China in Africa

Open an American newspaper any time in the last year or so, and you'll inevitably read an article about how China is recently cutting deals with many African nations, both securing military cooperation and lucrative natural resource deals. Most prominently, China has been backing Sudan while getting delicious oil.

Now, in a world where the US-Saudi alliance exists, you'd think American commentators would be humble about economic and military ties to pretty noxious regimes.

And you'd be wrong, and a Communist. Possibly a homosexual. Because you wouldn't believe the caterwauling the US press is capable of when it comes to China's actions, even when they are positively benign compared to the US.

Well, today, there is an additional wrinkle (via LGM). The reason China's been having such a free hand in Africa? Because the US has let them.

The Bush administration and Congress have slashed millions of dollars of military aid to African nations in recent years, moves that Pentagon officials and senior military commanders say have undermined American efforts to combat terrorist threats in Africa and to counter expanding Chinese influence there," writes Mark Mazzetti....

Since 2003, Washington has shut down Pentagon programs to train and equip militaries in a handful of African nations because they have declined to sign agreements exempting American troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

It's bad enough that the US is demanding these agreements in the first place, but to whine like mules when the natural reaction happens is comical. Way to go, Washington.

(Clarity: Clinton was, in practice, just as anti-ICC as Bush has been.)