China's export capital for small commodities Yiwu is playing a significant role in promoting the country's trade with African nations.
Customs data show that Yiwu's import and export volume to Africa increased by 15.4 percent in the first seven months of this year compared to 2023, or accounting for one-twelfth of the country's total exports to the continent. Since 2018, the city's total import and export volume with Africa has achieved an average annual growth of 12.2 percent.
In major wholesale market complex Yiwu International Trade City, Wang Gensheng, store manager of Yiwu Paul Hardware Tools recently received several Rwandan guests, who placed orders for kitchen utensils and hardware tools.
"Many African businessmen live in Yiwu. After long-term cooperation, we know their preferences very well. Daily necessities such as hardware tools, small household appliances, and small commodities such as clothes, shoes and hats sell very well in Africa," said Wang.
From January to July this year, Yiwu's exports to Africa amounted to 61.96 billion yuan (about 8.71 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 11.4 percent, according to Yiwu Customs.
During the period, the city reports 59,000 African people's registrations and is home to more than 3,000 African residents.
Many African people have engaged in doing business with China.
"After I came to Yiwu in 2018, I started to do foreign trade, bringing Chinese goods to the most bustling streets of Kenya through cross-border e-commerce. I always do more than eight containers to the Kenyan market (every month),” said Boni, an African businessman.
To facilitate exports to the African market, the city has intensified efforts to increase customs clearance efficiency.
"Products are mainly exported to Algeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria. We have adopted the new supervision mode of ‘inspection before shipment’ to optimize the supervision process of less than container load (LCL) export, so that more and more market entities will participate in the trade with African countries,” said Xu Xiaobing, an officer of statistical analysis division at Yiwu Customs.
Meanwhile, Yiwu also registers an increase in African imports.
Customs data shows that from January to July this year, the city has imported 6.37 billion yuan worth of goods, a year-on-year increase of 79.3 percent, from African countries, mainly the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Zambia, Morocco, and Nigeria.
Eastern Chinese export hub fuels China-Africa trade
A Chinese envoy urged the United States on Friday to desist from undermining international solidarity, creating division and antagonism, and provoking bloc confrontations on the Ukraine crisis.
"In the ongoing Ukraine crisis, there has been a steady influx of large quantities of weapons and ammunition into the battlefield," which will only lead to escalated situation and the loss of more civilian lives, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said at the UN Security Council briefing on arms supply to Ukraine.
High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said at the meeting that any transfer of weapons and ammunition must comply with the applicable international legal framework and Security Council's resolutions. She called on all parties to act in accordance with international humanitarian law, protect civilians and civilian facilities, and resolve the current conflict through political means at an early date.
In the discussion that followed, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian permanent representative to the UN, said that using long-range missiles supplied by Western countries to strike Russia will result in severe consequences. He reiterated that Russia is open to negotiations with Ukraine, while the Western nations are unwilling to engage in dialog.
In response to remarks by the U.S. representative, Geng emphasized that "China did not create the Ukraine crisis, much less are we a party to the conflict."
China has not supplied weapons to either party, and has consistent and rigorous controls over dual-use items, said Geng, adding China maintains normal trade and economic cooperation with all countries around the world, including Russia and Ukraine.
He called on the parties to the conflict to demonstrate their political will, meet each other halfway, put an early end to the hostilities, and relaunch peace talks. He also called on the international community to pave the way to this end by providing tangible assistance and facilitation, and urged all parties concerned to put peace and humanity first and re-channel their resources and energy to ending hostilities through diplomacy.
Underscoring that China's position on the Ukraine issue "is objective and impartial," the ambassador said that for over two years, China has been working hard to promote peace and encourage and facilitate peace talks.
He elaborated the efforts made by China and other countries on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, including the six-point consensus jointly issued by China and Brazil in May this year. This fully demonstrates that diplomatic negotiations and a political settlement meet the common expectations of the majority of countries and represent the will of the international community, Geng added.
"We hope that the United States will not continue to turn a deaf ear to these calls for peace, that it will desist from discrediting and obstructing the diplomatic efforts of China and other countries concerned, undermining international solidarity, creating division and antagonism, and provoking bloc confrontations, and that it will truly play a constructive role in bringing an early end to the war and achieving peace," Geng said.
Chinese envoy urges US to desist from creating antagonism
