In the 1960s, China supported armed struggle by theUnion des Populations du Cameroon (UPC) against the government ofAhmadou Ahidjo.[1]: 23 In 1970, the Ahidjo government defeated the UPC.[1]: 23 In 1971, Cameroon established relations with China.[1]: 23
In the 2000s, leading politicians paidstate visits to and from each country; these included Cameroonian PresidentPaul Biya's visit for a conference in 2006 andHu Jintao's visit to Cameroon in 2007.[2]
In the 2000s, some in Cameroon considered the economic relationship to be a form ofneo-colonialism; this was mainly due to a perception that Chinese traders flooded the Cameroonian market with cheap but extremely fragile manufactured goods, which stymied the development of local industries.[3]
Chinese Foreign Minister,Wang Yi visited Cameroon on 12 January 2014.[4]
Since the firstForum on China Africa Cooperation in 2000, Beijing has successfully delivered $2.4 billion in development finance to Cameroon.[6] $87 million of that total falls under the OECD-DAC criteria forOfficial Development Assistance. Major projects executed by the Chinese government in Cameroon include:
Construction of the Kribi Deep Seaport funded by a FCFA 207,270 billion loan from theExim Bank of China[7]
A FCFA 243 billion loan from China Exim bank for construction of the Memve'ele hydroelectric Dam in Nyabizan[8]
Memve'ele hydroelectric Dam Project
Construction of a malaria research center at Yaounde's Hospital of Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics[9]
Yearly trade topped 854 million US dollars in 2008, before dropping to 813 million US dollars in 2009 due to the global recession.[2]
Cameroon follows theone China principle. It recognizes the People's Republic of China as the sole government of China andTaiwan as an integral part of China's territory, and supports all efforts by the PRC to "achievenational reunification". It also considersHong Kong,Xinjiang andTibet to be China's internal affairs.[10]
