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Africa: Can the US Outsmart China?

Africa: Can the U.S. Outsmart China?
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President Obama made his fourth tour to Africa unveiling his fresh initiatives at the Global Entrepreneurship forum in Kenya and African Union leaders meeting in Ethiopia. Obama’s fresh push in Africa was aimed at challenging China’s dominance at the continent.

Seven years after throwing his hat into the global battle for Africa by announcing his Global Entrepreneurship Summit initiative in 2009 President Obama has made his fourth trip to the black continent which was rich in symbolism but short on breakthrough decisions. Despite much hailing Africa as “the next center of global economic growth” during his two-leg trip to Kenya and Ethiopia, President Obama failed to produce some more substantial result in US engagement with Africa than the extension of the African Growth Opportunity Act for another 10 years.

The initiative can hardly come as a game changer in the whole US attempts to slow down robust Chinese expansion on the continent. The trade turnover between Africa and China reached $200 billion compared to $73 billion with the United States last year. The three-fold disparity demonstrates how US is trailing behind China in its courting of the energy and mineral rich continent.

An op-ed by opinion reporter Liu Zhun, carried by China’s leading English-language Global Times hints President Obama’s trip to Africa was motivated by concerns over Chinese broadening clout in Africa. According to the author, Washington "lacks a consistent Africa policy" and sees Beijing as a rival for influence and economic opportunities in Africa "instead of another constructive power to bring welfare to the land".

Evgeny Satanovsky, head of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies in Moscow (studio guest) and Koffi Kouakou, Africa Analyst and Senior Lecturer at the Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg commented on the issue.

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