On July 18, 2012, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met with visiting President of South Africa Jacob Zuma at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Zuma is in Beijing for a visit and to attend the opening ceremony of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Praising the two-year old China-South Africa Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Xi said the bilateral relationship has become one of the most energetic among each other's diplomatic ties with the efforts of leaders of both sides. The two sides have closer high-level communication, healthy trade and economic cooperation and fruitful cultural and people-to-people exchanges. South Africa now has the most of Confucius Institutes on the continent, and the country also receives the most Chinese tourists and students to Africa. South Africa has also the most provinces and cities on the content that have established one-to-one friendly relationship with provinces and cities of China.

Noting that China and South Africa are both developing countries, and their relations have gone beyond the bilateral scope and bear strategic significance to China-Africa relations and South-South cooperation, Xi stressed that China will make joint efforts with South Africa to further strengthen high-level visits and party exchanges, deepen communication on national governance, optimize trade structure and expand mutual investment. He urged both sides to expand exchanges on culture, education, science, technology, media and academics and cement the public opinion basis of bilateral friendship. Meanwhile, Xi also said that China is willing to enhance international coordination and cooperation at multilateral level with South Africa with the aim of jointly safeguarding developing countries' interests and improving the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is another pageant of China-Africa friendship and unity, said Xi, saying that the Chinese government is expected to announce at the conference a series of new cooperative programs to be undertaken and expressing the belief that the forum will bring new opportunities for the development of China-Africa relations. Xi noted that China will make joint efforts with South Africa to promote China-Africa reciprocal cooperation and a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership by taking the opportunity of implementing the outcomes of this Ministerial Meeting.

During the meeting, Zuma said currently South Africa is satisfied with the relationship between the two countries and between the Communist Party of China and the African National Congress of South Africa. He believed this visit will help promote the development of South Africa-China, Africa-China friendly cooperative relations. Currently, South Africa and Africa as a whole are facing opportunities and challenges of development, Zuma said. South Africa is committed to strengthening friendly cooperation with China in various fields including infrastructure construction under the framework of strategic partnership so as to push South Africa-China, Africa-China relations to a new level.