At the invitation of Denis Hurly Peace Institute (South Africa), Namibia Institute for Democracy, and Institute for Peace and Security Studies(Ethiopia), Mr. Zhou Li, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD) and former Vice Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China, led a CPAPD delegation to South Africa, Namibia and Ethiopia from 2 to 9 September 2019.

The delegation had extensive exchanges with political parties, peace organizations and security think tanks in the three countries. In South Africa, the delegation met with Ace Magashule, Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC), Tony Yengeni, Chairman of the ANC Committee on Peace and Security, and David Mahlobo, Vice-Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation.The delegation also had working meetings with members of the South Africa ruling coalition, Mzameni Richard Mdakana, President of South African National Civic Organization, and scholars from Safety and Violence Initiative of University of Cape Townrespectively.

In Namibia, the delegation met with Marco Hausiku, Deputy Secretary-General of the SWAPO Party and head of the SWAPOParty School, and had working meetings with scholars from Namibia Institute for Democracy, Namibia University of Science and Technology and Namibia Institute of Public Management respectively. The delegation, in the name of CPAPD, also organized the Seminar on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Socialism with Namibian Characteristics together with the Chinese Embassy to Namibia and Namibia Institute of Democracy, where Zhou Li delivered a keynote speech entitled Stay True to Our Original Aspiration and Build a Shared Future. The event was widely covered by both Chinese and Namibian news organizations.

In Ethiopia, the delegation met with Dr. Temesgen Burka, State Minister for Prime Minister’s Office of Democratic Systems Building Center, and had working meetings with scholars from Ethiopian Institute for Peace and Security Studies and Ethiopian Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute respectively.