America Is Buying Africa’s Minerals, While China Is Buying Leverage
The article examines the shifting geopolitical landscape in Africa, contrasting the U.S.'s transactional focus on mineral resources with China's long-term investment strategy. It argues that the U.S. is losing soft power influence by dismantling aid programs while China continues to build infrastructure.
Why it matters
This highlights the intensifying competition between global superpowers for critical resources necessary for modern technology and energy transitions.
America Is Buying Africa’s Minerals, While China Is Buying Leverage Ken Silverstein, Senior Contributor Sun, November 1, 2026 at 9:15 PM GMT+8 7 min read ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - NOVEMBER 17: Chinese construction workers build the new African Union Buildings on November 17, 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The building is built for free. Chinese companies are investing and working all over Africa. Photo by: Per-Anders Pettersson On October 13, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that Africa's mineral resources belong to Africa. It was a line built for applause, and it landed on a continent where Beijing already finances much of the mining, processing, and railways that carry copper and cobalt to the coast.
Those minerals—the raw material for power grids, electric vehicles, and AI data centers—are the newest prize in the U.S.-China rivalry. How those two countries chase them says a lot about how both do business abroad.
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