On June 19, 2019, Dai Bing, Director-General of the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was invited by China-Africa Institute to present the symposium on China-Africa Think Tank Exchange and Cooperation.  More than 60 experts and scholars from Peking University, Renmin University of China, China Foreign Affairs University, Communication University of China, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Contemporary World and China-Africa Institute, participated in the meeting.  The symposium was hosted by Li Xinfeng, Executive Vice-President of China-Africa Institute and Director of Institute of West-Asian and African Studies (IWAAS), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

　　Director-General Dai Bing pointed out in his keynote speech that China-Africa comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership has been developing gradually and China-Africa practical cooperation has been transformed and upgraded under the promotion of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.  And this has put forward new topics, new tasks and new requirements for China’s African studies.  He mainly referred to the following five issues: the meaning of making joint efforts to build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future, the main efforts to transform and upgrade the China-Africa cooperation at present, trilateral cooperation on African affairs, the enhanced version of China-Africa people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and the publicity work towards Africa.

　　Professor Zhang Yanqiu from Faculty of Journalism and Communication of Communication University of China, Professor Liu Haifang, Director of Center for African Studies of Peking University, Professor Liu Qingjian from School of International Relations of Renmin University, Li Wentao, Deputy Director of the Institute of African Studies of CICIR, and Researcher Zhang Hongming, Researcher Yao Guimei and Associate Researcher Wang Jian from China-Africa Institute, had in-depth exchanges with Director-General Dai Bing on issues of African debt, the trilateral cooperation, the publicity work towards Africa and the major country factor in the China-Africa relations respectively.

　　In the concluding remarks, Professor Li Xinfeng said that Director-General Dai Bing’s speech is of great guidance, target and practicability to the research work of the think tank.  And he hoped that the think tank and government departments can maintain sound interaction so that the scholars’ research can serve China’s diplomatic work with Africa better.