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African Leaders Push Back Against Western Media Narratives on China

by Eric Olander

While Vice President Kamala Harris worked hard to keep the focus on U.S.-Africa relations during her recent tour of the continent, reporters in the traveling press corps kept bringing up China — much to the chagrin of her hosts in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia.

But unlike previous high-level U.S. visits where African leaders politely side-stepped questions about the U.S.-China rivalry on the continent, this time they went out of their way to challenge the Western narrative about the Chinese presence in their countries.

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