Students from 36 different African countries gathered in Beijing on Sunday to take part in the first-ever African students’ forum organized by the China-Africa Institute with the support of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, one of the country’s leading public policy think tanks.

While the event itself did not seem particularly interesting as it mostly featured long speeches from Chinese academics who largely repeated oft-used talking points about China-Africa relations (e.g. “building a community of shared prosperity”), the forum was nonetheless well received by a number of the young people who attended.