Family devoted to Africa's success helped lay tracks for its development

In June this year, when Li Jnr visited the Chenyama village in Salima Town, in Malawi, he was touched by a handwriting slogan on a wooden board put up on a big tree in the village, which read "SAY YES TO QUALITY EDUCATION".

Li Jnr said he can feel local people's aspirations to pursue better education to shake off poverty and change their destiny.

When he arrived at the primary school of the village, he was astonished to find a teacher was using the projector TV that his company donated to teach his students mathematics.

"Every time I see the changes－a sense of gain for them－I feel my work is meaningful as what I do can benefit others," Li Jnr said.

What's more, villagers can watch some Chinese TV programs to learn more about Chinese culture, and Chinese people's lives, he added.

The program kicked off in August last year, and is being piloted in more than 10,000 villages from 25 African countries, including Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Malawi.

Li Jnr said people-to-people contact and communication is very important to draw the hearts of different countries much closer. "A simple word, a smile, a hug can help build the bonds with African friends," he added.

To increase people-to-people exchanges, from 2015 to 2018, China provided Africa with 2,000 educational opportunities with diplomas or degrees. On top of this, 30,000 government scholarships and sponsored visits by 200 African scholars and study trips by 500 young Africans to China every year were arranged, and 1,000 media professionals from Africa were also trained annually in China.

Li Jnr said the generation of his grandfather has made great contributions to laying the foundation for the China-Africa friendship.

"In the new era, we young people should contribute our own share to enabling the traditional friendship to pass on from one generation to another," he said.