Iran Press/Africa: China continues to implement its trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative; a principal focus will be engagement in Africa. China knows that Africa's youthful population is exploding, that the continent is rich in natural resources and that it is massive in geographical scale; Iran Press reported, quoting 'Nikkei Asian Review'.
while China is alive to all these possibilities and indeed is actively exploring them, the U.S. has only just started to play catch-up and faces losing out to its superpower rival.
Specific examples point to the success of China's strategic approach. Just over a year ago, Senegal signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), becoming the first nation in West Africa to do so while welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping in an elaborate ceremony. Other nations around the huge and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea are likewise in conversations with China to join the BRI, and Senegal has been working with China to bring African heads of state together with Chinese counterparts in 2021 at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Ethiopia as the second largest population in Africa is poised for significant economic growth this decade. China has been involved in a variety of high-profile construction projects in Addis Ababa like the light rail and the African Union headquarters. The Ethiopians see themselves as crucial to the Chinese economic and political inroads in East Africa.
likewise, China's military is involved with counterparts across the continent. The People's Liberation Army has significant training and exercise programs in more than a dozen countries, with an emphasis on both counterterrorism and humanitarian operations. The Chinese are also willing to make arms sales much easier than the U.S. tends to do, both in terms of favorable prices and willingness to provide key technologies.
Despite all hinders for the Chines reach out to the continent, like debt trap entanglements, suspicion about the role of Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies in the rollout of fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks and limited use of local labor and talent at the midlevel and above in projects, BRI is gaining speed throughout Africa.
The U.S., on the other hand, is just beginning to wake up to the enormous potential of Africa. Over the past decade, U.S. interest in Africa has largely been confined to security operations against terrorist organizations such as al-Shabab in East Africa and Boko Haram in West Africa.
But recent budget realignment by the Defense Department has signaled a possible reduction in troops and such partnership operations. Unlike China, which has a finely crafted strategy for Africa and is moving swiftly to execute it, U.S. efforts are relatively small and not well aligned between military, economic and diplomatic.
China has moved well ahead of the U.S. throughout the continent; despite temporary internal distractions and the impact of dealing with the coronavirus, it is likely to continue leading the way as the two powers compete.
Africa's population is already 16% of the world at 1.3 billion people and is forecast to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050 and 4 billion by the century's end. 212/ 104
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