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With China on the Minds of Many in DC, U.S.-Africa Summit Gets Underway

Under mounting pressure to rival China's engagement in Africa, the White House wants to make it very clear that the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that begins on Tuesday will be very different than what it's done in the past. ...

China’s Party-run Media, Scholars Dismiss U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

While U.S. officials have sought to downplay competition with China in Africa ahead of this week's leaders summit in Washington, D.C., Chinese scholars and Communist Party-run media, on the other hand, are eager to draw comparisons between how the two powers engage with the continent.

China Was a Key Theme at High Profile Africa Conference in Washington

China may not be a prominent topic of discussion at this week's U.S.-Africa summit but it was on Monday at a high-profile conference that featured a number of senior U.S. and Chinese officials. The event was organized by the seven-week-old media ...

“China-Africa Relations Are the Bedrock of China’s Foreign Policy,” Says Beijing Envoy

China's ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, was among the keynote speakers at Monday's Semafor Africa Summit in Washington, D.C.  Although Qin has never been posted to Africa and doesn't have any firsthand experience with the issues, 

U.S. Playing “Catch Up” to China in Africa, Says Senior Commerce Department Official

U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves said the quiet part out loud on Monday at the Semafor Africa Summit in Washington, D.C., when he acknowledged that American stakeholders had fallen far behind China in terms of economic engagement in Africa. ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China Tries to Maintain Mideast Diplomatic Momentum With Summit Planned for Later This Year

China will host a summit between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council later this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The summit with the six-country bloc (made up of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait) will further solidify the normalization of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China this weekend.
The announcement follows December’s first summit between China and Arab states, where GCC leaders welcomed President Xi Jinping’s ...

Poll: African Publics Rate U.S. Leadership Higher Than China’s But Not By Much

For the most part, African publics in 27 countries across the continent have similar views of U.S. and Chinese global leadership, according to data from the international polling agency Gallup. U.S. favorability is ahead of China's by just ...

Congolese Cobalt May Become a Casualty of the New U.S. Climate Law

It appears that the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries that produce strategic resources used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries may be sidelined by the new U.S. climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA. A key ...

Bad Takes: What the News Media Got Wrong About Xi’s Trip to Saudi Arabia

So much of the international news coverage of Xi Jinping's three-day visit last week to Saudi Arabia was framed in the context of the broader U.S.-China rivalry. The Saudis and other Arab states, according to the prevailing narrative, were pivoting away ...

“Blue-ing” the BRI for Coastal Ecosystems and Communities

By Rebecca Ray Over the last week, China has presided over the Council of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal. China has chaired COP15 since the COVID-19 pandemic prevented countries from convening ...