Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Wednesday met with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Sept. 3-4.

Wang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said China stands ready to work with Togo to implement the outcomes of the summit, align the Belt and Road Initiative with Togo's vision to become an emerging country in 2030, and expand pragmatic cooperation to benefit the peoples of the two countries.

Faure Gnassingbe congratulated China on the success of the Beijing summit which signified the strong friendship between Africa and China. He said the negative comments concerning the Africa-China cooperation are unacceptable in Africa.

He expressed Togo's willingness to work with China to implement the outcomes of the summit and advance the bilateral relations and Africa-China friendship. </s> Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:26:10|Editor: Liangyu

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Wang Huning (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Wednesday met with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Sept. 3-4.

Wang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said China stands ready to work with Togo to implement the outcomes of the summit, align the Belt and Road Initiative with Togo's vision to become an emerging country in 2030, and expand pragmatic cooperation to benefit the peoples of the two countries.

Faure Gnassingbe congratulated China on the success of the Beijing summit which signified the strong friendship between Africa and China. He said the negative comments concerning the Africa-China cooperation are unacceptable in Africa.

He expressed Togo's willingness to work with China to implement the outcomes of the summit and advance the bilateral relations and Africa-China friendship. </s> LOME (Reuters) - Togo security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of anti-government protesters carrying out a late night sit-in at an intersection in central Lome as part of a bid to end the 50-year-old Gnassingbe family dynasty, witnesses said on Thursday.

A man holds up a sign which reads, "leave the power", during opposiition protest to call for the immediate resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe in Lome, Togo, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Noel Kokou Tadegnon

The move to disperse the crowds comes after two days of mass country-wide protests involving tens of thousands of people that have amounted to the biggest challenge to Faure Gnassingbe’s rule since he succeeded his late father 12 years ago.

In the past, security forces have violently suppressed protests, killing at least two people during an opposition march in August and hundreds after the contested election in which Gnassingbe took power in 2005.

But up until late on Thursday, police officers armed with batons had watched passively at protesters wearing the red, pink and orange T-shirts of the opposition, who danced and blew whistles as they wound through the streets of the capital Lome.

It was not immediately clear how the opposition would respond to the security forces’ intervention with tear gas late on Thursday. The head of the main ANC opposition party, Jean-Pierre Fabre, had earlier pledged to remain seated on the tarmac of the Dekon crossroads until Gnassingbe left power.

“We want the end of this 50-year-old Gnassingbe regime. Enough is enough,” Kodjo Amana, a 42-year-old baker, shouted over a chanting crowd earlier in the day.

The protests in the West African country of 8 million people have proceeded despite widespread reports of network outages confirmed by non-governmental organization Internet Without Borders. Other African incumbents in Gabon and Cameroon have used network cuts to control criticism and suppress protests at sensitive times.

Residents said that text messages had also been blocked on Thursday. The communications minister could not be reached for comment, although another minister said earlier this week that the cuts had been carried out for security reasons.

“VERY FRAGILE”

The president’s father Gnassingbe Eyadema seized power in a coup in 1967, a few years after the territory known as “French Togoland” that was once in German hands became independent from colonial power France.

The current president this week sought to appease opponents by tabling a draft bill to reform the constitution and reintroduce a two-term limit that his father scrapped in 2002.

But opposition leaders are skeptical about the implementation of the reforms that the government has stalled on for more than a decade and Prime Minister Komi Selom Klassou confirmed on Thursday that the term limits would not apply retroactively.

That could mean that Gnassingbe, 51 and currently in his third term, could remains in power for two more mandates from the next election, until 2030.

Gnassingbe sent a Tweet from his official account on Thursday, saying that he had met with the U.N. Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, on the subject of reforms. A spokesman for the latter confirmed the meeting without elaborating on its content.

State TV said Thursday evening that parliament, which still needs to approve the bill, will meet for an emergency session on September 12.

However, if the protests resume, analysts say Gnassingbe may find himself isolated amid growing criticism of autocratic rule in West Africa.

“The president’s position is very fragile and we do not think his peers in ECOWAS or his friends in Europe will help him if things get ugly,” said the head of research at NKC African Economics, Francois Conradie.

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Togo, a regional financial hub that aspires to be an African Singapore, is at odds with West African neighbors which mostly have laws restricting presidential mandates.

The government, along with Gambia’s, voted in 2015 against introducing them across the 15 members of the ECOWAS regional body which Gnassingbe currently chairs. Since then, Gambia’s longtime leader Yahya Jammeh has been voted out of power.

African rulers, notably in Rwanda, Burundi and Burkina Faso, have moved to drop term limits in recent years in order to remain in power. In some cases this has sparked strong opposition that has led to violent unrest; in others, leaders have been driven from power, as happened in Burkina Faso. </s> Senegal, with backing from leaders in the region, has threatened to invade Gambia to depose its leader, Yahya Jammeh, if he does not hand over power to challenger Adama Barrow, who beat him in an election in early December.

"We urge relevant parties to stay cool-headed, to attach importance to the interests of the people and country, to appropriately resolve the political crisis through dialogue and political consultation and to maintain peace and stability," she told a daily news briefing.

China has a growing diplomatic and business presence in Africa and has been deeply involved in efforts to bring peace to South Sudan, for example.

China resumed diplomatic ties with Gambia in March. The country was previously a diplomatic ally of Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own. China views Taiwan as a wayward province, with no right to formal foreign ties.

The small West African state had previously been one of only a few African countries, along with Burkina Faso, Swaziland and São Tomé and Príncipe, to recognise Taiwan. São Tomé switched ties to China last month. </s> BEIJING (Reuters) - African leaders attending this week’s summit with China don’t think that cooperation between the continent and Beijing has added to their debt burden, the Chinese government’s top diplomat said on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to African nations at Monday’s opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015.

China has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy, and Xi said this week government debt from Chinese interest-free loans due by year-end would be written off for the poorest African nations.

In a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website, in the form of a question and answer, State Councillor Wang Yi said Xi’s speech had met with a rapturous reception from the African leaders at the summit.

“Some African leaders stated outright, certain Western countries only speak but don’t act, but China takes actual actions,” Wang, who is also China’s foreign minister, said.

“They said, China upholds putting righteousness first and is consistent in its sincere and selfless support for Africa’s development, in stark contrast to the inequality of relations between some major powers and Africa, and that those who believe Africa-China cooperation aggravates Africa’s debt burden are completely wrong,” he added.”There is no market for sowing discord between Africa and China!” Wang said, citing the unidentified African leaders.

China has defended the latest promise of financing for Africa, saying China is helping the continent develop, not pile up debt.

A wave of African nations seeking to restructure their debt with China has served as a reality check for Beijing’s ties with the continent, though most of its countries still see Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies.

Every African country attended the summit, with most sending their presidents, apart from eSwatini, self-ruled Taiwan’s last African ally that has so far rejected China’s overtures to ditch Taipei and recognize Beijing. </s> Burkina Faso has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the foreign ministry of the West African country said on Thursday.

Beijing has been applying pressure on the few remaining African countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan to cut them.

“This decision is guided by the firm desire of the government of Burkina Faso to defend the interests of Burkina Faso and its people in the concert of nations,” the ministry said in a statement, which made no direct mention of mainland China.

Payback time? The links between Beijing, the Dominican Republic and Tsai Ing-wen’s pro-independence appointments

Taipei also lost its major ally in Latin America, the Dominican Republic, on May 1.

Taiwan split from mainland China after the end of a civil war in 1949 and Beijing campaigns relentlessly to isolate the island globally.

It cut off relations with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen’s government soon after she took office in 2016 and has been steadily ratcheting up both diplomatic and economic pressure.

With the loss of its West African ally on Thursday, the number of countries that maintain full diplomatic ties with Taiwan has been reduced to 18. </s> OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

China has been applying pressure on the few remaining African countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan to cut them.

"This decision is guided by the firm desire of the government of Burkina Faso to defend the interests of Burkina Faso and its people in the concert of nations," the ministry said in a statement, which made no direct mention of China. </s> Kathmandu, 15 April: At the invitation of Wang Yi, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Minister for Foreign Affairs, is paying an official visit to China from April 16 to 21, 2018, leading a Nepali delegation.

During the visit, he is scheduled to hold bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart minister Wang on 18 April, which will be followed by a joint press address. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during his stay in Beijing, he will meet with the state leaders of China. He will also address the round table meeting of the Chinese think tanks.

He will also visit Chengdu City of the Sichuan Province of China and meet with the provincial leaders and address a programme at the Sichuan University on April 20 and return home the next day. The Nepali delegation is comprised of Ambassador of Nepal to China Leela Mani Paudyal and senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy.

This visit is taken as ground preparing visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to Beijing in June and also organizing Chinese President Xi’s impending visit to Kathmandu Prior to his departure to Beijing, minister Gyawali is holding a press conference on Monday afternoon. </s> Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu Thursday tendered his resignation after Burkina Faso announced it was breaking diplomatic ties with the island.

“As a government official, I must be responsible for policies, and I have verbally tendered my resignation to the president,” Wu told a press conference.

Wu added that Taipei was cutting relations with Burkina Faso “to safeguard our sovereignty and dignity” and halting bilateral aid and cooperation programmes.

Burkina Faso is the second country to dump Taiwan within weeks after after Dominican Republic switched recognition to Beijing earlier this month, leaving the island with only 18 diplomatic allies around the world.

It was not immediately clear if Burkina Faso and China would establish diplomatic relations but Wu said it would only be “sooner or later” and that “everyone knows China is the only factor”.

“Why China chose now to steal our ally, everyone can see although we couldn’t go into the WHA (World Health Assembly), but we are developing deeper relations with more and more like-minded countries. I believe China can see this,” he said.

Wu’s comments came after the landlocked west African state said earlier Thursday that it was breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

“The Burkina government decided today to break off its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan,” Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said, in an announcement that follows a string of similar moves by African states since 2000.

“Since 1994, Burkina Faso has had cooperation relations with Taiwan,” Barry said in a statement.

“But today, changes in the world, the current socio-economic challenges facing our country and our region call on us to reconsider our position.”

China still considers Taiwan to be a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary, even though they split in 1949 after a civil war.

The two have been engaged for years in a diplomatic tug-of-war in developing countries. Economic support and other aid are often used as bargaining chips for diplomatic recognition.

Relations between Taiwan and China have worsened since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May 2016 as her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of “one China.”
Wang Huning, a senior official of the Communist Party of China, meets with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé in Beijing, China.