Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

US President Joe Biden is MKS sportsfulfilling his promise to visit the African country of Angola. Previously, Biden had postponed a planned visit to the country in October due to the hurricane in Florida.

In December 2022, during the US-Africa Leaders Summit, Biden promised to visit Africa in 2023. However, he did not follow through on that promise until now. The reason why the Biden administration has repeatedly promised to visit Africa but is only now finally making the trip just before leaving office appears less about fulfilling commitments and more about establishing a diplomatic legacy on the continent.

Looking at the history and diplomatic tradition, the preferred choice for previous US presidents - whether in office or about to leave office - when creating their own diplomatic "report cards" or diplomatic legacies, has often been the Middle East. But now, the region has become increasingly violent since Hamas launched an attack on Israel last year, followed by Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. Faced with such turmoil, it is almost impossible to provide the Biden administration with a commendable diplomatic legacy. Therefore, visiting Africa has become a preferred choice.

The timing of the visit has raised questions about its intended objectives. One key reason the Biden administration chose Angola is to discuss financing and cooperation on the Lobito Corridor, a significant US investment project in the country. The Lobito Corridor is part of the American Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which many see as a countermeasure to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Another reason is that the US has regarded Angola as a strategic partner and a regional leader. In November 2023, Biden noted during Angolan President Joao Lourenco's visit to the US that their talk was "more than almost any leader in Africa." According to reports, Angola will host the US-Africa Business Summit next year and has received a record loan of $900 million from the US Export-Import Bank for a recent solar energy project. 

The Biden administration once made a high-profile statement that the US is "all in" on Africa, and since 2023, senior officials and figures, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and First Lady Jill Biden, have visited Africa. However, no matter how the US media and senior government officials speak highly of Africa, when I visited the US last year, I discovered that some African experts from US think tanks believe that Africa has never been a priority in US diplomacy. In fact, it has almost always been at the bottom of the list.

The Biden administration's policy toward Africa in recent years has been to publicly acknowledge the continent's important status and role on the international stage in a high-profile manner, but it has not spent any real money to contribute to Africa's development. The limited investment in African countries often depends on specific circumstances, with a focus on selecting "pillar countries" for "investment" and "support."

For example, Angola, which Biden is visiting this time, is a member of the US Atlantic Partnership. Kenya, a key country in Eastern Africa, has been listed by the Biden administration as a "major non-NATO ally" of the US and has signed a new Defense Memorandum of Understanding to enhance security cooperation. In addition, the Biden administration has also concentrated resources on investing in countries such as Senegal and Ghana, which are "based on shared values," as well as resource-rich countries such as Nigeria, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In summary, Biden's four-year administration and a single visit to one African country make it difficult to achieve the purpose of improving US-Africa relations and leaving a strong "African imprint" on his diplomatic legacy. The idea of countering China and Russia through a single visit is simply not possible.

The author is an honorary research fellow at the Zhejiang Yuexiu University and a research fellow at the China-Africa Institute. [email protected]