Have you ever seen a place that feels so picturesque it could have been lifted straight out of a futuristic movie? That is the feeling that hits when you first set your eyes on Beijing.
But what struck me most were not the skyscrapers. It was not the technology, the roads or the railways. It was seeing what becomes possible when development is treated as a serious national responsibility and the people are placed at the centre of that vision.
There is development. Then there is China. Beijing is a city where ancient history and modern development exist side by side. Tree-lined streets run alongside towering buildings. Ancient structures stand within an advanced urban environment. Public transport moves millions of people. Parks and public spaces are built into the city. Infrastructure is not treated as an afterthought, but as part of creating a society in which people can actually live. That does not happen by accident. It happens when a country decides that development is not a slogan, but a mission.
China’s transformation has been decades in the making. Its first Five-Year Plan, introduced in 1953, placed industrialisation and national productive capacity at the centre of its development agenda. Today, Beijing is one of the clearest examples of what sustained planning can produce. And for me, this raises an uncomfortable question for Africa. Why are we still accepting so little from ourselves?
Africa has no shortage of policies, development frameworks, summits and speeches. We have endless declarations about transforming our economies, empowering young people, improving infrastructure and ending poverty. But where is the transformation people can actually touch? What good is another development strategy when a rural community still has no reliable infrastructure? What does economic growth mean to the young person who cannot find work? What does a new policy mean to the woman who spends hours navigating an inadequate transport system? What does democracy mean to a community that has been waiting years for basic services? Our people cannot eat promises. They cannot travel on strategies. They cannot build their futures on speeches. This is why African countries must be willing to study societies that have demonstrated what long-term, people-centred development can look like — including China.
We should not allow the age-old Euro-Western habit of deciding which countries are legitimate examples of progress to determine where Africa looks for answers. If something works, study it. If it can be adapted, adapt it. If it can benefit African people, pursue it. Our loyalty must not be to somebody else’s development model. Our loyalty must be to African people – first and foremost!
This is also why partnerships with China and other developing societies can matter. Africa needs infrastructure. We need technology. We need manufacturing. We need skills, investment, industrial capacity and stronger economies that allow us to stop exporting our wealth as raw materials while importing finished products at a higher price.
But partnership cannot mean dependency. African governments must negotiate from a position of strength. We must demand skills transfer, local participation, industrial development and opportunities for African businesses and workers. We must ensure that infrastructure is built not simply because it looks impressive, but because it changes people’s lives. The point is not to become China. The point is to become a stronger Africa. And perhaps that is the most powerful lesson Beijing offers us. Development must be measured by the lives of ordinary people. Can they move through their cities safely and efficiently? Can their children access quality schools? Can businesses transport goods? Can communities access healthcare? Can young people find meaningful opportunities? Can people live in neighbourhoods that are connected, safe and dignified? These are certainly not luxuries. They are the foundations of a society that respects its people.
Too often, developing nations are told to be patient. We are told transformation takes time. We are told poverty is complicated. We are told inequality is historical. We are given endless explanations for why ordinary people must continue waiting, and continue suffering. But Beijing forces us to confront something else: What if the real problem is not that development is impossible, but that we have not been unshakeably determined enough to deliver it?
China’s experience demonstrates what sustained planning, infrastructure investment; industrialisation and a relentless focus on national development can produce. African countries should take that lesson seriously. Not because China is perfect. Not because Africa should copy another country’s political or economic system wholesale. And certainly not because we should replace one form of dependence with another. But because African people deserve governments courageous enough to learn from what works.
Standing in Beijing, looking at the roads, the railways, the technology, the public spaces and the sheer scale of what has been built; I could not help but think about what our own cities could become. What could Johannesburg look like? What could Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Addis Ababa or Kinshasa look like if our governments pursued development with the same long-term determination? Imagine African cities designed around the people who live in them rather than around exclusion, inequality and survival. Imagine infrastructure that connects townships and rural communities to opportunity instead of leaving millions on the margins. Imagine development that does not simply create wealth, but moves people out of poverty and gives them the dignity of a life beyond survival. That is the kind of development Africa should be fighting for!
Truly, a society should not be judged by how impressive it looks from a distance. It should be judged by whether the people who live in it can actually live well. And that is perhaps Beijing’s greatest lesson: when people are placed at the centre of development, progress stops being a promise and starts becoming something people can actually see, touch and truly live.
*Tswelopele Makoe is a China-based gender and social justice activist and editor at Global South Media Network. She is a researcher, columnist, and an Andrew W Mellon scholar at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, UWC. The views expressed are her own.
