US' attempted engagement with Africa to outcompete China will fall flat: China Daily editorial

Although China is not mentioned even once in the 34-page agenda of the three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit that opened in Washington on Tuesday, no one would be surprised if the host tries to take it as an opportunity to counter China's "clout" in the continent.

It has been eight years since the Barack Obama administration convened the first summit. During that period of time, even the China-bashers in Washington have realized neither the neocolonialism nor the debt-trap theories they have created to smear China in Africa has found true believers on the continent.

China's increasingly close and productive economic and trade ties with Africa have improved the livelihoods of African people by creating jobs, and bringing them technologies, industry parks, schools, hospitals, roads and railways.

Realizing it cannot replace China's role in providing massive infrastructure spending, and few US companies are interested in investing in African countries, the Joe Biden administration has been very careful this time not to present Africans with an us-or-them choice. That was something that the administration previously pinned great hope on.

But when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the administration's African strategy during his three-country trip to the continent in August, it met a lukewarm response.

And when the Biden administration announced before the summit that it will provide about $55 billion to Africa to support its economy, public health and security, it was greeted with show-us-the-money skepticism. Although the amount of the check is smaller than those it has signed for global infrastructure, energy and climate change, that does not mean it will be any easier to cash than those multi-trillion-dollar checks that have bounced.

Even if some may trickle down to the continent at last, it will be highly conditional and be stringed with harsh requirements, some of which would be coming at the cost of the African countries compromising their autonomy and sovereignty, something the US has weirdly defined as "transparency". That's how the US' promised assistance to Southeast Asia and Latin America has turned out to be — the US also held summits with the two earlier this year — explaining why its intended receivers are not interested in the US funding.

That being said, with its China-bashing theories bankrupt in Africa and with its promised meager funding untenable, the ambition of the Biden administration to outcompete China on the continent is just wishful thinking.

The fundamental reason for that is because unlike China's cooperation with African countries which is based on mutual respect and the pursuit of mutual benefits, US policy toward Africa simply seeks to serve the US' own interests.