Agence France Presse and Newsweek were among the Western news outlets who have framed the Russia-Africa Summit story as a bid to somehow “confront” or “challenge” China’s massive influence in Africa. What’s interesting, though, is that none of that rhetoric is coming from the Russians themselves. Quite the opposite as discussed earlier in this newsletter.
Reading this kind of coverage, it feels a little bit like some of the more hawkish views on China that are common today in Europe and the U.S. may be influencing headline writers at these various news outlets. There just isn’t any evidence, at this point, that indicates the Russians see themselves as peer competitors with the Chinese in Africa.
