This week has been dominated by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s annual tour of Africa. It is a 30-year tradition that the FM’s first foreign visit of the year is always to Africa.
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As I pointed out here, this constancy is an important part of China’s African engagement – one that differentiates it from key Western powers. But it brings its own mysteries, not least the puzzle of why individual countries are included or excluded from each visit.
Three of the countries Wang is visiting this time are in northeast Africa (Egypt, Eritrea and Djibouti), raising speculation about whether China is particularly focusing on the Horn of Africa and North Africa, just as U.S. tensions with Iran were igniting.
SOURCE: chinaafricaproject.com
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