On October 10, 2011, Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee and Vice President met in the Great Hall of the People with the delegation of the workshop of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa led by Secretary General Gwede Mantashe.

Xi spoke highly of the inter-party relations between China and South Africa. He said that both the CPC and the ANC have a long history. They were both born when their nations suffered foreign oppression and bullying and led their people to fight unremittingly for national independence, democracy and freedom. After coming to power, both parties are faced with similar tasks and challenges. With a long tradition of friendship, they always treat each other sincerely and understand and support each other for half a century. After the two parties signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Exchanges and Cooperation at the end of 2008, the bilateral exchanges and cooperation have reached a new level and the relations between the two parties have become the political foundation and an important part of the bilateral relations.

He highly complimented the results of the first three workshops. He noted that the workshop is a program approved by the top leaders of the CPC and the ANC and a major move of the two parties to share the governance experiences, jointly cope with challenges, improve leadership skills and achieve long-term governance. The CPC is willing to work with the ANC to further strengthen the high-level exchanges, deepen the exchanges of governance experience, expand the areas of exchanges, make innovations of interaction approaches and raise the friendly relations between the two parties to a new level.

Mantashe said that they are very glad to visit China and attend the workshop and highly admire the great achievements of national construction made by the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC. The ruling experience and the party development theory of the CPC are of great reference value to the ANC. China's status in the international arena continues to rise and the bilateral cooperation moves forward steadily, which is very meaningful not only to South Africa and China but also to the entire African continent. They are willing to cooperate with China to further develop the bilateral all-round strategic partnership.

Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC Wang Jiarui attended the meeting.