Lin Songtian is no stranger to Africa. He has worked there for 14 years and organized the Second Ministerial Confer-ence of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Ethiopia. When serving as the Chinese ambassador to Libe-ria, he was named the"Dip-lomat of the Year"in the local media for three consecutive years. He.is now China's am-bassador to Malawi. Recently,Ambassador Lin shared histhoughts on Africa with Chi-naAfrica. Excerpts follow: