On January 7, 2008, South African President Thabo Mbeki met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the Presidential Palace in Pretoria, pledging that South Africa remains committed to strengthening friendly cooperation with China.

Mbeki said South Africa-China relations are vital to his country and the whole African continent. South Africa cherishes the traditional friendship with China and will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy. He said South Africa is pleased to see the successful implementation of the eight policy measures that President Hu Jintao announced at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on behalf of the Chinese government to strengthen China-Africa pragmatic cooperation and support Africa's development. China-Africa economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and is welcome by African people including South Africans, he said, expressing hope that such cooperation will yield more results.

Mbeki highly appreciated China's constructive role in Sudan's Darfur and other issues, expressing his country's willingness to maintain coordination and cooperation with China on major issues in a bid to push forward pragmatic South-South cooperation and equal South-North dialogue.

Yang said this year marks the 10th anniversary of China-South Africa diplomatic relations. Over the past 10 years, bilateral relations have witnessed a rapid, all-round development and the two countries have established a strategic partnership featuring equality, mutual benefits and common development with fruitful cooperation in bilateral and international affairs. Facts prove that China-South Africa relationship has become one of the most important and dynamic bilateral relations between China and African countries as well as big developing nations, he added.

Yang emphasized that China and South Africa, both influential developing countries, share broad common interest and hold identical or similar views on many key issues. China attaches great importance to ties with South Africa and is ready to take the opportunity of the 10th anniversary of the diplomatic ties to strengthen bilateral exchanges, build political trust and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to push China-South Africa ties to a new level, added Yang.

On the same day, Yang Jiechi held talks with his South African counterpart Zuma. Both sides exchanged in-depth views on developing friendly cooperative relations and other international and regional issues of common concern and reached broad consensus. Both sides agreed to continue maintaining high-level visits, build up mutual understanding and friendship through various forms of celebrations on the 10th anniversary of diplomatic ties and establish a strategic dialogue mechanism between the two Foreign Ministries to keep closer communication and cooperation in international and regional affairs. They also pledged to enhance cooperation on agriculture, economy, trade, science and technology, education and human resources and jointly promote China-Africa cooperation within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. South Africa will attend the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.