Remarks at the China in Africa Today Seminar

Good morning: On Friday Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, will meet with a Chinese delegation led her counterpart, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun. They will continue discussions of political, commercial, humanitarian, military, and cultural issues that began over 18 months ago when Assistant Secretary Frazer visited China. To say that the subject of "China in Africa" fascinates the U.S. Government and private sector is something of an understatement. Indeed, this is my 4^th seminar on the subject in as many months, and I know of many more seminars taking place around the country. The reasons for our fascination, I am sure, will become evident in our deliberations over the next few days. And dare I say that they are much more complicated than assuming a US-Chinese scramble for Africa's energy resources.

The possibilities for U.S. involvement in Africa are infinite -- trade and investment opportunities, cultural and social opportunities, and health, economic, and security challenges. So, what are our foreign policy goals in Africa? As Secretary Rice has stated, the long-term U.S. foreign policy goal is the achievement of global peace, prosperity, and stability. In Africa that goal translates into five policy goals: (1) supporting political freedom and democracy; (2) expanding economic opportunity and growth; (3) combating pandemics such as HIV/AIDS; (4) ending wars and combating terror and violence; and (5) increasing international understanding through educational and cultural exchanges.

Supporting Political Freedom and Democracy

Today, March 6, marks the 50^th anniversary of Ghana's independence from Britain. Ghana, the first country on the African continent to gain independence, is today a practicing democracy. This 50^th anniversary is a watershed moment in Africa's history. In recognition of its importance, a U.S. presidential delegation led by the Secretary of HUD Alphonso Jackson and a U.S. congressional delegation led by Congresswomen Carolyn Kilpatrick are attending the jubilee celebration. Members of the presidential delegation include John J. Danilovich, CEO, Millennium Challenge Corporation; Ronald A. Tschetter, Director of the Peace Corps; Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Rear Admiral R. Timothy Ziemer, Coordinator for the President's Malaria Initiative; and Pamela Bridgewater, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana

In the last ten years, Africa has experienced a sea change in political orientation. At least two-thirds of sub-Sahara Africa's 48 countries have held free elections. Two standouts are the Democratic Republic of the Congo that in July held its first free election in more than 45 years and Liberia that elected the continent's first woman president. Elections in Zambia, Madagascar, Sao Tome and Principe, Lesotho and Senegal were held without incident and hardly merited mention in the international press. In this case, given Africa's past history, no news is very good news, indeed. Still to come are elections in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Mali, Mauritania, and Nigeria. Impressive as this trend is, African governments still face serious problems of governance and transparency, human rights and freedom of the press.

Expanding Economic Opportunities and Growth

Africa is a continent of approximately 800 million people, about evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. Some of the most impoverished countries in the world are found in Africa. They also have some of the highest rates of population growth and some of the youngest populations (young people comprising one half of more of the population). However, economic strength is growing as many of these countries undertake economic reforms and govern more transparently. According to the latest World Development indicators, 17 African nations experienced more than 5% growth in 2004, and U.S. aid to Africa has risen from $700 million in 2001 to the current level of $4.1 billion.

Last week I attended a talk by Nigeria's former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala who outlined the steps Nigeria is taking to fight corruption, especially the work of the EFCC (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) that is investigating corruption in the Nigerian government, jailing offenders and recovering government assets from foreign banks -- $5 billion from the foreign bank accounts of the late dictator Sani Abacha alone. As she noted, eradicating corruption is not easy but it is necessary in order to have the resources to provide a better life for the Nigerian people, and it requires the partnership of African and Western governments, including our own.

Two relatively new USG programs are making a huge difference to African economies; the Millennium Challenge Account and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Both programs require strict accountability and economic reform. The Millennium Challenge Account provides funding to African governments for much-needed infrastructure projects (roads, water systems, electrical and communication projects) but governments must meet strict levels of progress on social indicators to be accepted into the program. Ghana and Senegal are among the countries that have received Millennium Challenge Account compacts. In fact, Ghana received the highest compact, $547 million. AGOA creates jobs in African countries by providing duty-free access to the U.S. market by African traders. Since the implementation of AGOA, the U.S. has lowered tariffs on 6,000 products. In 2005, U.S. imports from AGOA countries totaled $38.1 billion, which represents a 44 percent increase over 2004. So USG programs are making a difference in the lives of African people.

Fighting Pandemics Such as HIV/AIDS

President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is committed to spending $15 billion to combat HIV/AIDS in 15 high-prevalence countries, 12 of which are in Africa. Quite frankly, before PEPFAR many people had written Africa off because its AIDS burden was so high. PEPFAR, however, is giving African AIDS victims hope. In its first year of operation, PEPFAR activities reached 42 million women who received medication to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease and prevented 47,100 infant HIV infections. Complementing PEPFAR is the Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative designed to protect those women who have been the most victimized. The program is tied to the justice system in seeking help for these women. We are also working with our African partners to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and avian flu.

Ending Wars and Combating Terror and Violence

As U.S. strategic partners, Nigeria and South Africa have used their diplomatic economic, and military power to shape the continent for the better. In the last 5 years we have seen belligerence give way to peaceful negotiations in conflicts in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. The U.S. will continue to assist our African partners to increase their capacity to respond to a variety of security situations. The U.S. will train 40,000 African peacekeepers through the Global Peace Operations Initiative and the African Contingency Operations and Training Assistance (ACOTA) at a cost of $600 million over 5 years.

Recently, we worked with Kenya and other east African countries to mediate a peace settlement between the Sudanese government and the SPLM rebels that led to the establishment of Sudan's current government of national unity. We also assisted in brokering the Darfur Peace Agreement. The President's Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, is in Sudan this week to discuss the peacekeeping force in Darfur. As you know, Mr. Natsios visited China some weeks ago to solicit their help on Darfur. We understand that President Hu brought up the subject of Darfur with the Sudanese president during Hu's February Africa trip. We are also working on getting a peacekeeping force into Somalia to end the violence and enable aid workers to provide food and humanitarian assistance there. Finally, in early February, the White House announced the creation of U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, a new combatant command devoted solely to addressing Africa's security issues and promoting peace, stability and prosperity on the continent. The State Department and USAID were a part of the Implementation Planning Team for AFRICOM, and we look forward to working with the Command once it is stood up. I have brought along a power point brief on AFRICOM and would be happy to share it with any of you who are interested.

Increasing International Understanding Through Cultural and Educational Exchanges

Under Secretary Karen Hughes has stated that, "In today's world of instant communication, public diplomacy (people-to-people exchanges) is essential to successful foreign policy and national security." These citizen exchanges tap into citizen knowledge and expertise to support overall U.S. foreign policy goals.
There are three strategic goals of U.S. public diplomacy. First, the U.S. should offer a positive vision of hope and opportunity that is rooted in our values - our belief in freedom and our belief in the dignity and worth of every single human being. Second, we must reach out to Muslim communities; making it clear to the world that we recognize that the relatively small number of violent extremists who are committing acts of terror pervert Islam. And third, we have to nurture the sense that Americans and people of different countries, cultures and faiths do have much more in common than the issues that divide us. Our public diplomacy toolkit consists of U.S. speaker programs that emphasize the American values of tolerance, freedom, and equality, Fulbright scholarly exchanges of professors and students that emphasize learning about other cultures and languages, music and sports exchanges that are an effective means of reaching youth audiences, and international visitor programs of professional consultations that provide a better understanding of U.S. policies, society, and institutions.

U.S. Policy on China's Activities in Africa U.S. government policy on China's Africa activities is a work in progress. Former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zelleck set things in motion by recommending that State Department officials undertake a dialogue with China. A/S Frazer took him at his word and visited china for discussions on Africa about 18 months ago. As I said in my opening remarks, the Chinese are making a return visit this Friday. In between these visits, the Africa Bureau has hosted two seminars. The first seminar was in early December in Rosslyn, VA. In conjunction with INR, we invited several academics to join us in a daylong conference to talk about China's activities n Africa. The purpose was to share information and get everyone on the same page. The second seminar was an in-house discussion to clarify our thinking and to prepare for the Chinese visit. The bottom line is that while we realize that there are areas in which we differ with China's approach in Africa, we believe that there are many areas in which we can cooperate.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of African Affairs, James Swan, summarized our current thinking in a February 9 speech at Columbia University. Let me conclude with quotes from relevant parts of his speech. "The United States does not regard China's emerging interest in Africa as a security threat…In recent decades, China has re-emerged as a major economic, diplomatic and military entity on the world scene and it is important that we see China's role on the continent within this broader context…China has important interests in Africa which include access to resources and markets and the pursuit of diplomatic allies. None of these is inherently threatening to U.S. interests. And because China has real interests there, it will, of course, be engaged on the continent, as is the United States…

U.S. policy is not to curtail China's involvement in Africa, but to seek cooperation where possible; moderate negative influences in some key areas, especially governance and human rights; and continue efforts to nudge China toward becoming a responsible international stakeholder…In that regard, China has made positive contributions such as taking part in international peacekeeping operations in Africa where it has deployed more than 1,300 troops to Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Sudan…On the negative side, the Chinese have not been very willing to encourage democracy, good governance and transparency for African leaders with whom they do business."

That in a nutshell is where State Department stands in our current thinking about China's Africa activities.

Thank you.