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President Xi Jinping spoke on the opening day of the virtual China-ASEAN leaders summit on Monday and laid out a five-point plan that echoes many of the themes that Chinese officials have been hinting will be discussed at the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) ministerial conference in Dakar next week:

• MULTILATERALISM: China's resistance to what it perceives as unilateral sanctions and other measures by the United States emerged as the first point articulated by President Xi: "China firmly opposes hegemonism and power politics," he said and called for "the need to practice true multilateralism." 

  It is very likely that this will emerge as a prominent theme in the FOCAC Action Plan as well.

• COVID: PresidentXi called for the creation of a "health shield" against COVID-19 and announced further financial support for ASEAN countries to help bolster their public health response to the pandemic. He also announced a new donation of 150 million doses of COVID vaccines to countries in the region.

  It is almost certain that a similar announcement will be made at FOCAC for African countries.

• DEVELOPMENT: President Xi touted his Global Development Initiative and a commitment to open China's market to $150 billion worth of ASEAN agricultural products over the next five years. He also raised the idea of creating an ASEAN free trade area that would complement the new Chinese-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade zone that will go into effect on January 1.

  Greater access to the China market for African agricultural products will be a key theme on the agenda at the next FOCAC and there will likely be a lot of discussion around the Global Development Initiative, as well as linking Chinese trade to the African Continental Free Trade Area.

• GREEN: Although the President did not announce any specific commitments related to green energy and finance, it was nonetheless noted as the fourth pillar in his regional plan.

  Chinese officials have said that sustainable energy development will be a key theme at FOCAC and will include more specific initiatives than what was announced on Monday at the ASEAN summit.

• PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES: "We need to actively consider orderly resumption of the flow of people after the COVID-19 pandemic," President Xi said in his final pillar that called for more civil society exchange. He specifically said China would support more vocational training in the region and give students more scholarships.

  Education and vocational training have long been key FOCAC themes and there is no doubt these themes will emerge in Dakar, as they did in the ASEAN summit.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Xi Jinping Attends and Chairs the Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations and Officially Announces the Establishment of a China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
• South China Morning Post: China to prioritize Southeast Asia with upgraded relations, development aid by Teddy Ng and Laura Zhou

Dozens of Senegalese officials from throughout the government have completed a Chinese language and culture training program at the University of Dakar's Confucius Institute in preparation for next week's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference that will take place next week.

The students received certificates this week for completing a course in basic Mandarin, Chinese etiquette, and "general knowledge" about China.

Members of the Kenya Ceramics Tiles, Wood Ply, and Interiors Designers Workers Union have gone on strike to protest working conditions at construction sites run by the China State Construction Engineering Cooperation (CSCEC). The union submitted a list of 11 grievances (photo) against the company that included a failure to pay salaries on time, sexual harassment, and the need for a "Human Resources Manager who understands Kenyan laws."

The company has not publicly responded to the allegations of misconduct.

Meantime, labor rights groups are calling for the release of five activists protesting against CSCEC to be released from custody. The group was reportedly arrested on Monday morning during a peaceful demonstration.

Wang Yao had lived in East Africa for more than a decade and became increasingly frustrated with the way that Africa was depicted in the Chinese media. When he searched for "Africa" on search engines or social video sites, all he got were the usual memes about war, famine, and safaris.

So he decided to do something about it and launched his own channel on the Chinese version of TikTok, known as Douyin. His upbeat, stylized videos about daily life in Kenya took off. Within just three months he reached a million followers and now, a year later, he's closing in on 5 million.

His efforts have even caught the attention of China's state-run news agency Xinhua, who recently interviewed him to find out more about what goes into creating the videos that are now getting millions of views on Chinese social media.

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 Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama.

While Blinken appeared to intentionally avoid using some of the more controversial rhetoric about "debt traps" and imported labor that has long informed official U.S. thinking on this issue, he wove in subtle, indirect references to several of the longstanding criticisms of Chinese investments in Africa. But Onyeama, like many of his peers in other foreign ministries, was not afraid to push back on that narrative:

• ANTONY BLINKEN: "We want to make sure that as investments are made, countries are not labored with tremendous debt that they can’t repay. That’s something we won’t do. We want to make sure that the rights of workers are foremost in our minds, that the environment is protected, that there’s no corruption that comes along with these investments, that we build together to the highest possible standards, and that we invest in areas and sectors that really will be the future for Africa as well as for the rest of the world, to include in green technology and green infrastructure, to include in health care systems, to include in information technology."

• GEOFFREY ONYEAMA: "Regarding U.S.-Chinese competition in Africa, I mean, I don’t want to sound almost – well, cynical, almost, about it, but sometimes it’s a good thing for you if people are – if you’re the attractive bride and everybody is offering you wonderful things.  So you take what you can from each of them. So that could be the situation there. But we have wonderful relations with the U.S., and we have wonderful relations with China – economic relations. And it will just – it’ll be on an ad hoc basis and based on the interests of Nigeria, not on the interests of China or the interests of the U.S."

Read a full transcript of the press conference on the U.S. Department of State website.

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 referenced China 14 times when its Prosper Africa strategy was unveiled in February 2019, Blinken brushed aside the China issue during an interview with the BBC's Deputy Africa Editor, Anne Soy, in Nairobi:

ANNE SOY:  Let’s turn to the U.S.-Africa policy.  The previous administration said that their policy was to counter China on the continent.  We didn’t really see much of that.  What’s yours?
 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Our Africa policy is about Africa, not about China.  It’s about the relationship between the United States and the 54 countries on the continent. And it’s premised on this basic reality: Everything that we seek to do in the world to make progress for our own people cannot be done without Africa. When we’re talking about climate change, Africa has to be part of the answer, part of the solution. When we’re talking about dealing with pandemics like COVID-19, Africa has to be part of the solution, part of the partnership, and we’re building partnerships on both of those fronts.

Read the full transcript of Antony Blinken's interview with Anne Soy on the U.S. Department of State website.

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 more nuanced than those of the politicians and special interest groups who run the agenda in Washington, D.C., so these sentiments may not be widely-shared outside of the capital's media-think tank nexus:

• NO MORE CHOOSING SIDES: "Blinken and his top aides view the past four years of U.S.-Africa policy under Trump as ham-fisted and focused on forcing African leaders to choose between working with the United States or China in a Cold War-style standoff. The approach is a significant shift from Trump whose top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, often railed against Chinese-led infrastructure projects as “debt traps” during his three-country trip to Africa in 2020 and criticized telecom projects in Africa by the Chinese firm Huawei" -- John Hudson, National Security Report at the Washington Post (@JOHNS_HUDSON)

• IT'S STILL ABOUT CHINA: Despite his claims to the contrary, Blinken's thinly veiled references to the usual "debt-trap diplomacy" canard—this time without doing so explicitly—demonstrates his Africa tour *is* primarily about China" -- Chris Olaoluwa Ogunmodede, Associate Editor at World Politics Review (@ILLUSTRIOUS_CEE)

• PRAISE FOR THE SHIFT FROM CHINA: "This is a wise and welcome step by Secretary Blinken to refocus US engagement in Africa on partnering with people across the continent to support their goals and address their concerns, rather than seeking to enlist them in opposing China's actions" -- Ryan Hass, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute (@RYANL_HASS)

• MIKE POMPEO DID THE HARD WORK FOR BLINKEN: 'In many respects, Secretary Blinken does not need to raise the [China] issue because Secretary Mike Pompeo and others raised it and, by doing so, gave the impetus of U.S. attention, both public and private, to questions of transparency and sustainability of deals and especially of the debt involved" -- J. Peter Pham, Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council (@DRJPPHAM)

• A PLAN FOR AFRICA IS WHAT'S NEEDED: "Secretary Blinken is not wrong to avoid mentioning China, just as the Trump administration was not wrong to single it out. What's needed, though, is a comprehensive and strategic plan to engage Africa, especially in the Horn" -- Charles W. Dunne, Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University (@CHARLESWDUNNE)

• STOP TALKING ABOUT VALUES AND START BUILDING THINGS: "TheU.S. needs to spend more $ on Africa. Big $. On things that matter. Infrastructure- public/private partnerships. Hollywood covered the soft power stuff. No work is needed there. The U.S. needs to build again, things Africans can point to, ride on, a la China. The 'values' model's anachronistic" -- Phiwokuhle Mnyandu, Professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (@PHIWOMNYANDU)

• SURPRISE ABOUT THE NEW TONE: "Pretty striking to see Blinken reject the blob narrative that the US and China are locked in a zero-sum contest for influence in Africa" -- Max Fisher, Editor of the New York Times Newsletter The Interpreter (@MAX_FISHER)

U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter (photo), is once again at the center of a rapidly expanding controversy, this time about the sale of U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan's stake in the massive Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine in the DR Congo to the Chinese mining giant China Molybdenum.

The younger Biden, according to the New York Times, was not directly involved in the 2016 transaction that helped to solidify China's dominance in the strategic cobalt supply chain, but he was a board member on a firm that helped to facilitate the deal.

The White House says that it has no knowledge of the deal and Hunter Biden's involvement.

The younger Biden has long been a popular target for right-wing conspiracy theorists. As such, it's not surprising the story has already gained a lot of traction on conservative U.S. media outlets like the New York Post and Fox News among others.

A Chinese large-scale farmer was arrested by local authorities in the small village of Kidogozelo in eastern Tanzania for using a high-capacity pump to draw water from the Ruvu river to irrigate his vegetable farm. The unnamed Chinese national is accused of installing and using an illegal irrigation machine capable of pumping a total of 1 million liters of water per hour from the river to his farm.

Other China-Africa Headlines:

• DR CONGO: Two Chinese nationals and a Congolese official were sentenced to 10 years in prison over the procurement of Chinese women as prostitutes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, their lawyer said on Saturday. (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)

• SIERRA LEONE: The government is moving forward with its plan to build a Chinese-financed fishing harbor and processing facility at Black Johnson Beach, warning residents who have not reached land settlement claims with the government to do so before November 30th. (THE INSTITUTE FOR LEGAL RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY FOR JUSTICE)

• LIBERIA: An all-out political war between the House and Senate has broken out over a 25-year mining deal with the Chinese firm BAO Chico. After the House of Representatives blocked the deal on procedural grounds and sent it back to the Senate along with accusations that the Senate overstepped its bounds, the Senate now said it plans to sue the House from "wrongful interpretation" of the constitution. (LIBERIAN OBSERVER)

• ZIMBABWE: A Chinese-owned granite mining company, Heijin, that has faced criticism from local residents over its plan to displace villagers to build a new mine now says it only needs to relocate six homes. The company issued a statement that said it will build new homes for the residents and will provide each with $2,000 in compensation. (ZIM DAILY)

Xi Jinping laid out what state media described as a "new vision" for the president's Belt and Road Initiative with a focus on more environmentally and economically sustainable projects.

The President called for tighter control over BRI projects and for more emphasis on "high standard" projects (Chinese official-speak for higher quality projects) as well as for more investment in digital initiatives in developing countries.

The call to reinvigorate the BRI comes just as China faces new competition from both the United States and Europe. Both are preparing to launch their own multi-billion programs to provide what they describe as an "alternative" to the BRI in developing countries.

The President's comments are also important for African stakeholders given that they come less than two weeks before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference in Dakar. Given President Xi's outsized influence on the Chinese policy-making process, it's likely that quite a bit of the rhetoric from his remarks on Friday will find its way into the conversations at FOCAC.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Reuters: China to meet 'challenges' to giant Belt and Road initiative
• China Daily: President sets out vision for BRI's future by Xu Wei

While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Kenya last week, a low-key B2B trade show was taking place nearby in Nairobi's Sarit Exposition Centre. It would probably have been worthwhile for the Secretary and his entourage to check it out.

It shows the diversification of China's economic engagement in Kenya, and elsewhere in Africa, beyond just the large state-owned enterprises that have long dominated the narrative. Instead, this event was organized by the somewhat obscure northern Chinese province of Shandong. It is hoping to open new markets in Africa for local companies that specialize in transportation, chemical products, construction equipment, and medical technology among other sectors.

Last week's trade expo represents an important, yet little-understood indication of the growing importance of Chinese provinces in the China-Africa economic relationship. While the central government was once the predominant actor in this relationship, provinces like Hunan, Zhejiang, and Guangdong are all now playing an increasingly prominent role that is largely autonomous from Beijing.

Last week's event was organized by local Chinese businessman Gao Wei who works closely with the embassy in Nairobi to foster closer Sino-Kenyan economic ties.

Two-way China-Africa trade reached $185.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, according to new data provided by Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming. At this pace, the two regions will easily surpass last year's total of $187 billion. Chinese investment in Africa during the same period increased to $2.59 billion, up 10% compared to the same time last year. Overall, however, Africa's share of China's total global trade and FDI remains relatively small at less than 4% for both. (XINHUA)

Passenger traffic on Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway has fully recovered and now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. The Madaraka Express between Nairobi and Mombasa carried an average of 200,000 passengers per month in the January to August period, a significant increase over 2019's monthly average of134,000, according to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. The SGR generated $262 million during that period which will help to service the loans from the China Exim Bank used to build the railway. (THE STANDARD)

Chinese internet giant Tencent led a $48 million Series B round to invest in South African fintech service provider Ozow. The seven-year-old Cape Town-based company allows consumers  to use their online banks to facilitate e-commerce transactions. Ozow says it plans to use the new capital to expand its operations to East and West Africa. Tencent joins MSA Capital and other Chinese VCs in ramping up their investments this year in early-stage African tech companies. (TECHCRUNCH)

Even amid the ongoing pandemic and supply chain disruptions, Kenyan exports increased by 16% to $4.3 billion in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period in 2020, according to new government data. Uganda was the top destination for Kenyan goods ($124m) followed by the Netherlands ($115m), DRC ($89m), and the US ($62m). And even though Kenyans rely heavily on imported Chinese goods, they sold only $35 million worth of products in return during this period. (THE STAR)

A court in the southern Ghanaian mining town of Tarkwa convicted two Chinese nationals this week for illegal gold dealing and gave them a choice of either to pay a fine or go to jail.  The judge told the pair that either they pay $234,000 (GHC 1.4m) or spend the next 15 years in prison. This is the latest instance of a court in Africa handing down much tougher sentences to Chinese nationals than in previous years. In September, a court in Malawi sent notorious wildlife trafficker Lin Yunhua to jail for 14 years. (GHANAWEB)

There are new reports of violent crime against Chinese immigrants in South Africa. On Sunday, assailants posing as police officers robbed a merchant in the Free State city of Bloemfontein. When the owner of the shop tried to repel the attackers, one bit off the merchant's finger. This is the latest in a string of violent crimes involving ethnic Chinese residents in South Africa. However, it's not clear if they're being targeted because they are Chinese or if it's just representative of the deteriorating security situation in the country. (SOUTH AFRICA DAILY -- in Chinese)

South Africa is the fastest-growing wine supplier in the Chinese market with exports up 124% this year. SA wineries are taking full advantage of the opening left by Australian brands. Tensions with Beijing have left Australian wines effectively shut out of the Chinese market, with their share of the market plunging from 40% in 2020 to just 5% this year. But even though South African wines are gaining some traction with Chinese consumers, their overall penetration remains quite low, at just 2%.(BUSINESSLIVE)

Nigerian Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed wants to reassure everyone that the country is not facing a debt crisis and features a relatively low debt-to-GDP ratio of just 33%. Ahmed faces mounting public concern that $17 billion of new borrowing, including $12 billion from China, that was recently approved by the Senate will push the country into a full-blown debt crisis. It's important to note, though, that just because the new borrowing plan has been approved in Nigeria does not yet mean that Chinese lenders will actually follow through with the financing, given how apprehensive they've been this year in funding new large-scale infrastructure projects. (THIS DAY)

The Namibian government awarded a Chinese firm, Zhong Mei Engineering Group, the contract to build the 21-kilometer road connecting the capital Windhoek to the Hosea Kutako International Airport. The Chinese embassy led the effort for Zhong Mei to secure the $66 million project that will be financed as part of a Chinese government grant, according to Roads Authority head Conrad Lutombi. Construction will take three years to complete with 12% of the total budget to be spent on local Namibian contractors. (THE NAMIBIAN)

After a 15 year hiatus, the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania will resume copper shipments this week from the DR Congo that will go mostly to China. The first batch will leave on Wednesday and a second will go out a week later. Tanzanian port officials hope Dar es Salaam will become a new gateway for Congolese mineral/metal exports that largely go to Asia. Currently, the bulk of exports from the DRC are shipped via the Port of Durban in South Africa but Angola, and now Tanzania, are building new transport links in an effort to capture some of that business. (THE CITIZEN)

Nigeria's already beleaguered importers are now facing even higher costs bringing in goods from China following news that CMA CGM, the world's third-largest shipping company, is adding new surcharges. The French shipping company said that it will introduce a new overweight surcharge of $1,000 per container with gross weights of 20+ tons of goods brought in from China to the port of Apapa. Nigerian importers have already been struggling with higher costs brought on by the global supply chain disruptions. These overweight shipments are often used to bring in heavy equipment from China needed for large-scale infrastructure construction. (THE GUARDIAN)

Chinese construction major Sinohydro wants the Kenyan Airport Authority (KAA) to pay $13.4 million in penalties for canceling work to expand a runway at Nairobi's international airport. KAA bailed on the project due to a lack of funds and now the Chinese contractor says it wants to be compensated for idle equipment and associated kill fees in the contract. But with KAA near bankruptcy, the aviation authority may not have the money available to pay Sinohydro. “We are engaging the contractor to find an amicable settlement to pave the way for us to disengage,” agency head Alex Gitari told parliament. (BUSINESS DAILY)

The Vice Minister of China's powerful Commerce Ministry, Qian Keming, said Beijing will open its market to more African goods in an effort to redress the severe trade imbalances that China maintains with most African countries.

Qian made the comments on Wednesday at a press conference hosted by the State Council (China's cabinet) in Beijing to brief the media on trade issues ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference that will take place at the end of the month in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

"Africa has 54 countries at various stages of economic development, with varied industrial structures and trade policies. China has maintained deficits for a long time with some resource-rich countries, while some non-resource countries, which import large amounts of daily necessities and industrial products from China, will have deficits," Qian said.

Overall, Qian said that trade between the two regions was "well balanced" with imports and exports evenly divided at around $100 billion each. While that is certainly true at the continental level, it's a very different story when China's trade with individual countries is evaluated.

Approximately ten countries led by South Africa, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo make up the bulk of Africa's exports to China, mostly comprised of oil, minerals, timber, and other raw materials.

Qian proposed four remedies to help rebalance trade levels with African countries where China maintains large surpluses:

1. Broaden the channels for African products to enter the Chinese market.
2. Improve the facilitation of African trade with China.
3. Provide financing support for African exports to China.
4. Help Africa improve its overall export capacity.

The Vice Minister was also asked to provide details on what new initiatives Beijing plans to unveil at FOCAC. Qian reiterated what other Chinese officials have been saying over the past several weeks in the run-up to the conference: that the new focus will be "digital, green and low carbon energy and vocational education."

But he did raise one point that hasn't been discussed much: the need to achieve "strategic alignment" between China's "dual circulation" domestic economic strategy and the African Union's Agenda 2063. Until now, the discussion has focused largely on integrating the Belt and Road Initiative with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA.) Qian's reference to dual circulation could indicate a willingness on Beijing's part to further deepen Sino-African economic engagement.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Global Times: China seeks to expand imports from Africa: MOFCOM official
• CGTN: China-Africa trade hits record $185 billion in first 9 months
• The Paper: Qian Keming remarks at a press conference of the State Council Information Office to introduce the economic and trade initiatives of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (in Chinese)

Specific details about what will be on the agenda at the upcoming FOCAC conference have been rare. No official agenda has been published, which led observers to piece together the expected priorities based on statements and interviews with various Chinese officials.

So, it was notable when China's ambassador to Seychelles, Guo Wei, sat for a lengthy interview with the official Seychelles News Agency and laid out her expectations of what will be discussed in Dakar:

• PRIVATE ENTERPRISE: "Private enterprises will play a greater role in the future. At present, private enterprises account for 90% of the number of Chinese companies in Africa and about 70% of total Chinese enterprises' direct investment in Africa. Companies such as Huawei and Transsion are well known in Africa. The next conference will open up a broader space for the development of private enterprises in Africa."

• OTHER AREAS OF FOCUS: "We will adopt measures in such key areas as health, investment and trade, food security, climate change, human resources, and digital innovation, with a focus on transforming and upgrading China-Africa cooperation to improve its quality and efficiency."

Ambassador Guo's comments echo remarks from other Chinese Foreign Ministry officials about probable FOCAC priorities, so it's noteworthy that they have studiously avoided other issues like debt relief and large-scale infrastructure development that will most likely either be downplayed or avoided altogether.

Read the full interview on the Seychelles News Agency website.

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 one of several fora convened in recent weeks as part of the build-up to the main FOCAC meeting in Dakar.

The event also featured a number of prominent African speakers including the Prime Ministers from both Rwanda and the Republic of Congo.

CALGC was organized by the Communist Party's Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an organization that has close ties with the CCP's United Front Work Department and is currently led by China's former ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian.

A new Kenya-China Chamber of Commerce (KCCC) launched this week in Nairobi to help foster closer ties between the local Chinese business community and Kenyan stakeholders. The new group will be led by the Nairobi business executive Tim Chen, who said the main purpose of the group is to help foster closer people-to-people ties. (THE STAR)

Meantime, across town at the Sarit Convention Center, the three-day Shandong Export Commodities Expo got underway on Wednesday, with 20 Kenyan companies and 80 Chinese companies mostly from the northeastern province. Companies in the agriculture, manufacturing, and construction sectors are among the largest exhibitors. (KENYA BROADCASTING COMPANY)

China's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, tweeted on Tuesday that Beijing remains committed to redistributing its share of the International Monetary Fund's recent issuance of $650 billion in new so-called "Special Drawing Rights" (effectively the currency of the IMF). 

The SDRs are allocated to each IMF member based on the size of their economy, meaning that the wealthiest twenty countries will receive 80% of the total SDR allocation. 

Other wealthy states, including the U.S. and those in Europe, have also said they will share some of the proceeds from the SDR allocation with the world's poorest countries but so far that hasn't happened yet. 

There is no major news today about the IMF SDR issue, so it's not entirely clear what motivated Wu to post that tweet other than to reassure African countries that Beijing will keep its earlier promise.

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 Secretary's agenda, it's inevitable that he will also be confronted with questions about China's growing influence on the continent and how the U.S. plans to respond. 

Insights on that may come later in the week in Abuja when Blinken is scheduled to deliver a major address on U.S. foreign policy 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 how Washington's lackluster attitude towards Africa is "not going to suffice" when China is so much more engaged:

I think the United States is vastly under-invested, diplomatically speaking, in Africa. So, it's great that Blinken is going to Africa. Blinken's going to Africa towards the end of the first year of Biden's presidency, right?

This is not going to suffice.

Watch the video on the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs YouTube channel.

Chinese media appears to be increasingly concerned about the emergence of new competitors to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly the U.S.-led Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, which is now gaining momentum.

U.S. officials say around 50 projects have been identified for the first wave of investments that will be announced sometime early next year.

But state-run media outlets like Global Times, whose messaging most likely aligns with that of the government on this issue, is setting out to diminish any future U.S. effort to build infrastructure in developing countries.

The nationalist newspaper recently sent two reporters to Egypt's new administrative capital that is rapidly rising out of the desert near Cairo to showcase the prowess of Chinese contractors and why this project, in particular, demonstrates China's advantages over the U.S. in building infrastructure:

• SPEED: From the first survey in 2018 to topping out of the Iconic Tower in June of this year, it took less than three years to build most of the structure at a speed of one floor every four days. The Global Times article implies that the U.S. will never be able to match the "China Speed" that is so valued by clients in places like Egypt.

• POLITICS: Global Times, like other Chinese media, dismissed B3W as "politically inspired" and, argued it will never be able to compete with China on a truly global scale. The paper acknowledged that B3W may implement "5 to 10 large-scale projects in Africa and Latin America" but insinuated that it won't do much more given that the U.S. lacks the proper motivation (implying that China, in contrast, does have the right motives).

• CREDIBILITY: The article quotes a local Egyptian official who notes that the U.S. is in no position to build infrastructure abroad when its own "roads and bridges are old." The official conveniently echoed Chinese talking points in adding that, given its own infrastructure deficiencies, the only reason Washington now wants to build infrastructure around the world is to challenge China.

If the U.S. wants to succeed with B3W and its new infrastructure agenda, the article concludes, Washington will have to learn from Beijing's experience and reach out to work directly with Beijing: "if the United States really wants to build infrastructure around the world, it cannot do without the participation of Chinese companies."

Read the full article on the Global Times website (in Chinese).

While a lot of attention is now focused on the final preparations ahead of this month's China-Africa ministerial conference in Senegal, another, equally important regional meeting kicked off in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on Tuesday.

The 14th China-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Business Summit brought together commercial leaders from both regions to discuss trade and how to attract more Belt and Road Investment to the region.

Latin America is an increasingly important market for China, an area that does a third more trade every year than Africa and is now the second-largest destination for Chinese FDI, according to Xinhua.

It's also noteworthy that this forum is taking place in Chongqing rather than in Shanghai or Beijing. It appears that Chinese officials are actively trying to promote industrial centers in southwest and central China, especially that new overland trade routes from Myanmar and Pakistan can connect directly to these interior Chinese regions.

SUGGESTED READING:

• China Daily: China-Latin America-Caribbean Summit unfolds by Deng Rui and Tan Yingzi 
• Xinhua: China-LAC Business Summit kicks off in China's Chongqing

Congolese forward and Chinese Super League star Cédric Bakambu spoke publicly for the first time on Monday about his pending departure from Beijing Guoan where he spent the past four years and became the league's top scorer.

Bakambu is a free agent when his contract with Beijing Guoan expires at the end of next month and he's widely expected to head back to Spain to join FC Barcelona.

Read more on the story on the Africa Foot United website (in French)

Africa-watchers in China are closely following U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first trip to the continent as Secretary of State. Blinken arrived in Kenya on Monday and will also travel to Nigeria and Senegal before heading back to Washington at the end of the week.

Not surprisingly, the latest U.S. outreach to Africa is largely being seen by Chinese scholars and journalists through the prism of current Sino-U.S. tensions. Even though neither the State Department nor the Secretary himself has said anything about China in relation to this trip, both He Wenping 贺文萍 from the Institute of West Asia and Africa at the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences or Shu Yunguo 舒运国, honorary director of the Center for African Studies at Shanghai Normal University, both believe that the timing and choice of countries that Blinken will visit on this tour were influenced by China.

Their views were showcased on Monday in an article on the Shanghai Observer (上观), the website of the influential Liberation Daily newspaper (解放日报) run by the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Both the article and the scholars' views focus on how Africa has not been a top U.S. foreign policy priority for many years. They see the Biden administration's desire to re-engage as motivated in part by a desire to "catch up" with China on the continent.

He & Shu Identity Three Key Trends Driving U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa:

• PLAYING THE "DEMOCRACY CARD" (“民主牌”): The scholars see the Biden administration's drive to promote democracy as part of an "ideological game with China in Africa" that aims to use governance issues as a "wedge" that can be used to turn Africans against China.

• U.S. "ECONOMIC LEVERS" ("经济杠杆"):  The message that both Prosper Africa and B3W were designed to challenge China's rising influence in Africa and other Global South regions is now deeply embedded in how Chinese stakeholders view U.S. foreign policy. Both scholars repeat talking points from U.S. officials about these economic engagement policies and how they're intended to provide an alternative to China and the Belt and Road.

• THE "PUBLIC OPINION WAR" ("舆论战"): Both He and Shu see the persistent U.S. allegations that China engages in predatory lending and discussions about the "China threat" as part of a larger effort to discredit Chinese engagement and investment in Africa. As evidence, they referenced the allegation that the U.S. was paying Zimbabwean journalists to write stories that disparaged China (which was described as a "misrepresentation" by the U.S. embassy in Harare). They warned that the Biden administration "may join forces with allies to launch additional controversies" to discredit China in Africa.