JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Legacy or lethargy? President Biden this week he steps onto African soil for the first time during his presidency, during a visit to Angola seen by many as an attempt to leave a legacy. But China, analysts say, through a decade of investment in Africa, threatens to thwart the Biden administration’s goals of reviving fond memories of his time in the White House in Africa.
“The headline about Biden’s legacy in Africa will likely be ‘over-promised and under-delivered,’” analyst Cameron Hudson told Fox News Digital. Hudson, director of African affairs at the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Affairs, added: “Biden had high hopes that he would renew relations with the continent, while instead his approach and results are not materially different from those of his predecessors.”
African analyst Cobus van Staden added: “The legacy of the Biden administration in Africa is somewhat mixed.” Van Staden is editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project, an organization that acts as a watchdog for Beijing’s actions and is a project officer for the South African Institute of International Affairs.
President Biden is greeted as he arrives for the family photo at the US-Africa Summit Leaders at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on December 15, 2022. (Oliver Contreras/Sipa US) (Sipa via AP Images)
“While it (Biden’s administration) contrasted the first Trump term While upgrading the vision and rhetoric of U.S. involvement, it remains unclear how many of the announced projects will be completed. Overall, Africa was included in Biden’s approach to coalition building in response to growing Chinese power. During his term, the positioning of critical minerals was also seen as a key US strategic priority. However, so far this has not translated into much gain on the African side,” he said.
During a special State Department briefing on Biden’s trip to Angola, Dr. Frances Brown, special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council, pushed back on the criticism. Referring to the 2022 meeting of African leaders, he noted: “At that summit, we – the US – committed to investing $55 billion in Africa over three years. So far we have been supplying too much of that. Two years later we have spent – we have invested more than 80% of that commitment.”
At another briefing, senior Biden administration officials noted that “over the past two years since the Africa Leaders Summit, the administration has had more than two dozen Cabinet and senior officials travel to the continent,” the senior official added. about the whole of those visits and those initiatives, and we are proud of our track record on that front.”
President Xi Jinping of China, right, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the China-Africa Leaders’ Roundtable Dialogue, part of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, on August 24, 2023. (Alet Pretorius/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Brown claimed last week that “billions of dollars have been mobilized” in the Lobito Rail Corridor, a planned 800-mile rail line that is central to Biden’s visit to Angola — and his legacy. Brown claimed it was one of his “signature initiatives.”
The rail system will extend from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a point close to Zambia, to the port of Lobito, on Angola’s Atlantic coast. Washington hopes it can be used to transport critical raw materials (CRMs) such as cobalt and lithium, needed for electric vehicles, EVs and batteries, for example, and to reduce transit time from the current 45 days to less than a week.
“The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that between 2020 and 2040, demand for nickel and cobalt will increase 20 times, for graphite 25 times, and for lithium more than 40 times,” wrote Dr. ED Wala Chabala in a recent publication. paper for the Africa Policy Research Institute.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with President Mohamed Bazoum in Niamey, Niger, on March 16, 2023. (Presidency of Niger/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Chabala, former chairman of Zambia Railways and economic policy advisor, added: “This expected increase in demand for CRMs has fueled intense interest in the Lobito Corridor, and with it an inevitable battle for access. The DRC, as the world’s largest producer of cobalt (estimates consistently amount to around 70% of global production), is at the epicenter of this struggle, as is, in context, Zambia.”
But there is a big panda in the room: China. Chabala pointed out that “the targeted materials (CRMs) are largely already owned by China, and the Asians are leaders in EV technology.”
Chabala added: “Not only do the Chinese have a ubiquitous presence on the African continent, but China is already well ahead in building supply chains for cobalt, lithium and several other essential metals and minerals. And what’s more, China is on its way to taking over. the operation of the TAZARA railway line, which runs from central Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean.”
The US and Niger flags are raised at the base camp for personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Carley Petesch, File)
“The reality of the Lobito Corridor development is that it may come too late in the day. Moreover, there is a proposed route, some 500km shorter, to the east between Lubumbashi and Dar es Salaam.”
“The European Union (EU) and the US are not currently leaders in EV technology. It is reported that almost 90% of cell component production, the most important step in the battery value chain, takes place in Asia,” Chabala said.
Van Staden told Fox News Digital: “The viability of the rail corridor depends in part on external factors. This will compete with the TAZARA railway line between Zambia and Tanzania, which will be modernized by Chinese companies in the coming years. pressure from the African side to connect the two lines, as that would achieve a long-held goal of connecting the coasts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
“The US has no choice but to seek access to critical minerals in Africa as many of these are critical components for the kind of high-tech manufacturing in which the US is trying to remain competitive,” Hudson told Fox News Digital, adding: “We We simply cannot afford to cede that territory to China, and it is not too late to try to regain our influence in this sector.”
Nigeriens protest against the US military presence in Niamey, Niger, April 13, 2024. (Reuters/Mahamadou Hamidou/File Photo)
“More importantly, there is room to do this because Africans want diversity in their economic partnerships. Just as we are wary of China cornering the market for crucial minerals in certain countries, those countries are also concerned about their dependence on Chinese interests. .”
Hudson continued: “The Lobito project is really a proof of concept that the US can and should undertake the kind of large-scale commercial infrastructure projects similar to what China has been doing on the continent for decades. Importantly, it is a recognition that we have heard calls from African leaders that they want a relationship based on ‘trade, not aid’.”
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Train on the line between Lobito and Benguela in Angola, on April 12, 2013. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Chabala told Fox News Digital this week that another factor working against U.S. interests is the Chinese’s involvement in ownership of the mines that produce CRMs in the DRC. “They own 80% of the largest cobalt producer in Congo, they are deeply involved in the EV battery value chain, with the majority of value chain activity being undertaken in Asia, and they are currently the largest producer of EVs in the world (the Chinese car manufacturer BYD),” he said.
He added: “The long-term strategy of the EU and the US should be to invest and build strong counterbalance economies, so much so that the impact and consequences of Chinese economic dynamics are offset. The African continent has 1.4 billion people, 60% under the age of 24, with a landmass of more than 30 million square kilometers (more than 11 million square miles).”
Congolese flags fly next to Chinese flags at the Palais des Congres in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, March 29, 2013. (Junior D. Kannah/AFP via Getty Images)
“This is double the population of the EU and the US, and almost double their landmass. The quantities of materials on the African continent and the potential they represent for the global economy are astounding. This represents unfathomable potential for establishing industries on the African continent. continent, not only to counterbalance the Chinese economy, but also to secure a future market for all top brands from European and American companies. It is astonishing that the EU and the US did not start following this strategy decades ago.’
Van Staden noted: “Chinese actors represent less than 10% of all mining on the continent and there is room for greater involvement from many stakeholders, as long as it is done on African terms.”
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Hudson concluded that, with his new administration, President-elect ‘Trump We need to pay attention, treat Africans as equal partners, not talk down to them, and recognize that they have choices. If we want Africa to choose us, it will do so through the attractiveness of our offer and not through pressure.”
