China’s newly-appointed Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa (HoA), Xue Bing (photo), concluded the first portion of a week-long tour on Saturday with a stinging rebuke of U.S. and European-led diplomacy in the region. “Some countries in this area [the Horn of Africa] are fed up with the foreign intervention, the preaching from Western countries,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Chinese embassy.

Instead, not surprisingly, he said the HoA leaders he met with last week told him that “China respects us, treats us as equals and so they want to see China play a more active and constructive role.”