BEIJING, Jul 19 -- According to the press briefing hosted by the 5th Ministerial Conference of FOCAC today, the Communist Party of China (CPC) maintains ties with 81 political parties in Africa. More than half of them are ruling parties and the rest are either participating or opposition parties.

Zhong Weiyun, deputy director-general of the Bureau of African Affairs of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), said that the 21st century ushered in a new stage in China-Africa inter-party relationship. With a good momentum supporting its vigorous growth, this relationship is becoming wider in scope, richer in content and more diversified in manifestation. An all-directional, wide-ranging, multi-channeled and deep-going relationship between political parties of China and Africa is taking shape.

According to the briefing, apart from the ever closer exchange of visits between top leaders, the CPC each year sends about 10 delegations headed by ministerial or provincial level officials on trips to Africa and invites about 20 high-level party delegations from Africa to visit China.

"This is a testimony of the increasing importance that the CPC gives to Africa and African political parties. It also presents in a part a larger role of the inter-party ties in China-Africa relationship", said Zhong.

Also according to Zhong, it is in line with the development of China-Africa relationship in the new era to push forward the cooperation in economic and cultural fields between the two sides through the vehicle of party-to-party ties. This includes setting up high-level visits to nail down some big cooperation projects, organising trade missions to be a part of visiting CPC delegations headed by provincial and local party leaders, and sponsoring multilateral forums for sharing information between the business communities of China and Africa.

As an inseparable part of China's diplomatic agenda based on the independent foreign policy of peace, party-to-party ties between China and Africa constitute a distinctive landscape in modern international relations, which distinguishes the diplomacy of China from that of other big countries, said Zhong.