Transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Q&A Exchange About Chinese Engagement in Africa

WAZAM OBANOR: Considering the growth of the Chinese in Africa, will the U.S. be competing with China in Africa — especially as it pertains to Africa’s growth over the next few years?

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Thank you Wazam, that’s a very important question. Let me say a few things to that. First, Africa, countries in Africa will and should engage with a broad array of partners — whether it’s China or France, Turkey or Brazil, the United States or many others. And my hope is that African countries and African communities just approach those relationships with your eyes wide open. China’s a global competitor and competition is a good thing as long as it’s basically fair and the playing field is level.

But, as we look at it we have different approaches to governance, we have different approaches to business, we have different approaches to security and the fundamentals sometimes of our partnerships are quite different.

The United States believes that a free and open rules-based order that we espouse, sometimes imperfectly, is a good model for people around the world to realize their full potential. It’s been for us and we believe that holds true, not unique to the United States.

In Africa and around the world we’ll continue to promote entrepreneurship, fair business practices, sound environmental and social standards for development assistance because what we really need to see wherever it is a race to the top, not a race to the bottom to make sure that as we engage in business, as we engage in development, as we engage in assistance, we’re also paying strong attention to environmental concerns to worker rights to transparency to other vital things that to make for sustainable and equitable growth and opportunity.

So, what we’re going to be doing, at least, to supporting good governance and strong democratic institutions, transparency with our aid, people will know where it goes, what it delivers, who benefits, and they’ll actually be engaged in its implementation.

Transparency is something vital, that’s something we’re strongly behind. Fighting corruption to make sure that when companies invest, when businesses engage that’s free from corruption which is one of the most corrosive things to democracy imaginable and we’ll speak out on human rights.
Ultimately, as we look at this, government should be of, by and for the people and serve the needs of the people and these are all pretty big distinctions, at least right now, between the way we look at this and the way the authorities in Beijing look at it. So, it’s a long way of saying that we’re not asking anyone to choose between the United States or China but I would encourage you to ask those tough questions, to dig beneath the surface, to demand transparency, and to make informed choices about what is best for you and your countries.

If someone is coming along and saying I’m going to invest a lot of money in your country, but it’s a loan, so, that means you have a debt and you’re going to have to pay it back someday and if that is too great and you can’t pay it back, then I’m going to own the asset in question. Well, you should look carefully at that. Because assuming too much debt becomes an unsustainable burden on countries and then they face an incredibly hard choice between having to pay it back, and probably in ways that takes resources away from the people, or hand over whatever the investment was to whoever made the investment and owns the debt.

You should be looking hard at whether other countries come in to build infrastructure projects. Are they bringing their workers with them? Or, are they giving jobs to people in the countries where they’re making investments? What are the environmental standards? What are the standards for workers and their rights who are working on these projects? Is there transparency about where the money’s going? All of those things are things that are important to dig into and anyone who’s making an investment should be held to a very high standard.

So, we’re for our part, are going to remain focused on Africa. We believe in Africa. We believe in the extraordinary potential. We believe that it’s necessary because when you such a huge proportion of the world’s population In Africa, and that’s only growing, everyone has a stake in Africa’s growth and success because it’s going to contribute to the world, not just to Africa. Your success is our success and we want to invest in it but in the right way.

Watch the video of the interaction below:

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The post Transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Q&A Exchange About Chinese Engagement in Africa appeared first on The China Africa Project.

source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/04/28/transcript-of-u-s-secretary-of-state-antony-blinkens-qa-exchange-about-chinese-engagement-in-africa/