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Should China Be Worried About the Biden Administration’s Growing Africa Engagement?

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China Power | Diplomacy | East Asia

Should China Be Worried About the Biden Administration’s Growing Africa Engagement?

Growing U.S. engagement with Africa, epitomized by the Lobito Corridor, is deemed a counterbalance to China’s influence. However, China’s engagement with African countries cannot be overturned so easily.

Should China Be Worried About the Biden Administration’s Growing Africa Engagement?

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with President Joao Lourenco of Angola as he participates in a tour of the Lobito Port Terminal in Lobito, Angola, Dec. 4, 2024.

Credit: Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith

U.S. President Joe Biden finally fulfilled his promise of visiting Africa almost two years after the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022. Biden’s visit to Angola came almost a decade after former President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia and Kenya in 2015 – the last visit by a U.S. president to sub-Saharan Africa. Biden’s long-promised visit aimed to showcase U.S. investments in Africa, and particularly Angola, but it is widely believed that his efforts were also intended to diminish Beijing’s influence, which has been growing particularly since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. 

On December 1, Biden departed for Angola, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the country. The trip indicated an improvement in the bilateral relations between the two countries. After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the Republic of Angola was politically in the orbit of Russia and China. However, it has been moving toward the U.S. orbit under its current President João Lourenço, who is seeking closer relations with the West.

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