In a major policy shift set to reshape Africa-China trade relations, the Chinese government has announced plans to grant Nigeria and 52 other African nations full duty-free access to its vast consumer market.
The new trade initiative, disclosed by President Xi Jinping in a letter to African foreign ministers, will extend zero-tariff treatment to 100 per cent of tariff lines for all African countries maintaining diplomatic ties with Beijing. A report by Bloomberg on Thursday said the move builds on a previous policy that benefited only 33 least-developed African nations. It is part of China’s broader strategy to deepen economic cooperation with the continent amid intensifying trade tensions with the United States.
The results are already being felt as Chinese exports to Africa surged 12.4 per cent in the first five months of the year, reaching a record 963bn yuan ($134bn), according to China’s Foreign Ministry. If implemented, the zero-tariff regime will allow virtually all Nigerian goods, from agricultural produce and manufactured items to solid minerals, to enter the Chinese market without the burden of import duties, a significant advantage in a global trade landscape where access to large markets is increasingly competitive In the first quarter of 2025, Nigerians imported goods worth N4.66tn from China, consolidating its position as the highest trading partner on the import side.
The announcement comes at a critical time, as over 30 African countries, including Nigeria, face the risk of being excluded from the United States’ African Growth and Opportunity Act, a preferential trade agreement that once allowed eligible nations to export goods to the US duty-free. For Nigeria, the proposed duty-free access could significantly boost non-oil exports, especially in sectors like agriculture, textiles, solid minerals, and manufactured goods, areas where the country has long sought to diversify.
China and the US have also been wrangling over tariffs, with Trump intent on narrowing his nation’s trade deficit. Officials from the world’s two biggest economies agreed to a new framework to defuse tensions at a meeting in London earlier this week.
The deepening rivalry between Washington and Beijing has seen both powers engage in tit-for-tat tariff increases, with China now looking to Africa as a buffer against the economic fallout of the ongoing trade war.
Following the Air India AI171 crash, all Delhi-Ahmedabad flights from Terminal 1 were cancelled due to the temporary shutdown of Ahmedabad Airport and heightened security measures; however, the airport is now operational. In the wake of the tragic crash of Air India Flight AI171, which was en route from Ahmedabad to London, all flights from Delhi Airport Terminal 1 to Ahmedabad were cancelled as a precaution.
The cancellations were part of a larger safety response to the incident, including the temporary closure of Ahmedabad Airport and enhanced security measures across multiple airports.
Authorities later confirmed that Ahmedabad Airport is now operational, and flight services are gradually returning to normal.
Institutions, organisations create identities and peculiarities in diverse ways. The Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University (IASZNU) is one of such.
To this institute, knowledge, courses of study should be interwoven, non-isolating, and inclusive to be meaningful in creating the right impact of charting a course for a pragmatic society.
In common parlance, when an idea is touted just for the sake of knowledge and not necessarily aimed at achieving an immediate objective, it is derisively dubbed an academic exercise. The reason is that in academia, many topics are just studied and theorised for the classroom and not actually adopted to advance society.
But at the IASZNU, Prof. Liu Hongwu’s brainchild, courses of study should have a direct bearing on society, with the intent of implementing change that impacts everyday life.
IASZNU has become a fulcrum of palpable impact, in being the intellectual base of China-Africa cooperation. Liu himself had a study stint in Africa – Nigeria, and later Tanzania. That gave him the inclination to think out how best to provide the intellectual foundation for Africa and China to know each other more deeply. The culmination of his passion is the founding of this Institute close to two decades ago.
But the name and objectives are not as unique as the procedure and dimensions of it. During interviews and interactions at the IASZNU in a month-long media research project, I found out that the procedure of this Institute is as diverse as it is creative.
Its aim is still the need to provide the intellectual beacon for Chinese scholars to know Africa better, see Africa as worth a study effort, and through such a better understanding, knowing will become loving. So far, it is paying handsomely with hundreds of Chinese scholars over the years taking up courses of research on Africa and right inside Africa as participants.
To the linguist scholar, the target is the linguistic correlation between China and Africa, and using this understanding to draw closer to Africa. To the economist, anthropologist, environmental scientist, business scholar, media professional, musical scholar, technologist, cinematographer, child psychologist, and history scholar, the same inclination applies. They all enlist under the IASZNU umbrella and are drawn from their various colleges and departments, get the university’s support and the backing of the government of China to cover the bills and move over to Africa to explore in line with their fields.
From what the institute does, all courses and the entirety of the university curriculum must find convergence somewhere, and must have the prime objective of possessing the ingredients to make the world better, especially China and Africa, in this particular effort. Education in the universities must possess the foresight of contributing to building a better a knowledge-based world, and also foster world peace.
Area, Country, interdisciplinary module
On May 17, I was still there at the Institute when Zhejiang Normal University hosted a large conference of Chinese experts drawn from over 50 universities on how best to deepen and utilise the Area and Country Study from the perspective of Interdisciplinary enhancement to advance academic curricular with direct bearing on creating a better society and world. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Liu, the brain behind IASZNU and the large trapping it has generated.
Today, in the Chinese academic circles, this slogan is the rave and has caught the waves. He had tasked the gathering of experts to approach this area of academic pursuit from 10 major areas and views, including; fieldwork as the foundation, learning from local communities, culture adaptation and survival skills, bridging China and target regions, building human networks, academic ambition and long-term vision, aligning with national strategy, alignment through interdisplinarity, team-based collaboration, and finally a longitudinal commitment.
The day I spoke with Prof. Hu Meixin, Dean of the College of Foreign Languages, she explained better how this works and has been scoring goals. She discussed the book translation projects of the Linguistics Department and some other collaborations they have with the Institute, powering the special focus module.
Friendship reality
Just yesterday, one of such Chinese scholars, Mr. Cao Junfeng at the University of Ibadan had a discussion with me for his fieldwork on China-Africa media relations and partnership, and how best to use this medium to truly advance the knowledge of each other. Our 70-minute discussion as a practitioner in the media made him understand things he barely knew about the Nigerian media as it relates to China, and how the relationship can develop.
He listened to my story on the progress the topic has made in the past nine years. He heard things that straightened up misconceptions about the Chinese media in Nigeria, and why some of the things he had heard were not correct. But through his interaction with Nigerians in the past year in Nigeria, made possible by the IASZNU platform, Cao has formed a very warm and positive impression of the average Nigerian. He said it matter-of-factly that Nigerians love Chinese people, and that he never got cold shoulders from Nigerians. They are rather very keen to meet him, assist him whenever he needs that. He assesses that Nigerians love the Chinese so much. He brought up this topic when I mentioned to him that years ago, a BBC assessment and social research discovered that among all the countries of the world, Russia and Nigeria are the most loving of China and the Chinese. Interestingly, while at the Institute for a month, those who were truly friendly with me were two who had done their research in Nigeria.
30+ African partners and more
Prof. Zhang, Vice President of Zhejiang Normal Univeristy (right) and Ikenna Emewu, African Director at the unveiling of the IASZNU Media Research and Communications Centre in the university
At the last count, IASZNU’s prominence and appeal have earned it over 30 partners as universities, specialised institutes, and lastly, about five media organisations. In Nigeria alone, it has six partner universities – University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Abuja, University of Port Harcourt, and Bayero University, Kano. The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs is in the list. For the media, Africa China Economy Magazine leads others such as Money Report Magazine, The Niche Newspaper, a radio station, and an online newspaper, thenewshaus.com, which are about subscribing. The Nigerian media groups indicated their interest after the Institute inaugurated the China-Africa Media Research and Communications Centre on May 31.
More than 3,000 new crop varieties, technologies, and agricultural equipment from over 500 companies across China were showcased at the 2025 Wuhan Seed Industry Expo held at the northern campus of Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, from June 7 to 8.
Spanning 220 mu (about 14.67 hectares), the outdoor exhibition area of the expo was packed with attention-grabbing displays, making it look like a scene straight out of a fantasy novel.
“Space pumpkins” with diameters over 1 meter, grown from seeds exposed to space conditions, rested plumply on the ground. 2-meter-long snake gourds cascaded from trellises like green waterfalls. “Ugly Duckling” pumpkins, bright yellow and toy-like, dangled from vines in cheerful clusters. Most enchanting of all were the elegant “Speckled Swan” gourds, their slender necks and round bellies earning them the title of ballerinas in the gourd world.
“These are all newly developed varieties cultivated through innovative breeding technologies,” explained a technician on site. “Each ‘space pumpkin’ can weigh up to 150 kilograms, and snake gourds yield three times more per mu than regular varieties.”
The indoor exhibition area, with five thematic zones centered around the solar terms of Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and Winter Solstice as well as China’s growing agricultural prowess, was no less impressive.
Highlights of China’s cutting-edge agricultural innovations displayed in this area included gene-editing technology to precisely improve rice quality, fully biodegradable plastic mulch that breaks down completely within 90 days, and “plant ark,” a scalable automated cultivation system designed to tackle tough agricultural challenges.
Inside Exhibition Hall No. 2, a “plant factory” featured lettuce growing under soft pink LED lighting, with temperature and humidity precisely controlled by a computer-powered system.
“This setup can shorten the growth cycle of vegetables by 40 percent and use only 5 percent of the water required in traditional farming,” said a staff member at the exhibition hall.
Blending technology, industry, and interactivity, this seed industry extravaganza was open to the public free of charge, offering citizens a glimpse into the high-tech future of Chinese agriculture.
As of April 2025, China’s AI patent applications had surpassed 1.5 million in number, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the global total, ranking first worldwide.
The AI-driven large models developed by Chinese companies – characterized by open-source access, cost-effectiveness, and high efficiency – are offering the Shanghai Cooperation Organistion (SCO) countries new paradigms and perspectives for advancing their own AI capabilities.
Thi was revealed at the last SCO Themed “Intelligence Converges in China, Wisdom Benefits SCO,” the China-SCO AI Cooperation Forum was held in north China’s Tianjin recently.
The event aimed to strengthen cooperation between China and SCO member states in technological research, talent development, and industrial applications. It encouraged joint efforts to tackle key technological challenges, accelerate the industrialization of AI technologies, and share the benefits of AI development, so as to inject fresh momentum into regional prosperity and development.
Advancing economic transformation through AI aligns with the shared aspirations of SCO countries. China has actively embraced the wave of intelligent transformation, vigorously promoting innovation in AI science and technology, fostering industrial growth, and accelerating the integration of AI across a wide range of sectors.
At the same time, it has worked to establish a sound regulatory framework and has built a relatively complete AI industrial ecosystem.
Experts from SCO member states noted that China has demonstrated strong innovation capacity and enormous growth potential by applying AI broadly in both commercial and scientific fields, while also cultivating a large pool of highly skilled professionals.
As the world’s largest and most populous regional organization, the SCO holds extensive data resources and diverse application scenarios. Enhanced AI cooperation presents new development opportunities among member states.
China has joined hands with fellow SCO countries to address key technological challenges, foster continuous innovation in AI, expand the scope of real-world applications, and steadily unlock the benefits of intelligence.
Concrete examples of such cooperation are already visible. At a photovoltaic power facility in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a Chinese enterprise has introduced intelligent cleaning robots to safeguard solar panels around the clock, significantly improving their efficiency and longevity. In the wheat-growing regions of Punjab, Pakistan, a China-Pakistan smart agricultural project now enables local farmers to precisely manage irrigation and fertilization through smartphone-based systems.
At the forum, China proposed a four-point plan to enhance policy coordination, expand technological cooperation, promote application empowerment, and strengthen AI security governance. It also released a plan to build an AI application center and extended an open invitation for joint participation, underscoring its commitment to openness, multilateral cooperation, and shared scientific and technological advancement.
China is a strong advocate for the fair and inclusive development of AI on a global scale and a strong proponent, facilitator, and pioneer in strengthening international cooperation on AI capacity building.
In 2024, the 78th UN General Assembly adopted a China-led resolution on enhancing international AI cooperation. China also launched the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All and initiated the Group of Friends for International Cooperation on AI Capacity-Building. These efforts are aimed at fostering broad partnerships so as to make sure that the benefits of digital transformation are enjoyed by all, and that no country and no one is left behind.
Recently, the second AI Capacity Building Workshop was held in Beijing, drawing participants from nearly 40 countries and international organizations, including multiple SCO member states.
The fair and inclusive development of AI can illuminate the path of technological progress and contribute to a brighter future for humanity. Guided by the Shanghai Spirit, China will continue to work together with other SCO member states to deepen exchanges and cooperation, share the dividends of AI, and ensure that the benefits of AI better serve global development.
