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What Obama Is Saying About China’s Role In Africa

What Obama Is Saying About China’s Role In Africa

From NewYorkTimes. Story by Peter Baker.

At a time when China has surpassed the U.S. as a trading partner and left its mark throughout Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama essentially made the argument that Washington offers a better, more empowering vision for Africa’s future.

Whether he has succeeded in this mission remains to be seen. But at all of his stops, he laid out the case that Africa should be wary of China’s appetite for oil for its own use and instead embrace an American relationship that seeks to foster economic growth, democracy, health care, education and electrification.

“The U.S. isn’t the only country that sees your growth as an opportunity, and that is a good thing,” Obama told African leaders in a speech in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, before returning to Washington.

He urged Africans to do business with everyone.

“But economic relationships can’t simply be about building countries’ infrastructure with foreign labor or extracting Africa’s natural resources,” he said. “Real economic partnerships have to be a good deal for Africa. They have to create jobs and capacity for Africans.

“That,” he added, “is the kind of partnership America offers.”

But the depth of the challenge was all around Obama. He was delivering that message at the gleaming headquarters of the African Union, built with Chinese money. Outside the building, a jumbo screen bore the name of Xinhua, the Chinese government-controlled news agency.

Throughout Africa are highways, railroads and airports that have been or will be upgraded by China. Indeed, China’s news media mocked Obama’s visit, casting it as a weak effort in a contest he was losing.

China has far outpaced the U.S. in economic interaction with Africa since Obama took office. While trade between the U.S. and Africa rose from $33 billion in 2002 to a high of $142 billion in 2008, it has since declined to $73 billion in 2014 and is falling still more this year.

China, by contrast, doubled its trade with Africa over just four years, to $222 billion in 2014.

China’s largest suppliers of crude include Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo and Sudan, all countries with troubled histories in terms of governing democratically.

China provides low ­interest loans to countries with poor credit ratings in exchange for oil and mining rights.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian foreign minister, said his country had strong relations with the U.S. but wanted more economic ties.

“One area that lags behind is trade and investment,” he said. “In terms of trade and investment, considering the very long historic ties that we have, it’s really not as one would expect, and the main focus during our bilateral discussion was that.”

In Addis Ababa, Obama visited a food production factory financed with U.S. help, inspected the first in a series of new Boeing Dreamliners bought by Ethiopia and announced more plane purchases.

Obama brought with him business executives like Steve Case, a founder of AOL and promised that his Power Africa program to bring electricity to remote corners of the continent was building momentum despite its struggles.

“China has over the last several years, because of the surplus that they’ve accumulated in global trade and the fact that they’re not accountable to their constituencies, have been able to funnel an awful lot of money into Africa, basically in exchange for raw materials that are being extracted from Africa,” Obama told BBC in an interview before his trip.

He said he considered Chinese trade “a good thing” but added that what he wanted “to make sure, though, is that trade is benefiting the ordinary Kenyan and the ordinary Ethiopian and the ordinary Guinean and not just a few elites and the Chinese.”

Competition with China seemed to influence how Obama handled the difficult issues of human rights and democracy. In his speech at the African Union, he called on long­entrenched leaders to step down in favor of fresh blood.

But given the chance to press the leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia directly during meetings to do more to expand democracy in their countries, he chose a less confrontational tone.

Aides described that as a more “constructive” approach that would not alienate potential friends and would ultimately prove more effective. While human rights groups had urged Obama not to visit places with checkered human rights records like Ethiopia, the president’s advisers said that would simply push them into China’s camp.

Read more at  NewYorkTimes.