Political Party Cooperation: CPC Seeks Enhanced Relations With Cameroon  

The Communist Party of China is ready to consider requests from all parties based on certain principles.

As Cameroon’s major economic and diplomatic partner, China would love to see relations strengthened with the country’s political parties. The wish was expressed at a press briefing on April 19, 2017 in the Chinese capital, Beijing, by a senior official of the Communist Party of China, CPC. Gao Xiangyang, Deputy Director General of the African Affairs Bureau of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, was addressing 27 African journalists on the theme, “China-Africa Political Party Cooperation.”

“The CPC established ties with the then Cameroon National Union, CNU (now the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM) in 1981. However, there has not been any high-level exchanges between the two parties,” Xiangyang noted. She said the two sides nevertheless send congratulatory messages during each other’s congresses. “Each year, the CPC invites two or three CPDM representatives to the Young Political Party Leaders’ Forum in China. The CPC is ready to consider cooperation requests from Cameroonian political parties based on certain principles. Such parties must be legalised,” she emphasised.

The principles are: respect for the independence of each party, the equality of all parties (no matter their leaning and being in power or not) and mutual respect for each other’s different opinions. The other criteria are non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, country-to-country relations and the affairs of third parties. The CPC official made it clear that her party does not i...