The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued two seemingly contradictory messages on Monday in response to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s new foreign policy strategy for Africa, which avoided any references to China. The Secretary went out of his way during last week’s three-nation African tour to assert that Washington’s focus in Africa will fall on Africa and not China. Blinken, in fact, did not mention the word “China” once during his main foreign policy address on Africa last Friday in Abuja.
When a Xinhua reporter in Beijing asked Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian to comment on Blinken’s speech and the apparent new U.S. “China-less” foreign policy, Zhao seemed intent to reciprocate. In a lengthy, almost 400 word response, Zhao avoided mentioning either Blinken or the U.S. by name and instead made vague, indirect references about Africa’s “partners”: