Rajpriya Gautam

Colin Ding, president of the Chinese mining company Kingho Energy Group,  paid a visit to the State House in Freetown on Tuesday to meet with President Julius Maada Bio  about the company’s new port and rail lease agreements that will be used to ramp up iron ore exports from the West African country. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post This Picture Should Be Quite Worrying to Every Australian Politician appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/this-picture-should-be-quite-worrying-to-every-australian-politician/

China has shipped three times as many COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries as the global COVAX alliance, according to the latest data. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Chinese vs. COVAX Vaccine Deliveries to Developing Countries appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/chinese-vs-covax-vaccine-deliveries-to-developing-countries/

The prestigious  Journal of the American Medical Association  published results on Wednesday of new phase 3 clinical trials of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine and confirmed that the jab’s efficacy rate is  between 72-78% . Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post JAMA’s Findings on Sinopharm’s Efficacy Will Allow Public Health Officials in the Global South to Sleep Better at Night appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/jamas-findings-on-sinopharms-efficacy-will-allow-public-health-officials-in-the-global-south-to-sleep-better-at-night/

Acclaimed China-Africa scholar and University of London professor Stephen Chan pushed back on the narrative that China alone is using vaccines to gain political advantage in its foreign policy. “To be fair, everyone’s playing this game of vaccine diplomacy,” he said on the latest episode of the China Institute podcast produced by the School of Oriental and African Studies. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Everyone, Not Just the Chinese, Are Playing the Game of Vaccine Diplomacy Says SOAS Prof Stephen Chan appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/everyone-not

Popular current affairs YouTuber American YouTuber Johnny Harris (1.42 million subscribers)  dedicated a recent episode of his show to exploring Chinese engagement in Africa. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Popular American YouTuber Condenses China-Africa Relations Into a Slickly Produced 15 Minute Video appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/popular-american-youtuber-condenses-china-africa-relations-into-a-slickly-produced-15-minute-video/

China’s ambassador to Somalia, Qin Jian, is transitioning from his post and stopped by Villa Somalia this week to  say goodbye to President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo  in style. It’s not clear where Ambassador Qin’s next assignment will be. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post China’s Outgoing Ambassador to Somalia Says Goodbye With a Bit of Flair appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/27/chinas-outgoing-ambassador-to-somalia-says-goodbye-with-a-bit-of-flair/

South African telecom company MTN together with the state-owned Silk Road Fund of China are reportedly preparing to make another bid to secure a telecom license in Ethiopia. MTN was outbid last week by a Kenyan-Japanese consortium that also included financing from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation  for the first of two licenses that were up for auction. The Safaricom-Sumitomo offer of $850 million for the license was $250 million more than what MTN and the Silk Road Fund put forth. Although Ethiopian authorities have taken the second license off the market, they’ve indicated it’ll be back up for sale after “some policy adjustments to the bidding process,”  according to Bloomberg . MTN officials at this point are not providing any details of what a future bid will look like but they do appear determined to fight for that second license. “We will be guided by the same capital allocation disciplines we had with the first bid, and make the appropriate decision,”  the company told

In what’s becoming something of a ritual in Washington, every month or so think tanks and news outlets publish a wave of commentaries imploring the Biden administration to jump-start an Africa policy with a simple message:  get in there, do something, anything really, just get going . And if boosting trade or enhancing national security aren’t sufficiently enticing, the commentaries invariably reach deep into the deck to pull out the China card. How U.S. Commentaries on Africa Policy Use China to Entice Policymakers to Act THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL:  “China is playing the long game in Africa and has strategically invested in infrastructure projects including railroads, ports, dams, and hydropower-generation sources. But these investments could be the warm-up act for China’s entry into fields traditionally dominated by the United States—namely technology and banking—where it aspires to compete with American heavyweights like Microsoft, Boeing, Google, and General Electric. Such game-chan

The United States often frames its engagement in Africa as a way to confront China’s “malign influence,” prompting widespread criticism over the years that Washington’s primary interest on the continent appears more focused on China than on building a constructive Africa policy. There’s a similar dynamic going on in China where senior-level officials regularly (almost daily in fact) contrast their Africa policies with those of the United States. The key difference, though, is that these officials, including Wu Peng , Beijing’s top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, almost never mention the U.S. by name, although it’s clear who they’re talking about. The reference to the “politicization of the epidemic” that  Foreign Minister Wang Yi made at yesterday’s Africa Day celebration hosted by African ambassadors  is the kind of coded language that Chinese officials use to subtly criticize the United States. In other instances it can be slightly more direct, as was evident  last week when Wu s

A leading Congolese mining expert wants to dispel the notion that President Félix Tshisekedi’s efforts to renegotiate foreign mining contracts is going to benefit ordinary people. “It is, of course, a first step,” acknowledged Jean Pierre Okenda, a well-known expert in DRC mining issues and head of the extractive resources department at the Brussels-based NGO Resource Matters  in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde , “but those contracts generate money for state companies and don’t contribute directly to the national budget.” Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Even If the DRC is Able To Re-Negotiate Its

32% of the world’s cobalt output went to China,  according to the latest annual report published by The Cobalt Institute , an industry-financed organization. In addition to being the largest consumer of cobalt, China is also the dominant producer of refined cobalt that is used to manufacture electronics and batteries for new energy vehicles among other products.  Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Almost a Third of the World’s Cobalt, Mostly From the DRC, Went to China Last Year appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/25/almost-a-third-of-the-worlds-cobalt-mostl

The New Yorker magazine  published a sweeping long-form article in its latest edition  that delves into the painful history of Congolese cobalt — a metal that is now indispensable for any consumer who owns a mobile phone and a strategic resource that is in the middle of a burgeoning great power rivalry over who will control strategic supply chains in the 21st century. Excerpt: China and Congo have a long history. During Leopold’s reign, Chinese workers were shipped to Congo to help build the national railroad. In the nineteen-seventies, Mobutu turned to Mao’s regime for technical collaboration on infrastructure projects. By the nineties, the Chinese were becoming the bosses: the Beijing government and myriad Chinese businesses began making heavy investments in Africa, particularly in resource-rich and regulation-poor countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Peter Zhou, a Chinese-born financier who has worked on a few mining deals in Congo, said that in such countries “t

Governments and automakers in the U.S., Europe and Asia have become steadily concerned in recent years over  China’s dominance of the strategic minerals and metals supply chains  that are used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Their primary concern is a repeat of what happened  in 2015 when China temporarily shut off the supply of rare earths to Japan , sparking major disruptions in Japan’s manufacturing sector. Today, that same concern applies to other vital resources, namely cobalt, where China dominates both the extraction and refining sectors. Add manganese to that list. Although the ore is quite abundant, particularly in Africa and Australia, China controls 90% of the refining market and,  according to a report in the Wall Street Journal , Beijing is now moving to further consolidate its control over this strategic resource. SUGGESTED READING: The Wall Street Journal :  China Hones Control Over Manganese, a Rising Star in Battery Metals  by Chuin-Wei Yap Invest

The Chinese government is signaling both through its actions and propaganda messaging that the days of being overly reliant on Australian iron ore are coming to an end. When precisely? Well, no one knows for sure, but given the burst of recent activity among Chinese mining companies in places like  Sierra Leone ,  Algeria , and  B razil  among others, it’s evident that they’re determined to develop alternative suppliers. Also, the fact that Chinese state-media outlets like the often bombastic Global Times newspaper are now publishing a steady stream of stories that talk of this shift is another indication that the strategy has the blessing from the senior leadership. And there’s nothing subtle about how they plan to use this lever. Yesterday, Global Times published a story with the headline “ Australian iron ore could be the next item to feel the pinch of sour relations ” that also referenced Beijing’s heightened interest in new sources of iron ore in Africa among other regions. SU

China’s ambassador to Sierra Leone, Hu Zhangliang, paid a visit on Monday to the Foreign Ministry to rally support with the government for a controversial development project to build a fish port in the environmentally pristine Black Johnson beach area. After the meeting, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mamadi Gobeh Kamara reportedly gave her blessing to the project,  according to Xinhua . A full week after the project was revealed, China is still facing steadily mounting criticism from environmental activists who contend the proposed port would be “ hugely damaging to the environment. ”  The Chinese embassy, as is customary, dismissed those concerns as “ completely sensational and hypothetical .” Here’s What Both Sides Are Saying About the Project: ENVIRONMENTALISTS:  “Industrial fishmeal production is hugely damaging to the environment, as the factories discharge toxic chemicals, destroy fish breeding grounds, and decimate fish stocks for local fishermen… “We are also calling fo

While so much of the attention about Huawei’s role in emerging markets like Africa focuses on the company’s 5G technology, the reality is that the Chinese telco equipment giant is now expanding far beyond hardware, to offer a number of new services that are becoming increasingly popular and will allow the company deeper integration into a country’s digital economy. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post New CSIS Report Examines Huawei’s Burgeoning Cloud Services Business in Emerging Markets appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/24/new-csis-report-examines-huaweis-

The fear that China is going to export digital authoritarianism and repression to Africa is way overblown and oversimplified in Western media reports and think tank analysis cautions Iginio Gagliardone,  a media scholar at Wits University in Johannesburg  and one of the world’s foremost scholars on Chinese technological influence in Africa. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Be Wary of All Those “Hyperbolic” Reports Warning of the Dangers of Chinese Technology appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/24/be-wary-of-all-those-hyperbolic-reports-warning-of-the-dange

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a new  $3 billion aid package to help developing countries  in their battle against the health and economic impact of COVID. The President made the announcement on Friday at a virtual G20 Global Health Summit. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post With One Eye on the U.S., Xi Jinping Pledges $3 Billion in New COVID Aid for Developing Countries appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/24/with-one-eye-on-the-u-s-xi-jinping-pledges-3-billion-in-new-covid-aid-for-developing-countries/

Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed and Chinese ambassador Liao Liqiang were at Cairo’s international airport on Friday to witness the arrival of 1,400 liters of vaccine components that will be used to produce 2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine before the end of June. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Egypt Poised to Begin Vaccine Manufacturing After First Batch of Raw Materials Arrived From China appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/24/egypt-poised-to-begin-vaccine-manufacturing-after-first-batch-of-raw-materials-arrived-from-china/

China’s ambassador to Ghana, Lu Kun, went to the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry on Friday to express his concern  directly to the minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, about the fate of any Chinese nationals arrested  in the ongoing military operation against illegal mining, a practice known as galamsey. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Ghanaian Lands Minister Assures Chinese Ambassador Rights of Chinese Nationals Arrested in Mining Crackdown Will be Respected appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/24/ghanaian-lands-minister-assures-chinese-ambassador-rights-of

Facing a surge of public pressure that the government isn’t doing enough to stop small-scale illegal gold mining (a practice known as galamsey,)  Ghana’s Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul announced that a joint Army, Navy and Air Force task force will be redeployed  back into the countryside to resume “Operation Halt.” Two Chinese miners were arrested  in the first phase of the operation that took place at the end of April. Although Chinese galamseyers are by no means the only illegal miners in rural Ghana, it’s been a persistent problem over the past decade and fueled much of the current public anger over the government’s inability/unwillingness to bring the situation under control.  There are also widespread rumors that Chinese small-scale miners are operating under the protection of Ghanaian power brokers. At a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, Nitiwul issued a stern warning to miners who’ve now apparently shifted to operating at night to avoid detection by soldiers. “They go a

Colin Ding,President of Kingho Energy Group,  landed in Freetown this week , just days after Sierra Leone’s parliament voted to ratify a port and rail lease agreement that will facilitate the export of iron ore from the West African nation. Kingho is becoming a critical player in China’s drive to diversify its iron ore supply chain and reduce the  current dependence on Australian imports . The company, with its Tonkolili mine,  started full-scale mining operations in March . Now, the new rail and port lease will make it easier for Kingho to scale up its production. SUGGESTED READING: Sierra Leone Telegraph :  Head of China’s Kingho Energy Group – Colin Ding arrives in Sierra Leone  by Abdul Rashid Thomas Sierra Leone Telegraph :  Kingho Mining starts full-scale operation in Sierra Leone  by Abdul Rashid Thomas Sky News Australia :  China will find another iron ore supplier ‘when it suits them’  Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read

Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone Hu Ziangliang  paid a visit on Wednesday to the headquarters of the SL’s Anti-Corruption Commission . He met with Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala and participated in a handover ceremony of computers and other equipment. While many stakeholders in the U.S. and Europe do not associate China with anti-corruption efforts, especially in Africa, Chinese officials take the issue very seriously due to the priority that Xi Jinping places on the issue. When Xi came to power in 2012 after the 18th National Congress, he launched China’s largest anti-corruption crackdown,  the famous “tigers and flies” campaign , which led to the indictments of more than 100,000 people. Many Chinese diplomats today regard the Xi anti-corruption drive as a model for other countries to replicate (it’s worth noting that  there’s widespread disagreement among China scholars  as to whether the 2012 anti-corruption effort was aimed to eliminate corruption or political rivals or a mix

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired an open debate at the UN Security Council on Wednesday to discuss a four-point proposal on African peace and security in the post-COVID-era. The meeting “Peace and Security in Africa: Addressing Root Causes of Conflict While Promoting Post-Pandemic Recovery in Africa” was organized as part of China’s capacity as Security Council president for May. The Foreign Minister identified four deficiencies that China contends are the most pressing issues for Africa as it tries to rebound from the COVID-19-induced health and economic crises ( descriptions below via China Daily ): GAP IN COVID-19 RESPONSE:  Wang urged the international community to help Africa with medical supplies to fight the pandemic and to boost the availability and affordability of vaccines. “We call on the countries with the capacity to urgently share their surplus vaccines with Africa,” Wang said. PEACE DEFICIT:  The UN and the African Union should work together closely to ens

No news today from Africa about Chinese vaccine distributions but lots of action unfolding in Latin America where the United States and China are squaring off against one another, particularly in countries that still maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. U.S. officials indicated yesterday they are going to prioritize vaccine shipments to Honduras, where the government has been hinting that it may have to switch its current diplomatic allegiances from Taipei to Beijing in order to secure sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.  (FINANCIAL TIMES) Other Chinese Vaccine Headlines From Across the Global South: AMERICAS:  China will reduce its shipment of pharmaceutical ingredients for producing COVID-19 vaccines to Brazil’s Butantan biomedical institute next week to 3,000 liters from 4,000, Butantan said on Tuesday.  (REUTERS) PERSIAN GULF:  Days after the UAE announced that it would provide a third booster shot for its residents who received two Sinopharm injections, Bahrain will

China answered France’s call to support the reallocation of billions of IMF funds that will come from an issuance of $650 billion in new Special Drawing Rights,  according to a Foreign Ministry summary of remarks made by Vice Premier Han Zheng  at this week’s Franco-African leaders summit in Paris. Key Highlights of Han Zheng’s Speech at the Summit on the Financing of African Economies SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHTS:  ” China hopes that developed countries, multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors will take concrete actions. China supports the on-lending of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to low-income African countries in need, by countries with a large reserve of SDRs.” MORE INVESTMENT IN AFRICA:  “China supports international financial institutions and private sectors in expanding financing for Africa’s long-term development and strengthening of infrastructure and capacity building, and helping African countries sustain economic development on an independent foot

Chinese ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhu Jing, posted a somewhat cryptic tweet earlier this week that suggested the DRC may once again be at the center of a great power struggle, this one, he implied between the United States and China. “The DRC and Africa must not be the battleground for the (great) powers, let us be vigilant to those who cry out for fighting and seek to create hostility,”  said Zhu . Interestingly, the ambassador linked to a  news report  about how President Félix Tshisekedi  wants to renegotiate certain Chinese mining contracts . Zhu’s appears to be addressing, albeit subtlety, suspicions that the United States is somehow responsible for the President’s enthusiasm to force a review of those Chinese mining deals. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network.

Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo issued an urgent call for immediate economic relief, including the total cancellation of all debts owed by African countries, during his address on Tuesday at the Summit on Financing African Economies. Without the ‘fiscal room to breathe,’ Africa could truly become ‘the forgotten continent, and that is why there is urgent need for comprehensive debt relief and debt cancellation,”  said the President . But it’s not entirely clear who the President was addressing specifically. It can’t have been the traditional lenders that make up the Paris Club, because they own  only 6% of Africa’s debt . And he should probably know by now that China, which  owns at least 21% of the continent’s outstanding debt , has made it clear that it has no plans to provide across-the-board debt cancellation in Africa or elsewhere in the Global South. He is also probably aware that bondholders and other private creditors, like the Chinese, have been candid in telli

Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum criticized the media for creating the impression that the west African country is beset by security challenges and not a safe place to invest. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post Niger President Mohamed Bazoum Criticizes “Western Complaining” About Chinese and Turkish Investment in His Country appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/05/19/niger-president-mohamed-bazoum-criticizes-western-complaining-about-chinese-and-turkish-investment-in-his-country/

United States President Joe Biden took aim at China on Tuesday in remarks about Washington’s plan to begin sending tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries. The President implied that China’s vaccine distribution to low-income countries is politically motivated and said that the U.S. approach would, in contrast, “showcase the decency of the American people.” Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You’ve reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Click Here to Learn More The post The U.S. and China Trade Barbs Over Who’s More Righteous in Distributing COVID-19 Vaccines to Poor Countries in the Global South appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafr

While U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian took swipes at one another on Tuesday over global vaccine distribution, another dispute broke out — this one between a prominent Republican Senator and the nationalist Chinese tabloid Global Times. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse published a column in the Wall Street Journal  that called on the United States to vaccinate more than a billion people around the world before Thanksgiving in late November and said it should become the State Department’s top budget priority for the year. The Senator, like President Biden and other U.S. officials, wants to contrast U.S. vaccine distribution with China’s by saying that America’s comes with no “dangers and strings attached.”  Well, it didn’t take long for China to respond . Within hours of the WSJ column appearing online, Global Times replied with equally colorful language: U.S. SENATOR BEN SASSE:  “In its usual mafioso fashion, Beijing has made delivery of vaccin

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), said the Biden administration’s new policy for Africa will contrast sharply not only with Donald Trump’s but also China’s engagement on the continent.  In an interview with the state-owned Voice of America, Thomas-Greenfield, a longtime U.S. diplomat in Africa, said the U.S. wants to embark on a new, more equitable relationship with African countries but at the same time she expressed reservations about the nature of those governments’ ties with Beijing: “The United States can’t do it alone. We have to do it in consultation and support of the African people, and we do it for the African people. I would say that it worries me, as I look at Africa’s relationship with China, for example, that that is a relationship that sometimes rests on coerciveness, indebtedness, and not in partnership. And I want our message to be completely the opposite of that.” Read the full story on the Voice of America website .