US vies with China in the new scramble for Africa
Many people are likely to assume that the current tensions between the US and China are firmly centred in Asia - with Taiwan, North Korea or Central Asia as the likely area for any future conflict. But another less-headline-grabbing continent is starting to dominate Sino-American rivalries: Africa. Echoing the struggle between European colonial powers over African territory and resources in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there is once again a 'scramble for Africa'.
Last week, US President George W. Bush embarked on a multistate African tour, a very visible sign of America's growing recognition of the strategic and economic importance of the continent, and its determination to catch up with China.
China's investment in Africa in the past few years has been little short of remarkable. China-Africa trade has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2006, to US$55.5 billion, according to the most recent official Chinese figures. China also satisfies just short of one-third of its oil needs from Africa.
The US has been slower to embrace Africa and is now playing catch-up. Yet Mr Bush was last week at pains to play down Sino-American rivalries on the continent, assuring local leaders and the media that America's intentions are honourable.
In Ghana, Mr Bush said he wanted to 'dispel the notion that, all of a sudden, America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa ... our policy is aimed at helping people'.
He insisted that China was not the reason for his trip to the continent. 'We can pursue agendas without creating a sense of competition,' he said.
Despite these pronouncements, the Chinese march into Africa has seriously focused US minds, and is undoubtedly towards the forefront of US policy priorities on the continent.
On the back of Mr Bush's tour, the presidents of China and oil-rich Nigeria met on February 28 in Beijing ahead of the signing of new energy deals. Trade between the two states has more than tripled in the past six years. It has also been reported that the state-controlled China Development Bank is in talks to buy a US$5 billion stake in Nigeria-based United Bank for Africa.
China's most controversial African partnership, however, is with the government of Sudan, a regime accused of direct involvement in the genocide of more than 200,000 local Africans at the hands of government-backed Arab militia. Steven Spielberg recently said he had resigned from his role as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics over China's refusal to use its significant influence - as the single-largest purchaser of Sudan's oil - to apply pressure on the government in Khartoum to end the genocide.
China has begun taking a more active role in Darfur, for example by despatching engineers to help prepare for the arrival of African Union and United Nations peacekeepers. Liu Guijin , China's special envoy to Darfur, held talks in Khartoum last week with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and the peacekeeping force chief, Rodolphe Adada, calling for a 'concerted effort from the international community' on Darfur. But, in a statement that has dismayed China's detractors, Mr Liu reiterated that Beijing's traditional non-interventionist approach would remain a 'cornerstone of Chinese foreign policy'.
So, many are convinced China will remain unwilling to jeopardise its significant military, economic and diplomatic standing with Sudan by pushing too hard on Darfur.
A very 21st-century scramble for Africa is under way, with direct competition between China and the US now a reality. And, with the growing need for both to secure reliable long-term sources of energy and resources, the interest in Africa will only grow. Whether the average African citizen, never mind regional stability, will benefit from America's and China's courtships of African states remains less clear, however.
Hagai Segal, a terrorism and Middle East specialist, lectures at New York University in London