China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals

3. Winning the Battle against Ebola Together

In 2014, Ebola broke out in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. At a time when African people were in difficulties, China offered a helping hand, setting an example for the international community. China was the first to aid Guinea and Sierra Leone, and was the only country to provide laboratories to the epidemic-hit areas in West Africa and set up observation and treatment centers there. China provided rapid, practical and comprehensive anti-Ebola assistance to a total value of RMB750 million, and dispatched nine chartered planes to transport supplies and personnel. It sent more than 1,200 clinical and public health experts to Africa to combat Ebola alongside local medical workers. Chinese medical workers trained some 13,000 local medical workers. China also helped Ebola-stricken countries to build laboratories and treatment centers. Those assistance programs constituted the largest at the time among China's overseas assistance programs in response to public crises in terms of duration, coverage, scale and intensity. Chinese diplomats, medical teams, peacekeepers, and corporate employees chose to stay in Africa rather than evacuate. They managed to overcome their own fear of the epidemic, and thereby gave confidence to local people as well. Chinese and Africans confronted the disaster with sincere friendship, sharing weal and woe.

In 2018, when Ebola broke out again in the DRC, China provided timely emergency humanitarian aid including supplies, money, experts, medicine and training to the country and its neighboring countries including Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, as well as the AU, helping them to promptly contain the epidemic.