With the 2009 Forum for China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit approaching, Pambazuka News's China–Africa Watch editorial team invites views and opinions on the event from readers.

At the closing of the UN Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, governments adopted an outcome document reflecting months of negotiations. The Global Social Economy Group -a coalition of social groups and networks- looked at 7 key issues that civil society deemed crucial for the success of the conference. Although some progress was made on a few issues, the overwhelming majority of outcomes falls far below what is necessary to provide developing countries with the resources and tools they need to deal with the crisis.

Zimbabwe will re-evaluate all mining contracts and introduce a "use it or lose it" policy for its mining industry under a proposed law, Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said. The vetting of mining contracts by Zimbabwe's unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is likely to surprise investors at a time Harare is wooing them to help repair a battered economy.

In a ruling Thursday, the Delhi High Court overturned a 148-year-old colonial law criminalizing consensual homosexual acts saying that it was a violation of fundamental human rights protected under India’s Constitution. In so holding, the court reasoned that “the criminalization of homosexuality condemns in perpetuity a sizable section of society and forces them to live their lives in the shadow of harassment, exploitation, humiliation, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the law enforcement machinery … A provision of law branding one section of people as criminal based wholly on the State's moral disapproval of that class goes counter to the equality guaranteed under Articles 14 and 15 under any standard of review.”

Sanusha Naidu does a roundup of the week's Sino-African news.

Africa-China relations have gained worldwide attention, writes Adams Bodomo, and constitute the topic of much academic and diplomatic discourse. In this paper, Bodomo explores two important issues within this topic – whether the relationship between the two parts of the world is symmetrical or asymmetrical, and the exact role of soft power in this constellation. Bodomo argues that prominent economies on the African continent such as South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria have an important role to play in ensuring a symmetrical relationship with China, in which Africa can also take part in a symmetrical cultural diplomacy with China, for example through setting up African cultural institutes around the country.

cc Awaiting execution on death row in the US state of Georgia, Troy Davis is an innocent victim of entrenched racial discrimination within the US judicial system, writes Keith Jennings. With his legal representatives not 'claim[ing] his innocence in a timely fashion', Davis faces the prospect of being murdered by Georgia's authorities simply for not submitting his papers on time. If the US is to practise what it preaches and show the world that it is genuinely tackling domestic racial discrimination, such a flagrant human rights violation must be put right immediately, Jennings concludes.

Lost in the recent debate in Congress over expanded funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was the key question of how that money should best be spent in order to promote a global economic recovery. Here in the United States, our own economic stimulus included unprecedented levels of funding, over $100 billion, in new education spending.

As government officials from around the world descend on New York for a UN conference on the economic crisis and its impact on development, the main issue up for debate is how the poorest countries can influence the way the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank operate.

In a new wave of outsourcing, Indian firms are acquiring swathes of farmland in poor African countries to produce food meant to be exported to India. But food policy experts are lambasting the strategy as “ neo- colonialist”. They say such deals exploit the natural resources of poor countries who are themselves facing acute food shortages.

Sanusha Naidu does a roundup of the week's Sino-African news

China's veto of proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe by the United States and Britain last year has been vindicated by the formation of the inclusive government, outgoing Chinese Ambassador Yuan Nansheng has said. Addressing a press conference on the eve of his departure to a new posting in Suriname, Yuan said it was likely that Zimbabwe could not have proceeded to form an inclusive government without the vetoes by China and Russia.

The purpose of the Fellowship program is to offer a possibility for human rights defenders at risk to take some time out from their normal work to undertake a project which will further develop their capacities and contribute to the protection of human rights defenders internationally. Front Line Fellowships will now be offered on a more flexible basis for periods of one to six months.

cc In a wide-ranging summary of China's activity on the African continent, Anthony Yaw Baah and Herbert Jauch of the African Labour Research Network (ALRN) argue that African governments must develop a more strategic approach if their countries are to truly benefit from the Asian giant. Now Africa's third largest trade partner after the US and France, China's no-strings-attached approach to aid and investment has made the country popular with many African leaders. While China's demand for raw materials has pushed up the global prices of several commodities extracted in Africa, limited processing takes place on the continent. If African countries are to avoid the role of mere material suppliers, they must look to shape relations with China more to their own advantage, Yaw Baah and Jauch contend. With serious doubts over working conditions within much of Chinese-run industry, the need for workers' collective bargaining and direct action is becoming ever greater. If governments are not to subordinate social and labour issues to economic growth for fear of losing foreign investment, Yaw Baah and Jauch conclude, they will need to develop their own agenda and positions of negotiation.

China’s economy has continued to feel the brunt of the global crisis. Global economic activity continued to decline in the first part of 2009, even as tentative signs of stabilization have emerged recently in several countries. However, very expansionary fiscal and monetary policies have kept the economy growing respectably. Fiscal stimulus is centered on the infrastructure-oriented “RMB 4 trillion” stimulus plan and the monetary stimulus has led to a surge in new bank lending. Government-influenced investment has soared.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese relations with African countries were driven by ideological considerations, with China presenting itself as an alternative to both the West and the Soviet Union. During that time, China’s support consisted mainly of moral and material support for liberation struggles. During the 1980s, the relationship shifted towards economic co-operation based on common aims. After the end of the “Cold war”, China attached importance to both political and economic benefits and portrayed itself as an attractive economic partner and political friend.

Sanusha Naidu does a roundup of the week's Sino-African news

This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society. It has been developed by the Barefoot Collective.

Submit your essay on democracy, and get your free ticket to the world’s largest gathering of democracy and human rights activists in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2010! The World Youth Movement for Democracy (www.wymd.org), a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen winners (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be invited to participate in the upcoming 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010.

To celebrate World Humanism Day on June 21st Hivos and the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO made a selection of the best Metropolis TV movies on the theme ‘independent people’. The central idea of the movies is: 'people are in control over their own lives'. We have chosen beautiful movies from China (Jiang and his globe), Zambia (walking hunger striker), Burkina Faso (photographer of mad people), Kenya (anti-circumcision village) and Turkey (young ambitious politician).