendship

Editor's note: China Daily is publishing a series of stories reviewing President Xi Jinping's visits at home and abroad in the past decade, to showcase his vision for development in China and the world.

For Said Bakari, a groundsman who works at the Chinese Experts Cemetery in Tanzania, maintaining the area is not just a daily routine but an honor, because it is a reminder of the sacrifices that helped the country progress soon after it gained independence in the early 1960s.

The cemetery in Dar es Salaam was built for the 69 Chinese experts, technicians and workers who died while the Tazara Railway line, operated by the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, was being built in the 1970s.

"As Tanzanians, we are proud of Tazara because the railway line is a catalyst toward the economic development of this region," Bakari said. "As a result, we are indebted to these brave people from China who lie in this cemetery, and we consider them fallen heroes."

During a state visit to Tanzania in March 2013, President Xi Jinping visited the cemetery and paid his respects to those who are buried there.

More than 40 years earlier, over 50,000 Chinese had come to Africa and worked with Tanzanians and Zambians to complete the Tazara Railway, Xi noted. The people of China, Tanzania and Zambia will never forget those who died while it was being built, he said.

China and Africa have been working together for a beautiful future, Xi said while visiting the cemetery, and the friendship between them should be cherished. The two sides should work to make Sino-African collaboration even more fruitful, he added.

When Xi met with then Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, he told him that China was keen to work with Tanzania to foster a rich partnership in which both countries would reap benefits and take their relationship to a new high.

Xi called Tanzania an old and good friend of China and said the two countries should trust, support and help each other and pursue common development.

The 1,860-kilometer Tazara Railway, which links landlocked Zambia with the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, is a lifeline for millions of people in the two countries. Its construction has been one of China's biggest foreign aid projects, and as such has long been a symbol of China-Africa friendship.

"Tazara is a major player in both our countries' economies," said Conrad Simuchile, a spokesman for the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority.

The rail line carried about 480,000 metric tons of cargo in the 2020-21 fiscal year, and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 2.7 million passengers used the line.

In the more than 40 years of operating, it has transported over 50 million passengers, 30 million tons of freight and more than 150 million parcels within the region, including Tanzania, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

China offered to build the railway after former colonial powers and some international organizations regarded such a plan as not economically viable, Simuchile said.

"China offered an interest-free loan to cover the cost of building the railway line, the supporting infrastructure of the stations and the training center school, in addition to the supply of locomotive power and rolling stock."

Chinese and local workers braved harsh conditions and daunting terrain during construction. The railway line crosses the precipitous Great Rift Valley as well as areas with extreme height variance, rugged mountains, deep canyons, rivers, forests and huge swamps.

Anne Aisha, a Tanzanian trader who sells her wares in Zambia, said she got into the business five years ago because of the railway line. She distributes clothing to shops in towns along the Zambia-Tanzania border.

"I prefer using Tazara because it is cost effective, its schedules are known and reliable and, unlike the roads, it is safe and does not have accidents," she said. "It is also an important means of transport for Tanzanians who use it to travel within the country."

Rajab Kanyamala of Tanzania said the line makes travel easier.

"Currently, traveling is a challenge because of high fuel prices and the rising cost of living, but …Tazara offers affordable transport."

Transporting cargo via the rail line is about half the cost of transporting by road, he said.

When Xi visited Tanzania in March 2013 he gave a speech at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam.

In the speech, he said that China cherished its long friendships with African countries and was keen to work more closely with the continent so it could realize independent and sustainable development.

Although China and Africa are geographically far apart, their common interests and aspirations unite them, Xi said, and they should give more attention to people-to-people exchanges to promote understanding between the people of China and Africa.

The Belt and Road Initiative was launched the same year as Xi's visit, and numerous projects that link different areas of Africa have borne fruit since then, including the 480-km Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya and the 752-km transnational Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway.

Chinese companies have built or upgraded more than 10,000 km of railway and nearly 100,000 km of roads in Africa since the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, a major platform for bilateral collaboration, was established in 2000, said Wu Peng, chief of African affairs at China's Foreign Ministry.

Wang Luo, director of the Institute of International Development Cooperation, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce's Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said China attaches great importance to Africa's development.

Since 1956, all countries on the continent that have established diplomatic relations with China have received Chinese aid in various forms, Wang added.

The China-Africa relationship embarked on a new road when FOCAC was founded, she said. This demonstrated that the relationship had transformed into more comprehensive cooperation, including in the political, economic, social and cultural fields.

Africa is no longer merely a continent that needs aid, but is also a big market, she said.

In 2020, the value of trade between China and Tanzania was $4.59 billion, which was 9.9 percent more than in 2019. China's exports to Tanzania were worth $4.18 billion, or 9.5 percent more than in 2019, and its imports were worth $409 million, which was 13.7 percent more than in 2019, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

The value of trade between China and Africa exceeded $250 billion last year, a new high since 2014, and China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 13 years in a row.

Hisham Abu Bakr Metwally, an economics researcher with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, said Chinese aid and investment, which targets basic services including railways and bridges, has a great impact on improving the lives of people in Africa.

Kanyamala, of Tanzania, said: "China's investment in Africa is all geared toward lifting up the continent. China started collaborating with us when we achieved independence. We trust their intentions because we have seen the benefits and we thank them for having faith in us."