As the first African leader to visit China in the past three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan's official visit to Beijing from Wednesday to Friday is of great significance.

Her visit is being closely watched not only by African countries, which will be looking for signals on China's Africa policy following the election of the country's top leadership body, but also by those countries in the West hoping to find something with which to derail Sino-African ties.

Yet these countries' smearing of China's laudable economic and trade cooperation with African countries only prompts the two sides to cherish their collaboration and mutual trust.

That the two leaders agreed to elevate relations to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership and further deepen the practical cooperation between the two countries in the digital, green and blue economies speaks volumes of the substantiality of the interaction between the two sides.

It also exposes the ill intentions of those Western critics, since the cooperation being proposed will undoubtedly bring tangible benefits to the Tanzanian people.

Speaking with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, Hassan said that China is a real friend of Tanzania, and Tanzania in turn wants to be a reliable partner of China forever. That remark as well as the tangible outcomes of the practical cooperation between China and African countries are the best rebuttal to the malicious calumny of those Western critics.

China has constructed numerous hospitals, schools, stadiums, roads, railways, bridges and prosperous industrial parks, and created countless job opportunities, all of which have improved the well-being of local people.

China and Africa have forged an unbreakable bond of brotherhood in the struggle against imperialism and colonialism. That historical legacy has laid a solid foundation on which to translate the Global Development Initiative China has proposed into concrete actions to tap the complementarity between the Chinese and African economies based on the principles that China always adheres to in its cooperation with other countries — mutual respect, candid exchanges, mutual assistance and win-win outcomes — principles that mean that its cooperation comes with no political strings attached.

As President Xi said, China's modernization is not Westernization. Its achievements in improving people's livelihoods and revitalizing the rural areas provide a reference for African countries in their efforts to explore their own development paths.