Category: Politics
China’s Response to Blinken’s Africa Tour: Indifference Mixed With Anger
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 ...
Blinken Wrapped Up Africa Tour With a New Softer, More Conciliatory Message About Competition With China
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned home on Saturday after wrapping up a three-nation, five-day tour of Africa with stops in Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal. Throughout the trip, Blinken sought to reassure his African hosts, and stakeholders across the continent, ...
The Stark Difference Between How African and U.S. Governments See Engagement With China Was Clearly Evident in Nigeria
The huge divide between how African governments see their engagement with China and how it's framed by the United States was on full display at a press conference late last week in Abuja with visiting Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his host Nigerian ...
U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa No Longer About Confronting China, Says Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at pains last week to emphasize that confronting China is no longer the central focus of U.S. foreign policy towards Africa, as it was during the Trump administration. While the Trump White House
U.S. Beltway Analysts and Journalists Mostly Praise Blinken’s New Approach to China in Africa
Journalists, think tank analysts, and scholars largely expressed approval for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's new, less confrontational approach to China's engagement in Africa. It's important to note, however, that often the views of these analysts tend to be far ...
The Global South and Communist Party Politics
By Mariah Thornton, China Foresight LSE IDEAS To those of us observing China from the outside, the internal politics of the Communist Party of China (CPC) often seem obscure, like a black box. However, these internal struggles give us a sense ...
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Addressed Hundreds of African Stakeholders at the “Local FOCAC” Conference
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered the keynote address this week at the 4th China-Africa Local Government Cooperation Forum (CALGC), informally dubbed "local FOCAC." The event brought together 300 stakeholders from cities, states, provinces, and other sub-national levels. Tuesday's event was ...
Blinken Arrives in Kenya, Kicks Off Week-Long Africa Tour
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday to begin a three-nation, five-day Africa tour that will also take him to Nigeria and Senegal. While the worsening security situation in Ethiopia will top the ...
Howard French on the Stark Differences Between U.S. and Chinese Diplomacy in Africa
Author and journalist Howard French is promoting his new book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War. In a conversation this week with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs he commented on ...
U.S. Conservatives Are Becoming Increasingly Concerned About China’s Engagement in Latin America and They’re Using the Same Rhetoric They Did About Africa
U.S. fears of China "taking over" countries and entrapping them in "debt traps" all while "corrupting political elites" should sound very familiar to African stakeholders who've heard for years identical concerns expressed about China's engagement in their region -- only this time, U.S. conservatives are focused on ...
“America Will Never Oust China From Africa by Blaming Africans, but by Improving Its Own Policy to Africa.”
Rama Yade, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank dedicated her regular "Africa's Time Has Come" video post on Twitter to the subject of Chinese engagement in Africa and what she feels the U.S. needs to do to effectively compete on the continent. ...
Antony Blinken Heads to Africa For First Trip as Secretary of State
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a week-long, three-nation tour of Africa on Monday, making up for a trip that was originally scheduled in August but canceled so the Secretary could focus on the troop withdrawal fiasco in Afghanistan. ...