ANNUAL REPORT ON DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA No.20 (2017-2018): Situations in Africa: New Development, New Characteristics and New Trends 

Abstract 

In the second decade of the 21st century, environments of politics, economy, security, geopolitics, foreign relations, laws, and public opinions in Africa have all witnessed different degrees of changes. With the frequent activities of China in Africa, especially with China's growing demand and desire from Africa, new development, new characteristics and new trends of situations in Africa are closely related to both Africa's own interest and China's interest in Africa. In addition, 2018 is the “Forum Year” of Forum on China - Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), when the Chinese government will introduce a series of strategies and policies towards Africa, which would in turn highlight the importance of strengthening research and in advance judgement on situations in Africa. Accordingly, the editing committee of the Annual Report on African Development set “ Situations in Africa: New Development, New Characteristics and New Trends” as the special topic for this year's African yellow book.

The Annual Report is composed of seven units: Main Report, Special Report, Forum Frontiers, Regional Situations, Countries' Situations, Market Assessment and Documentation. Contributors are from Institute of West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (CAITEC)

of the Ministry of Commerce, Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China Institutes of Contemporary international Relations, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies ( SIIS ), and China Institute of International Studies (CIIS).

The column of Special Reports consists of one main report and six special reports. The main report gives a comprehensive study regarding historical process and basic features of African geopolitics, thebackground and structural characteristics of restructuring of African geopolitics as well as the situation and development trends of African geopolitics. The special reports make in⁃depth analysis from multi perspectives on the new development, new characteristics and new trends regarding politics, economy, security, foreign relations, laws, and public opinions in Africa, and give relevant recommendations regarding the influences exerted by these new changes on China's activities and interests in Africa. Topics such as African international relations, Africa's relations with China are themes which are rarely covered by current international relations studies regarding Africa in China, which so far pays more attention on outer world's relations with Africa, such as big powers' relation with Africa, especially China's relations with Africa.

The column of Forum Frontiers is the special column set up for the 2018 “Forum Year” of the FOCAC. Following the Johannesburg Summit in 2015, Chinese and African leaders will gather again in Beijing this autumn. It is worth noting that the upcoming meeting of the FOCAC has once again been promoted to leaders'summit, which is not only a unique event in the history of the FOCAC, but also may become a practice. To this end, the editing committee of the Annual Report on African Development specially invite Mr. Dai Bing, Secretary⁃General of Chinese Follow⁃up Committee of the FOCAC, and director⁃general of Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to elaborate on “ new situations of development in Africa, new progress of China⁃Africa relations, new outlook for China⁃Africa cooperation”.

The column of regional situation includes three reports, which mainly analyze African reginal politics and economic situations as well as new trends of big powers relations with Africa, and also provide in advance some judgement on their development trends.

The column of Countries' Situations is a new column set up by the Annual Report of this year. It is composed of researches on South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Democratic Republic of Congo, countries which play a vital role in sub⁃regions or even on the whole African continent. Major events happened in the areas of politics, economy, security and foreign relations of these countries would not only be of great importance to their own domestic development, but would also have impact on situations within sub-regions.

Three reports in the column of Market Assessment contributed by three experts from CAITEC of the Ministry of Commerce, deal with Africa egional trade, investment, and engineering markets in 2017 and updated situations of international aid to Africa.

The Documentation includes China's African Studies in 2017, a chronology of Africa, and a chart on macro⁃economic indicators for African countries.