Beneficiary of the Dongfang Scholarship program at Peking University, Habibou Dia reflects on the lessons learned from his stay in China. Between food sovereignty, industrialization, Sino-African cooperation, and general artificial intelligence (AGI), the Director of Communication at the Senegalese Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications, and Digital Technology provides a strategic analysis of Chinese transformations and the challenges facing global South countries. The Dongfang Scholarship Program is an internationally funded program focused on public policy and leadership. Hosted by Peking University, it is primarily aimed at executives, public officials, researchers, and young leaders from Southern countries. The short-term and highly strategic program emphasizes international relations, governance, the Chinese development model, poverty reduction, and South-South cooperation.
Many countries are interested in Africa mainly for its resources or for geopolitical reasons. How can we ensure that China will not follow this opportunistic approach?
Interest in the global South is not new. There have been several cycles of attempts at domination or exploitation over the past centuries, but the aspirations of peoples have gradually reshaped global governance and bilateral relations. With these transitions, several countries that were quite poor in the last decades, after World War II and during the independence era, have made remarkable progress.
With a few exceptions, many countries in the global South remain in a development cycle slower than the growth of their population, particularly African countries, despite their abundant resources.
It must be assumed that no state should hope or expect another state to lift it out of poverty and solve its economic problems. However, with cooperation, possibilities remain. In particular, and regardless of China’s major initiatives in financing and infrastructure, it is up to Africa to decide on the governance of its relations and resources with its partners:
The major weakness lies in the fact that many countries in the South and many African countries are still trading posts: exploiting and exporting raw natural resources with average profits and benefits. If we, as countries in the global South, especially Africans, try to obtain more transferred technologies, more locally processed products, and more infrastructure, then we can improve the rules of the game.
With only 8% of the world’s arable land, China manages to feed 20% of the planet. What is the secret of the “Chinese agricultural miracle”?
This question is fundamental for a proper understanding of a country’s sovereignty level. Indeed, a state that cannot feed its population through mechanisms it controls is not a sovereign state. To solve this equation and achieve food self-sufficiency, China has implemented a series of agrarian sector reforms, supported by a holistic implementation strategy within the framework of multiple five-year plans.
The starting point of China’s agricultural reform was the Household Responsibility System launched in 1978. This system, while maintaining collective land ownership, granted farmers long-term stable rights of use, greatly stimulating production.
The Chinese rural transformation has gone through several stages: consolidation of primary production, crop diversification, mechanization, and then high-value-added agriculture integrating modern technologies and green urban agriculture.
Can African countries draw inspiration from the Chinese model to achieve food self-sufficiency ?
Clearly, developing countries can look towards Asia and China by taking into account best practices. However, each nation must adapt these teachings to its own realities. Senegalese ingenuity, like that of every nation in the global South, must enable an intelligent synthesis of different agricultural policies.
Despite its arable land and potential in the Senegal River Valley and Casamance, Senegal remains dependent on rice imports. Food self-sufficiency cannot be achieved without an ambitious policy of mechanization and agricultural modernization.
In my opinion, we need:
* institutions capable of promoting agricultural innovation;
* bold technological partnerships;
* market reforms to absorb production;
* and above all, massive investments in agriculture.
Isn’t the low level of mechanization in Africa a major obstacle ?
We can no longer talk about modern agriculture without mechanization. We have even entered an era of agricultural digitalization with intelligent systems covering the entire value chain: production, processing, marketing, and exportation.
But there is also a historical opportunity. Global population growth means there will always be an agricultural market. This paves the way for a more balanced global agricultural governance.
I advocate for cooperation based on industrialization and local transformation. The commitment of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum 2024 to industrialize Africa can be a significant lever. The goal should be to achieve a local transformation rate of at least 35% for key agricultural products.
What impressed you the most during your stay in China?
I was impressed by the high level of digitalization in Chinese society, but especially by the work on general artificial intelligence (AGI). In China, entire cities already serve as real-world laboratories to test AI systems applied to transportation, urban security, or smart governance.
I particularly followed the teachings of Professor Song-Chun Zhu, a major figure in AGI and founding director of the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI). His thinking places humans at the center of the relationship with AI, in a logic of human-machine symbiosis.
I also discovered “Tong Tong,” presented as the world’s first AGI child. His development is based on a gradual learning process similar to that of a human child: interaction with a virtual environment, increasing autonomy, social skills, and solving complex tasks. It is a spectacular advancement that shows how imperative it is for our countries to invest in emerging technologies to not miss the last train of modernity.
About the Dongfang Scholarship Program
The Dongfang Scholarship Program at Peking University is an international leadership and public policy program for professionals and decision-makers from Southern countries. Structured around conferences, field visits, and strategic dialogues, it aims to promote South-South cooperation and a better understanding of the Chinese development model. Unlike traditional academic scholarships such as the CSC or the Yenching Program, the Dongfang Scholarship is a short, executive program focused on governance.
