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New U.S. Strategy for Africa Raises Questions

Early headlines framed the United States’s new strategy towards Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of China and Russia, arguably because it’s difficult to get people in Washington and London to read anything about Africa without a New Cold War sweetener. 

U.S. Unveils New Foreign Policy Strategy for Africa That Downplays China and Great Power Competition

The United States is embarking on a major shift in its foreign policy towards Africa by downplaying the need to confront China's influence on the continent. It will instead focus more attention on democracy and governance issues. The new approach was ...

Even Before Blinken Unveiled the New U.S. Strategy For Africa, China Didn’t Like It

Hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new U.S. strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, China's nationalist tabloid newspaper began publishing stories that attacked the U.S. for "attempting to bring the continent back to the Cold War" and for "ruining Africa's development prospects."

Many Chinese Netizens Are Framing the Blinken Visit and the New U.S. Strategy in the Context of Great Power Competition

The Blinken visit to Africa and the unveiling of the new U.S. strategy for the continent were not widely covered by Chinese media on Monday but a few online commentators, some with sizable audiences, offered their opinions. Most echoed the prevailing ...

Blinken’s Comments on Taiwan Spark Furious Response From Chinese Embassy in South Africa

Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken triggered an uproar by the Chinese embassy in Pretoria over comments that he made about Taiwan in an interview with South African television news channel eNCA: WHAT BLINKEN SAID: "I think with regard to ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

BRICS Announces Numerous New Initiatives

The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...

Chinese Foreign Ministry Claps Back at Latest U.S. Debt Trap Accusation

The seemingly never-ending dispute over supposed Chinese debt traps in Africa flared anew on Monday when Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying launched a lengthy rebuttal to the latest accusation on the issue by a senior U.S. government official.  Last week, prior ...

How U.S.–China Cooperation Can Strengthen Democracy

By Jake Werner Is it possible to find common ground between the United States and China on the fraught question of democracy? The answer at first appears to be no. But the prospects for democracy around the world may depend on ...