BEIJING -- China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed on Tuesday in a reply to scholars from 50 African countries.

In the letter, Xi noted that in the face of a volatile and intertwined world situation, China and Africa need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation more than ever before.

Xi encouraged the scholars to continue to provide intellectual support for building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding the common interests of the Global South.

Xi noted that not long ago, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully held, sounding a clarion call of the times to open up broad prospects for the Chinese modernization through further deepening reform.

The continuous development and growth of China that pursues peaceful development and is committed to reform and opening up will surely further strengthen the forces for world peace and international justice, and inject inexhaustible impetus into the process of global modernization, especially the development and revitalization of the Global South, Xi said.

The upcoming Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will bring together Chinese and African leaders once again to discuss China-Africa cooperation, which will open up even more splendid prospects for China-Africa relations, Xi said.

He raised his hope that based on the Dar es Salaam Consensus between China and Africa, both sides will step up research and exploration on the development path of Global South countries, China-Africa and South-South cooperation, and continue to provide important intellectual support for building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding the common interests of the Global South.

Gert Grobler, a former veteran diplomat of South Africa and honorary professor of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, and 63 scholars from 50 African countries sent a joint letter to Xi, warmly congratulating on the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, highly commending the historic achievements of the FOCAC, and expecting that the upcoming Summit of the FOCAC would write a new chapter in building a China-Africa community with a shared future and the joint modernization of the Global South.