LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) \u2014 When Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Zambia on Friday for the final stop of\u00a0her weeklong trip across Africa, she touched down at an airport that\u2019s doubled in size and features glittering new terminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than a symbol of promising local development, it\u2019s a reminder of China\u2019s deep influence. Beijing financed the project, one of many that has expanded its footprint on a\u00a0booming continent\u00a0that\u2019s rich in natural resources, often generating goodwill among its citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The global rivalry between the United States and China has been a recurring backdrop for Harris\u2019 journey, and nowhere has that been more apparent than Zambia and her previous stop in Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides the airport, China built a 60,000-seat stadium in Lusaka, plus roads and bridges around the country. Zambia is on the hook for all of the development with\u00a0billions of dollars in debt. Tanzania is a major trading partner with China, and it has a new political leadership school funded by the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The developments\u00a0have alarmed Washington, and President Joe Biden\u2019s administration is worried that Africa is slipping further into Beijing\u2019s sphere of influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris has played down the issue on her trip, preferring to focus on building partnerships independent of geopolitical competition. However, she has acknowledged there\u2019s limited time for the U.S. to make inroads on the continent, telling reporters earlier in the trip that there is a \u201cwindow\u201d that is \u201cdefinitely open now\u201d for American investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a news conference with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Friday, Harris reiterated her call for \u201call bilateral official creditors to provide a meaningful debt reduction for Zambia\u201d \u2014 an oblique reference to China \u2014 but she stressed that \u201cour presence here is not about China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hichilema said it would be \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d to view Zambia\u2019s interests in terms of a rivalry between the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m in Washington, I\u2019m not against Beijing. When I\u2019m in Beijing, I\u2019m not against Washington,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cnone of these relationships are about working against someone or a group of countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s roots in both Tanzania and Zambia run deep. In the 1970s, Beijing built the Tazara Railway from landlocked Zambia to Tanzania\u2019s Dar es Salaam port, allowing copper exports to circumvent white-minority-ruled Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, China is Africa\u2019s largest two-way trading partner, with $254 billion of business in 2021, according to\u00a0the United States Institute of Peace. That\u2019s four times the amount of trade between the U.S. and Africa. In addition, dealing with Beijing features\u00a0less admonishments about democracy\u00a0than with Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost African countries are rightly unapologetic about their close ties to China,\u201d Nigeria\u2019s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, tweeted on Thursday. \u201cChina shows up where and when the West will not and\/or are reluctant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who has worked on Africa issues in Congress, expressed frustration over China\u2019s growing influence on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe switched from being the No. 1 trade partner or the No. 1 investment partner in two dozen countries, to China being the No. 1 trade and investment partner,\u201d he told reporters aboard Air Force Two on the flight to Ghana at the beginning of Harris\u2019 trip. \u201cI think our challenge for this decade is to address that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden has been taking steps toward that, such as hosting a summit for African leaders in December, when he announced that\u00a0he wants to commit $55 billion\u00a0to the continent in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris has made announcements as well during her trip, including more than $1 billion in public and private money for economic development, $100 million for security assistance in West Africa and $500 million to facilitate trade with Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, there\u2019s skepticism about whether the U.S. will follow through on its promises, and Harris has been faced with not-so-subtle hints that Africa expects more. For example, the presidents of Ghana and Tanzania bluntly said they hope Biden chooses to visit their countries during his expected trip to Africa later this year, which would be his first to the continent as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By comparison, Tanzania was among the first countries that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited after becoming president in 2013. And after Xi secured a third term, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan was the first African head of state to visit Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKamala faces Chinese dominance in Tanzania,\u201d the Tanzania Business Insight publication tweeted Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ian Johnson, a former China-based journalist who works at the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations, said Beijing presents a powerful narrative in the developing world as a country that rapidly built its economy and pulled much of its population out of poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
African leaders think \u201clet\u2019s see what we can learn from China,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthere\u2019s a certain fascination in how they did it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson also said China views Africa differently than the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a tendency to see Africa as a series of problems \u2014 wars, famines, something like that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in China\u2019s eyes, Africa is much more of an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edem Selormey, who conducts public opinion research at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, said the feeling is often mutual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina\u2019s influence in Africa is largely seen as positive,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the U.S. trails China in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The difference, she said, is often about \u201cwhat citizens see on the ground,\u201d such as infrastructure projects, and \u201cthe U.S. has been missing from this picture for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said the debt that comes from China\u2019s involvement is ultimately corrosive. He said African leaders are \u201cbeginning to realize that China is not really their friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina\u2019s interests in the region are purely selfish, as opposed to the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a sentiment that draws scoffs in some corners of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmerica is like playing the role of a big Uncle Sam in trying to defend African countries against what they think is the encroachment of China into the liberty of African countries through these loans,\u201d said Tanzania-based analyst Mohamed Issa Hemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he added, \u201cChina is ahead of the U.S. in many, many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daniel Russel, a former State Department official who is now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, summed up the African perspective as \u201cenough with the lectures\u201d about China. \u201cThey\u2019ve got something we want. And they\u2019ve got it right here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to U.S. hopes for Africa, he said, \u201dyou can\u2019t beat something with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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