Obama’s Africa visit: US playing catch-up with China

Russia Today - June 27, 2013

US President Barack Obama began his African tour in a bid to strengthen ties and investment opportunities. But experts say the task might prove difficult as China already has significant influence in the region and US is forced to play catch-up.

Obama arrived in Senegal on Wednesday and is also set to visit South Africa and Tanzania.
The president’s tour is happening as US is taking on a bigger military role in Africa, RT’s Gayane Chichakyan reported.

“We hear about new drone bases popping up on the African continent in countries whose governments receive aid from the US in one form or another. We hear US arming and training US security forces in a number of states in Africa, then we learn how some of those forces commit horrible atrocities and yet the US does not stop to take a second to look who they empower,” Chichakyan said.

Just a few recent examples of US-backed violence include, a UN report about US trained troops in Congo guilty of mass rape and other atrocities and a Human Rights Watch report documenting abuse, rape and torture of at least 1,000 Somali refugees by US-backed Kenyan police forces.

To read more.....

White House unveils strategy for Africa: intensified militarization and war on terror

By Glen Ford

Voltaire Network| New York (United States)| 24 June 2012

The White House has put in writing its policies for sub-Saharan Africa. The problem is, there’s hardly a word of truth in the document, and not a single mention of AFRICOM, the U.S. military command on the continent. The presidential paper repeats Obama’s 2009 lecture to Africans on “good governance.” He also warned that they avoid the “excuses” of blaming “neocolonialism” and “racism” for their problems. Meanwhile, AFRICOM is “positioning the U.S. to launch coups at will against African civilian, or even military, leaders that fall out of favor with Washington.”

To read more....

Political Implications Of Burgeoning Africa-China Relations ...

U.S. Imperialist Militarism On The Continent Seeks To Maintain Dominance Over Growing Efforts Aimed At Genuine Independence

By Pan-African News Wire
June 11, 2013

There has been a considerable amount of discussion and debate over the growing economic and political relations between the People's Republic of China and the African Union member-states. China is reported now to be the largest trading partner with the 54 independent states on the continent.

Since the 1949 Socialist Revolution in China, the country has made tremendous strides in economic development and political status. In just six-and-a-half decades China has grown into the second largest economic power globally. Beijing's opinions and political alliances are always taken into consideration by various imperialist states as well as developing countries of the so-called Global South.

In 2000, the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation (FOCAC) was formed. Over the last thirteen years, some five summits of this organization have been held with concrete results that have been beneficial to both Africa and the China.

China is still a socialist state despite the adoption of capitalist methods of production and trade. The government is controlled by the Communist Party and central planning of the economy provides the country with an advantage that is lacking within Europe and North America where the anarchy of capitalist production has driven down the living standards of working people and rendered hundreds of millions to unemployment, poverty, social insecurity and escalating political repression.

To read more.....