Kenya among Horn of Africa countries invited to Chengdu think-tank workshop with Xinjiang visit

Think-tank and media representatives from Horn of Africa countries, including Kenya, have been invited to a training workshop in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, that also takes them to Xinjiang, China's Foreign Ministry said in a release on 30 October.

Hu Changchun, the ministry's Special Envoy for Horn of Africa Affairs, attended the opening ceremony on 29 October and gave a speech. Officials of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government and of Sichuan Normal University also attended.

The event is the 2026 Training Workshop for Think Tank Scholars from the Horn of Africa Countries. Representatives of what the release calls mainstream think tanks and media were invited from countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Somalia and South Sudan. Besides Sichuan, the participants will "visit and exchange views" in Xinjiang.

Hu said the workshop aims to build exchange and consensus on cooperation between China and Africa, especially the Horn of Africa, in security, development and governance. He said he hoped the African participants would gain "a more authentic, multi-dimensional and comprehensive understanding of China" and keep contributing to building an "all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era".

On 17 October Hu spoke at a reception held by Uganda's embassy in China for Uganda's 64th National Day. He said China wants to work with Uganda to carry out the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), according to a ministry report published on 21 October.

On 27 October, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China is closely following developments in the Middle East Gulf, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa and is deeply concerned about prolonged fighting and its spillover. He said China would soon send special envoys to countries in those regions to step up communication with the parties concerned.