Trump’s Anti-Africa Administration Attempting To Impede China-Africa Relations
By Semafor Africa Photos: YouTube Screenshots The Trump administration is stepping up in its bid to dislodge China from “priority” industry sectors in Africa, the State Department’s top Africa-focused official told Semafor. Nick Checker said the administration didn’t need to match China “dollar to dollar,” but “if it’s a priority sector, or in the mineral space… that’s an area where we’d actually want to be actively competing.” His remarks come ahead of Washington’s inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial this week, at which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host several African officials, including DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi, as part of efforts to loosen Beijing’s dominance in critical supply chains. The White House has repeatedly emphasized its push for “commercial diplomacy” over aid alongside a push to resolve and prevent conflicts on the continent. However, it has faced criticism over its new global health aid structure, which leans into making bilateral deals and refocuses more around the Western Hemisphere and Asia-Pacific regions than Africa, following significant cuts in foreign assistance since the shuttering of USAID a year ago. Checker was criticized last month over a leaked internal communication where he suggested that Africa was “peripheral” to US interests. “That does not at all mean Africa is irrelevant,” he stressed to Semafor. Read on for the full interview with Nick Checker, head of the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. →
Black News 
By Semafor Africa
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
The Trump administration is stepping up in its bid to dislodge China from “priority” industry sectors in Africa, the State Department’s top Africa-focused official told Semafor. Nick Checker said the administration didn’t need to match China “dollar to dollar,” but “if it’s a priority sector, or in the mineral space… that’s an area where we’d actually want to be actively competing.”
His remarks come ahead of Washington’s inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial this week, at which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host several African officials, including DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi, as part of efforts to loosen Beijing’s dominance in critical supply chains.
The White House has repeatedly emphasized its push for “commercial diplomacy” over aid alongside a push to resolve and prevent conflicts on the continent. However, it has faced criticism over its new global health aid structure, which leans into making bilateral deals and refocuses more around the Western Hemisphere and Asia-Pacific regions than Africa, following significant cuts in foreign assistance since the shuttering of USAID a year ago.
Checker was criticized last month over a leaked internal communication where he suggested that Africa was “peripheral” to US interests. “That does not at all mean Africa is irrelevant,” he stressed to Semafor.
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