The China-Africa Cooperation Forum was the first major international initiative launched by the Chinese Communist Party. The leaders of the world’s future leading economic power chose to give priority to relations with Africa. Our continent is the fastest-growing part of the world. It is also one of the biggest victims of the climate crisis. Its youth is an asset in the ongoing technological revolution. Africa is increasingly turning its back on former colonizers. China has been our continent’s leading economic partner for 15 years. In particular, it is contributing to African unity through its expertise in railways. International railroad lines are under construction in Africa. They link peoples divided by colonizers. Africa’s relationship with China is all the more important given that China has never colonized any people, and is itself subject to colonial domination. Moreover, unlike the West, China does not interfere in the domestic politics of any country that wishes to cooperate with it. The solutions implemented in China can inspire developing countries, including La Réunion Island, which is still underdeveloped in many respects, notably in terms of the right to work, price formation, access to housing, transport and illiteracy.

Consequences of neo-colonialism

From September 4 to 6, the heads of state and government of 2.8 billion people are meeting in Beijing, the capital of a country governed since 1949 by a Communist Party. The spectacular progress made in China is a reminder that communism is still an ideology with a future. All this is extremely frightening for Western leaders, starting with Washington, which refuses to relinquish its world leadership begun by the destruction of two Japanese cities by atomic bombs in 1945.
The Sino-African Cooperation Forum illustrates a new era is building. It should be noted that the leaders of all the countries in our region are taking part, starting with those of Madagascar, the demographic giant of the south-west Indian Ocean.
This means that La Réunion will be the only country on the continent to miss out on the biggest global political event of the year. This is the consequence of its isolation in the region. Our country is still under the yoke of neo-colonialism. This translates into economic, cultural and intellectual dependence on the capitalists of the former colonial power. As a result, attention is focused on a distant and declining country, rather than on our changing environment.
So, most of the news is about the jolts of a Parisian political class in full decline, unable to agree on how to govern its country. For over a month now, the Parisian parties have been playing into the hands of a President of the Republic who can continue to pursue his policies, despite the fact that the presidential movement came in behind the New Popular Front in the second round of the legislative elections held on July 7. Yet Paris is 10,000 kilometers from La Réunion. Paris is further away than Beijing, and is located on the other side of the African continent, which today has a population of over 1.5 billion.

Are the Reunionese condemned to accompany Paris in its decline?

If nothing changes, the Reunionese will be condemned to watch the train of progress pass them by, prisoners of a French neo-colonialism that keeps the country dependent on subsidies to buy social peace. Paris’s objective is to make La Reunion a pillar of the Indo-Pacific axis to counter China’s progress and stem the dynamism of cooperation between Africa and China. This offers no prospect of progress.
It is therefore urgent to implement major initiatives to break this isolation. La Réunion’s future is at stake. Unemployment, underpaid jobs or exile must no longer be the alternatives imposed on the majority of La Reunion’s young people.
Africa will soon have over 2 billion inhabitants. It’s on our doorstep. It is at the heart of a new era in which partnership with China is far from exclusive. Relations are being forged within the BRICS+, with Russia, Brazil and the Gulf States. La Réunion must no longer be excluded from this movement, which is restructuring an old world left over from the colonial period.
Let’s hope that a new generation of Réunionese, aware of this reality, will take over the reins of power and finally lead our country out of the impasse. La Réunion has what it takes to take its place in this new era, without jeopardizing the social gains achieved through the struggle of communists, trade unions and progressive movements.

M.M.