AS CLOSE AS FAMILY

To strengthen the enduring friendship, Xi said China follows the principle of "affinity."

The China-Africa bond was not built overnight. The Chinese still clearly remember how, over 50 years ago, African nations and other developing countries "carried" China into the United Nations.

"China and Africa are as close as one family. People of my age in China grew up in the warm atmosphere of China-Africa friendship. We all have a strong interest in Africa ... we are all familiar with the memorable stories of China-Africa friendship, such as the construction of the TAZARA Railway," Xi once said.

During his trip to Tanzania in 2013, Xi visited a cemetery where 70 Chinese experts are buried. They lost their lives on assistance missions to Tanzania over four decades.

The 1970s were pivotal for the economic development of Tanzania and Zambia. The Chinese government had successively sent more than 50,000 engineering and technical personnel to participate in the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, which stands today as a symbol of the strong bond between China and Africa.

Such stories of the Chinese and Africans helping each other in times of adversity continue to this day.

In 2014, Liberia, along with Sierra Leone and other Western African nations, was struck by a deadly Ebola outbreak. As those countries were struggling with an epidemic that was considered the largest strike since the virus was first discovered in 1976, China was among the first to offer assistance.

Among its many rounds of aid deliveries, China, with Xi's instructions, provided badly needed epidemic prevention materials and mobile laboratories, built and operated an infectious disease treatment center for the first time overseas, and dispatched medical experts.

With Chinese support, many Liberians infected with the disease were pulled back from the brink of death. In May 2015, the World Health Organization declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Several months later, then-Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf visited China. During their talks, Xi promised more aid for the country's post-outbreak construction.