By Zainab Suleiman Okino
On March 20, 2025, I and three other media personalities from Nigeria embarked on a trip to Beijing, China to join 30 other media heads from eight countries for a seminar of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries. It turned out to be a voyage of practical discovery of the Chinese experience, totally different from the Western-inspired narrative.
The event was organised by the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) and sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. Facilitated by the China Embassy here in Nigeria, the seminar was conceived, among other goals, to promote understanding and serve as a cultural exchange for a shared future in a global village.
However, participants got more than they bargained for. It was a peek into the Chinese character, history, economy, culture, academia, human as well as human capital development, foods, and their journey from a rural agrarian country to the world’s economic engine room. We saw evidence of the transformation of China from poverty and backwardness to strength and prosperity. China’s challenge, bluff, and rebuff of Trump’s tariffs come from a position of strength. It is a direct consequence of efficiency, efficacy, and work ethics engendering their ubiquitous effect.
Making sense of BRI
The BRI programme, on whose platform AIBO took us to China, is a unique Chinese business model of partnering with willing countries for mutual benefits, investment opportunities, and economic development. Chinese President Xi Jinping described the BRI arrangement from the African perspective as “a shared future in a new era,” noting that “China and Africa account for one-third of the world’s population. Without our modernisation, there will be no global modernisation.”
Perhaps on account of this, the China-Africa relation has grown exponentially since 2013 when the China Belt and Road Initiative was formally launched. From Dakar to Djibouti, and Luanda to Lagos to Abuja, China has quietly developed, financed, or managed over 50 ports across Africa, many with dual-use potential (civilian + military/naval logistics). Chinese BRI engagement in its partner countries has reached USD 1.175 trillion.
BRI in Africa has gained significant traction, with 53 African nations participating in varying degrees. In 2023, African countries received US$21.7 billion in BRI deals, including investments in ports, railways, and renewable energy.
The BRI also presents an opportunity for sustainable development and economic growth, even as it addresses the infrastructure challenges of participating countries. Underscoring this is the $2 billion contract between Nigeria’s National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and three Chinese partners, as well as the Lagos-Kano railway, financed by China.
The media, however, remains skeptical about the accumulated BRI debt, sustainability, and environmental concerns. For them, BRI is not all milk and honey, citing the standard gauge railways as substandard and, of course, debt overhang. As part of its agenda-setting role, the media has drawn the attention of governments to the need for caution in not trading the West’s slavery, colonialism, and imperialism for the imposition of China’s economic burden, which could make an unborn child in Nigeria a potential debtor beholden to China.
Meanwhile, China and Africa continue to strengthen their economic cooperation through various strategic plans and initiatives within the frameworks of the BRI and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a partnership platform established in 2000. This cooperation plan focuses on aligning the BRI with the African Union’s Agenda 2063—a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent.
In essence, BRI reflects the historical journey of Marco Polo, the Italian explorer, merchant, and writer whose expeditions and documentation inspired European interest in Asian cultures, trade routes, and inventions.
AIBO’s impact
AIBO, the organiser of the seminar, truly practices the concept of building a community with a shared future, having successfully organised 2,400 seminars and workshops for 60,000 officials from 160 countries and regions between 1998 and 2024. Therefore, their role cannot be overemphasized. “Seeing is believing” is a popular saying in Nigeria, and as AIBO “graduates and ambassadors,” we are now better equipped to tell the China narrative authoritatively.
The compelling inclusion of academic content, along with field visits, enhanced our experience significantly. We visited the Great Wall, China’s historic and cultural heritage where resilience and creativity intertwine; the All China Journalists Association (ACJA); Chongqing International Logistics Hub Exhibition Centre; Yingxiongwan “village”; China Daily; and the China-Africa Business Council (CABC) among others—all generating excitement among participants. The ACJA and China Daily visits offered valuable interaction and insights into the convergence of media in China, similar to the one-China policy and unanimity of purpose of the Chinese government.
Similarly, it was an opportunity to observe innovative practices in Chinese media and Chinese journalists’ liaison with the western media, the establishment of an international journalists hub, how “business associations guide enterprises to strengthen international communication and outreach,” and “reporting of news in the digital era.” As a highlight of the trip, our visit to the CABC revealed the depth and enduring relationship between the two continents. We saw on display photo exhibitions of the father of modern China, Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, who revolutionised the course of Chinese history and began the modernisation of Chinese society, birthing all that China represents today.
Chongqing: A city of contrasts
Our China experience, so academically explored, was given practical expression in our visit to Chongqing, especially to Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park, a top-level planning and resource centre where BRI was born. Other economic activities such as China-Europe trains, western land-sea channel, land and sea and railway ports were also initiated there.
The Yangtze River economic belt, pilot free trade zone, China-Singapore strategic interconnection, and Chengdu-Chongqing double city economic circle, among others, have all been fully integrated into the BRI.
Chongqing, the mountain city’s allure, is like no other; its unique topography stands as an architectural masterpiece. This 34-million-people province is a tourist haven. Variously called mountain city, city of rivers, a port city, and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Chongqing sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers with an area of 31,800 square miles (82,400 square kilometers). Chongqing is also called the “double happiness” province, but the totality of the country and its evolving transformation should represent some form of “multiple happiness” for both citizens and visitors alike.
“Chongqing is a unique blend of history, nature, and modern development, attracting visitors with its stunning mountain views, cultural heritage, and lively urban charm,” as evidenced by monorails criss-crossing between houses perched on mountains by the river. With a total population of 34 million, of which 22.8 million live in urban areas, Chongqing is every tourist’s dream destination. A modern city built on automobiles and rail networks, Chongqing has relegated motorcycles and bicycles to a bygone past.
Yet, its countryside—what we would call a village in Nigeria or rural area in other places—brims with modernity. Our visit to Yingxiongwan village (Eye Bey), which transformed in less than 30 years and now boasts all the trappings of urbanity, was another journey into the inner recesses of the Chinese fast-paced world. Chongqing’s convergence of land, marine, and air transport makes it a marvelous hub of commerce. The world’s largest laptop manufacturing company is located in Chongqing.
Chinese work culture
In China, work is seamless and endless, day and night. China functions as the world’s biggest factory. With 128 trading partners, it produces 80% of Apple phones, an acclaimed proudly American product. China is greater than just its people; its tooling skills guarantee millions of engineering works and infrastructure projects. Chinese workmen renovated a massive railway station in just seven hours. Such is the magnificent power of China’s workforce that it is referred to as the engine room of the world’s economy, the world’s factory, the world’s trading nation, and exporter with a GDP of 134.91 trillion yuan (approximated to 18.80 trillion dollars as of 2024), second only to the US. It maintains the largest foreign exchange reserves and houses over 56 million SMEs.
Social media impact
The internet penetration in China is unrivaled. Short videos, movies, and internet technology communication are not one-directional as the world often assumes of China. With social media, production and innovation in Chinese movies and short videos have converged to enhance internet penetration technology. Internet users number up to 1.108 billion, and e-commerce live streaming is worth US$592 billion.
Teachers are revered
Another interesting revelation about the Chinese brand is its teaching workforce. The Chinese doctrine of respect, unassuming ethos, and service has elevated the teaching profession, contrary to what we experience in Nigeria where teaching is relegated and teachers are poorly paid, such that we say “teachers’ rewards are in heaven.” In China, teachers enjoy a high level of respect. Not surprisingly, 53.8% of young people under 40, totaling 3.3 million teachers, work in rural areas under the silver help project. In any case, rural areas may simply be defined by population rather than by the absence of infrastructure. The countryside enjoys the same infrastructure as urban cities. Our visit to Yingxiongwan belies traditional notions of “rural”; it was only rural in population and distance from the city centre, yet complete with urban facilities including small-scale industries and farming.
A recent argument over one dollar being able to provide a daily meal, as espoused by President Tinubu’s Senior Special Adviser on Economic Affairs, Dr. Tope Fasua, in relation to what that same amount can provide in the US, is worth mentioning here. A Nigerian resident in Beijing, the capital of China, told of how he spends one yuan on a meal. At the current exchange rate of slightly over 200 naira to a yuan, three square meals cost barely N650 per day. Now consider what food N650 can buy for anyone in Nigeria. This affirms China’s food security and security generally as a lived reality and not merely a hope or prospect.
Zainab Suleiman Okino is Chairman of Blueprint Editorial Board. She is a syndicated columnist and can be reached through: zainabokino@gmail.com
