President Nelson Mandela will pay a state visit to China from May 5 to 7 at the invitation of President Jiang Zemin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said on Tuesday. Sun said China worked with the international community in the “just struggle of the South African people against apartheid.” China’s vice-president Hu Jintao headed a 70-member trade and business delegation to South Africa in February, aimed at deepening ties established when Pretoria switched recognition to Beijing from Taiwan at the start of 1998.