WILL BIDEN’S PLANNED VISIT TO ANGOLA
CHECK CHINA’S GROWING INFLUENCE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA?
By Katutu Sayila
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN is expected to visit Angola any time this month after a postponement to monitor Hurricane Milton which has hit Florida in the past few days. He will embark on this official tour of that Central African country before the forthcoming elections in the United States next month.
The visit which had been scheduled for October 13 and 15 is historic because it will be the first time an American leader has made such a visit to a country in the Sub-Sahara region. But then it has aroused little or no interest among Southern African countries and is expected to have no political impact on the entire African continent.
Some political analysts feel the visit has come rather too late and will achieve too little for the anticipated revival of US-Africa relations and also to check China’s growing political and economic influence in the region. The visit would have made some impact if Biden had made it shortly after becoming president of the United States of America in 2021 as he had promised during his campaign.
Now that he has only a few months left before he leaves White House no-one wants to consider his trip to Angola of having any significance arguing that although his deputy Ms Kamla Harris as vice president, secretary of state Anthony Blinken and his predecessor Barak Obama have been to some African countries his visit made much earlier would have carried more political and diplomatic weight.
Not only that some people feel Biden’s itinerary should have also included the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia who are neighbors to Angola where China’s political influence due to its investment in mining and energy is quite huge.
Even Hakainde Hichilema the president of Zambia who Biden hailed as a great democrat after winning the elections in 2021 and sidelined China in preference for Western countries support has since swallowed his pride and trekked back to China like his predecessor Edgar Lungu just for the sake of financial assistance for his economically struggling country.
Southern Africa as a region has had little or no serious attention from top US officials for a long time in the history of America’s relations with countries in the region. For example, only former president George W. Bush has visited Zambia more than once after leaving office in 2009 and this had more to do with his personal interests in Barrick Gold a Canadian mining company extracting copper, uranium and other minerals in that country’s north-western province.
Coming to the US president’s visit to Angola two things have emerged. To revive the US-Africa relations and to counter China’s growing influence in Southern Africa where it is involved in the mining and export of crucial minerals. But frankly speaking relations between America and African countries have thawed over a long period of time due to insufficient support and lack of attention in comparison with China’s presence, generosity and investment.
China has maintained its presence in Africa for more than two decades and its president Xi Jinping has made more visits to Africa than any Western Bloc leader. And through his regular visits and the holding of the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) he has been able to engage with African leaders, understand their problems and meet some of their financial needs.
Therefore as Biden finally steps down on the Angolan soil towards the end of his one-term presidency he must realize that China’s relations with African countries is as strong as the huge investment and support it has rendered to them for the past twenty-four years. For example, trade between China and Africa is unsurpassed and has been growing at an average of 17.2 percent annually for the past 24 years. And for the past eight months trade volumes have reached 1.19 yuan (US$168 billion. During the last FOCAC summit meeting last moth China promised a further $50.8 billion support for African countries in the next three years.
Commenting on Biden’s visit to Angola China’s new ambassador to Zambia Mr Han Jing said it will not change anything in his country’s relations with African countries. ‘’China cannot be unsettled with the single visit of the American president to Angola, it has warm and working relations with that African country,’’ he stated. He further said through FOCAC his country has been able to forge strong links with all African countries
Trade, investment and credit have played an important role in China’s penetration of the African continent and also the cementing of its bilateral relations with individual African countries. China has since taken advantage of African countries power deficit as individual countries transition towards renewable energy sources. This has made it to expand its green products sector for the African market.
China looks at Africa as its future potential global market for its green products as it tactfully circumvents the politically motivated prohibitive tariffs on the American and European markets. This is despite Africa only accounting for a fraction of the global renewable energy capacity where in 2020 stood at 19%. So far China has completed several solar, wind and hydro-power projects in several African countries and plans to do thirty more soon.
A few years ago Western countries accused China of doing very little for the green energy sector but today they are complaining that it is doing just too much! China has decided not to listen to the Western countries political rhetoric instead it is going head on with its energy projects in African countries. And for African leaders the philosophy on Deng Xiaoping that it does not really matter what color the cat is (whether black or white) for as long as it catches mice means they will go with whoever meets their needs
With China involvement in the mining and export of strategic minerals such as copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium and others needed in the manufacture of EV batteries and other advanced electronics so strong in the Southern Africa region it cannot be ignored and/or underrated. It will be difficult for American and its Western allies to uproot China’s political and economic influence on the African continent.
Besides the visit to Angola by Biden may end up as just another business survey trip before he leaves office as he will not be in a position to pledge any reasonable support for Africa as he cannot predict the political and economic agenda of the next American administration. The only assurance he may give to his host Jao Lourenco is the Western countries commitment to the Lobito Corridor through a revitalized Benguela railway that connects the mineral-rich Katanga Province of the of Congo with Lobito port in Angola.
However, the Lobito Corridor is still-born as Western Bloc countries have yet to make financial commitments to the mammoth project. Again it is Western countries aloofness and slowness to respond to African needs gives China the advantage over them. The only problem China may face with some African countries is for it to downstream some of its investments for the benefit of local people contrary to the colonial legacy which saw the ransacking of Africa’s wealth to build industries for the colonizing countries in Europe.
Accepting credentials from the new Chinese ambassador Han secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Ms Chileshe Kapwepwe urged China to add value to its energy projects in Africa and demanded that China should think of adding value to hydro-power, solar and also industrialization of the region.
According to the COMESA chief China needs to focus on energy globalization in order to mitigate the effects of climate change for the region. Endowed with abundant natural resources-crucial minerals, all-year-round hot sun, running rivers, driving winds the Southern African region can become one of the major contributor of resources for renewable and sustainable market which China needs to exploit.
Without doubt China has already seen the potential of the African energy market for its future political dominance more especially that projections have put the African continent on an income trajectory of $10 trillion by the year 2030. Having both the capital and know-how that country will not only supply equipment, install power plants but provide employment and solutions to the renewable energy sectors to African states.
Katutu Sayila, Southern Africa Correspondent
BIO
The author is a freelance journalist and economic analyst in Southern Africa based in Lusaka, Zambia. His work features in several international publications such as Global Finance, World Finance, African Review, Globe& Mail etc