Washington must prioritise matching China’s presence in Global South, a top US envoy says

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell tells Senate Foreign Relations Committee one essential step is to expedite approval of a backlog of ambassador nominations

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Chinese President Xi Jinping with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on August 22, 2023. On Tuesday, a US State Department official said that Washington must accelerate its efforts to counter Beijing’s standing in the Global South. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:08am, 31 Jul 2024Updated: 5:36am, 31 Jul 2024

After building alliances in Europe and the Indo-Pacific to counter China and its closer engagement with Russia, Washington has much more work to do in the Global South to meet this goal, a top official in US President Joe Biden’s administration told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell ticked off a list of the administration’s accomplishments, including proposed sanctions action against Beijing by the EU as well as US trilateral cooperation with Japan and South Korea.

However, the US is far behind China in Africa and other Global South regions, risking failure in specific objectives like securing critical minerals and broader goals such as fighting misinformation, Campbell said.

“We have to contest Chinese actions not only in terms of their forward-facing strategy but their desire to go after Africa’s rare earths that will be critical for our industrial and technological capabilities,” he said.

Committee chairman Ben Cardin, Democrat of Delaware, attributed much of the blame to Republicans for not approving career diplomats who have been nominated for ambassadorial posts. Cardin cited 20 countries where China has an ambassador and the US does not.

Also noting the lack of ambassador confirmations, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said: “I’m sorry that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle aren’t here because China continues to prioritise their diplomatic engagement, their ambassadors around the world, particularly in the Global South.