Which Superpower is Helping Africa Economically: China or the USA?

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts
China has been the African continent’s largest trading partner for the last 16 years. The United States is third, also trailing India. How are the policies of the current Trump administration and the consistent Chinese government affecting the various economies of the 54 countries in Africa? Analyzing the tariff policy and developmental priorities towards Africa, which are different for each of the two superpowers, can help analysts, policymakers, influencers, and interested people decide what is best for African people on the ground.

In April 2025, the Trump administration introduced a baseline 10% tariff on almost all imports globally, including those from Africa. Targeted Tariffs: In addition to the baseline tariff, higher, country-specific tariffs (up to 50%) were imposed on a selection of African countries, based on factors such as their trade surplus with the U.S. and alleged use of trade barriers, according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Trump’s new tariffs will undermine the 25-year-old African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed duty-free access to the U.S. market for many African products. Many suspect that the Trump administration will not encourage the renewal of AGOA, which is set to expire in September 2025. Board member of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, Pankaj Bedi says that his company will fold without access to the AGOA.

Meanwhile, at the recent Forum for China-Africa Cooperation Summit, the People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping announced that it will eliminate import tariffs for the entire African continent, except Eswatini. This year’s summit, which occurs every three years, was the most well-attended by African heads of state ever.

Eswatini maintains formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and is excluded. Bilateral agreements totaling $50 billion were pledged at the September 2024 summit in Beijing.

The forum is part of China’s ongoing and consistent engagement to solidify economic integration and form a strategic alliance with Africa. Since 2013, led by Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, and Djibouti.

African states have signed up to be a part of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. According to China, the purpose of BRI is to improve connectivity and cooperation, especially in the Global South, and it is the prime mechanism for accessing Chinese financing and expertise for national infrastructure development.

China has consistently shown respect for African nationhood by having its top diplomat visit 4 or five African countries at the start of each New Year. This 35-year-old practice was continued earlier in 2025 when the Chinese Foreign Minister visited Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad, and Nigeria.

President Obama and Biden both had white house summits with African leaders while president. Trump has not while he was and is again president. During his first term, he called African countries “shit hole places.” In his current term, he has tried to blindside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a tailored video and blatantly described a transactional relationship to access African resources, especially minerals, rare earths, and oil, as his vision for economic partnership between Africa and the USA, while meeting with African leaders at the White House. According to the Director of the Kenya-based “Inter Region Economic Network”, James Shikwati, “Kenya and Africa will have to look for other markets and take advantage of the ‘Continental Free Trade Area’.

Competition between the USA and China for the hearts and minds of the people, as well as access to minerals for the production of advanced technologies, could benefit African development. Last year, lame duck President Biden visited Angola and promoted the Lobito Accord. Unlike many other projects started by Biden, President Trump has not cancelled this initiative.

The Lobito Accord centers around the Benguela Railway, which connects the port of Lobito in Angola to the interior regions of the DRC and Zambia. The railroad was originally built by the Portuguese in the early 20th century. The railroad declined after peaking in passenger and commercial use in 1973. After the Angolan Civil War ended in 2002, China stepped in.

The railway was reconstructed between 2006 and 2014 by the China Railway Construction Corporation at $1.83 billion. 100,000 Angolans were employed on the railway reconstruction. Trains reached Huambo in 2011, Kuito in 2012, and Luau near the Congolese border in 2013. The rebuilt railway was formally inaugurated in February 2015.

The G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), led by the USA, invested in the Lobito Corridor to connect the African continent from sea to sea. In October 2023, PGI signed an MOU between the U.S., Angola, the DRC, the EU, Zambia, the African Development Bank, and Africa Finance Corporation to develop the Corridor, initiating a new rail line expansion to Zambia.[5]

On 4 July 2023, the Lobito Atlantic Railway company secured a 30-year concession for railway services. The concession agreement encompasses the entire 1,300km railway line in Angola, extending to the 400km line into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (up to Kolwezi), and also includes any potential service extensions in Zambia.

The awarding of the concessions took place in the presence of Presidents João Lourenço of Angola, Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC, and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia.

Coming from the eastern side of the continent and not to be outdone by the West, China has recently committed to upgrading Tazara. The Tazara Railway, also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway, is a railway in East Africa linking the port of Dar es Salaam in east Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia’s Central Province. Built in the 1970’s, Tazara has long been a symbol of African and Chinese cooperation.

Some say that the sudden interest in upgrading Tazara is because of the American focus on the Lobito Corridor. As long as strong African leaders insist on skills transfer while not burdening their nations with unpayable debt, then infrastructure assistance, including railway construction, will benefit African development.

America is currently attempting to use African countries like South Sudan to dump unwanted migrants, increasing travel bans, and imposing tariffs. Beyond UNESCO, Trump has extended his retreat from international institutions in 2025 by pulling the US out of the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization. Trump has also reinstated the UNRWA funding ban and pledged to again withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. China recently condemned the USA’s

withdrawal for the second time under Trump from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Tazara and Lobito railway projects come from opposite sides of the continent with different benefactors. China and the USA have opposite priorities and styles of engagement. Which will help to “Uplift the Race?” as Marcus Garvey said.

For sure there are more African people (yes, I mean Black Americans) in the USA than there are African people in China. Maybe that fact can count for something in development strategies by African heads of state?