By Cremilda Macuácua, China Africa News
Pretoria-Experts from China and Africa are urging a bold new chapter in global human rights one rooted not in rhetoric, but in development, dignity and mutual respect. The call echoed loud and clear at the 2025 China–South Africa Seminar on Human Rights, held December 4 in Pretoria, where about 50 delegates from both countries met to chart a renewed path for cooperation.
For Li Hongkui, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development the seminar was more than a diplomatic exercise. It was a wake-up call. He urged “strengthen exchanges, build greater consensus on human rights development among Global South countries, and jointly uphold true multilateralism.”
Through robust cooperation especially under the umbrella of Belt and Road Initiative he argued, the long-standing development gap between North and South could shrink, making human rights real for millions.
His message resonated. For David Monyae, director of the Centre for Africa–China Studies at University of Johannesburg, the collapse of recent multilateralism threatens the core right to development particularly across the Global South. This seminar, he said, was “timely.” He stressed that development must honour each nation’s history, culture and context not be dictated from outside by rigid standards.
And then there’s Garth Shelton, international relations professor at University of the Witwatersrand. Shelton pointed to China’s own decades-long modernization journey built on lifting millions out of poverty, expanding infrastructure, and raising living standards as a blueprint for transformation that African nations could adapt. Under joint efforts, cooperation could expand from mere cooperation into shared progress: poverty reduction, sustainable development, human dignity for all.
What emerged from their discussions was clear: this is not about charity. It’s about partnership and a redefinition of human rights not as abstract ideals, but as concrete achievements rooted in infrastructure, education, health, prosperity.
This is not the first time China and Africa have made this case. In August 2025, at the first China-Africa Human Rights Seminar in Addis Ababa, over 200 policymakers, diplomats, scholars and business leaders had rallied around the same theme: that the “right to development” is foundational a human right that must come first if all others are to follow.
They argued that every country guided by its national conditions and cultural traditions must be free to choose its own path to dignity and human rights. They rejected the politicization of human rights and opposed external imposition of standards.
Now, with the Pretoria seminar, that vision is getting more than talk. It’s gaining strategic backing a reaffirmation that China-Africa cooperation, grounded in mutual respect, shared history and common goals, could be the engine for a new global social order.
In a world where human-rights debates are often polarized and high-profile, this emerging coalition offers a different promise: that development infrastructure, economic opportunity, social progress can be the foundation for dignity and justice for millions.
If followed through, this turns abstract rights into something tangible. Clean energy, better roads, improved healthcare, digital access, jobs. Real change. Real hope. And a chance for the Global South to define its own tomorrow.
Because for China and Africa for millions who have waited decades for real change that tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
