Ai Ping and Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome (COURTESY OF AI PING) 

A military band and 21-gun salute. That's the kind of fanfare nations use to announce a valued relationship with another nation. But when it comes to political parties, they prefer to make friends in a quieter way. Though the Communist Party of China (CPC), one of the largest parties in the world with extensive relations with like-minded organizations around the world, turns 95 on July 1, there are few personal anecdotes on its exchanges with other parties.

However, veteran CPC member Ai Ping has a wealth of information, especially about the CPC's links with African parties, thanks to a 30-year career in developing the CPC's external relations. His career in a way reflects the growth of arguably the most famous communist party in the world.

Milestone shift 

In 1977, as a newly graduated English major, Ai was assigned a job in the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The department was established in 1951, less than two years after the birth of the People's Republic of China, to manage the external relations of the CPC through exchanges and cooperation with other political parties in the world.

Ai was put in the West Asian and African Affairs Bureau. In the second month on the job, he got the chance to witness an historic policy shift in the Party.

It was the end of 1977 and representatives of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the ruling party in Mozambique, were visiting China. FRELIMO had expressed keenness to establish relations with the CPC, but the latter was reluctant to do so.

"At the time, the CPC had a principle of building relations only with communist parties," Ai told ChinAfrica. "Its external relations, to a large extent, served the International Communist Movement."

Given the principle, the CPC insisted on defining the trip as a state visit, rather than an exchange between political parties, which raised eyebrows in Mozambique.

At the time, the CPC was also opposing the hegemony of the then Soviet Union, and the comprehensive relationship between Mozambique and the Soviet Union further complicated relations between China and Mozambique.

However, it is never a good idea to treat an olive branch with coldness. So the visit became a turning point, prompting the Party to give second thoughts to its policy. Subsequently, the International Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly proposed to the CPC Central Committee that the restrictions on choosing friends be lifted, especially for nationalist parties in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"It was a watershed moment in CPC history. Since then, the external relations of the CPC began to be no longer based on the same ideology necessarily, nor share the aim of the International Communist Movement," Ai said. "It began to serve the nation's foreign diplomacy instead. I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed the change."

The CPC's "friends' circle" first opened up to nationalist parties, then extended to social democratic parties, and finally crossed ideological differences to include bourgeois parties in developed countries. Today, the CPC has established relations with most major political parties in the world.

"It [inter-party exchanges] has been a direct access and window for the CPC to understand the world," Ai said.

Ai Ping, former deputy head, International Department, CPC Central Committee (WANG XIANG)

Natural allies  

As the CPC made the decision to open up, Ai felt it was destined to start with Africa.

"African countries were natural allies of the CPC because the national liberation movements in African countries were inherently linked to the International Communist Movement," he said.

In Africa, the national liberation movements were mainly led by African political parties. Influenced by China and the then Soviet Union, many African countries were planning to take the socialist road after their independence. The similarity in ideology meant similar thinking for development; so it was always easier to find a cooperation mode, Ai said.

Ideological differences, however, did not continue to be an obstacle.

"They might not be a communist party or take the socialist road but every political party around the world faces similar challenges and issues - peace and development," Ai remarked.

With the CPC making more friends around the world, Ai has visited over 40 African countries and greeted many African friends coming afar to China. "Our job is to show them the real China, and both the positive and negative experiences of the CPC," he said.

The most important thing for African countries, he believes, is to find an approporiate path of their own. To achieve that, political parties are necessary.

One of the old friends of the CPC is the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which came to power in 1991. An EPRDF delegation first visited China in 1994 to learn about rural development from the Chinese experience. Ai designed their itinerary in China and accompanied them throughout the trip.

Three years later when he visited Ethiopia, the old friends told him they had found an "Ethiopian path of development" based on what they learned in China - a path of agricultural development-led industralization road.

A different role 

Throughout his career, Ai had witnessed many historic moments for the CPC; his own arrived in 2001. That year, he was appointed Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia.

From a CPC official to an ambassador is more than a job change, he said. "It was the time I represented my country, and it made me very proud."

Without the previous experience of inter-party exchanges, Ai said he could have faced more challenges in the new position. The friendship established previously always helped him reach the right person in an efficient way: "It was like having an extra channel for communication."

After his term ended in 2004, it took Ai six years to return to Ethiopia. When he went there as deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee in 2010, he was amazed by the changes. He also realized China-Africa relations had entered a new level.

In the new era of globalization, Ai says the basis of diplomatic relations between countries goes beyond similar ideology, party-to-party relations or individual friendship. Mutual benefit achieved through cooperation is the core issue.

"In any country in the world, diplomacy always serves domestic needs," he said. "China has been focusing on economic development since the initiation of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, so the aim of its foreign policy is to create a favorable environment for modernization and promote economic exchanges with other countries."

After retiring from the International Department of the CPC Central Committee in 2014, Ai was elected as Vice President of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, a non-profit organization established for "letting the world understand China, and letting China understand the world."

Chronology 

- July 1921: The Communist Party of China (CPC) is founded.

- October 1949: The CPC becomes the ruling party of China.

- December 1977: The CPC Central Committee conducts exchanges with some political parties in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, breaking the tradition of the CPC conducting exchanges only with Marxist and Leninist parties. The decision not only was a breakthrough in its exchanges with political parties in African countries, but also heralded a new era for the CPC's foreign-exchange initiatives worldwide.

- May 1978: A Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party delegation visits China. This was the first African political party received by the CPC.

- 1991: A CPC delegation led by Li Ruihuan, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, visits Senegal, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Burundi. This was the first high-level delegation to Africa after the CPC began exchanges with the ruling parties of African countries in the late 1970s. Since then the CPC Central Committee has been sending delegations to Africa annually.

- 1994: The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front sends its first delegation to China.

- 2001: A South African Communist Party delegation visits China.

- December 2004: A CPC delegation arrives in Madagascar for the first national congress of Tiako I Madagasikara, the ruling party.

- December 2012: A CPC delegation attends the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

- April 2013: Ai Ping, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends the founding ceremony of the Council of African Political Parties in Khartoum, Sudan.

- July 2016: The CPC and South African Communist Party both celebrate their 95th birthday.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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