US jittery over China in Nigeria

US jittery over China in Nigeria

The United States of America is growing increasingly apprehensive of China’s incursion into Africa, especially Nigeria. There has been widespread speculation on an international scale about China’s recent upsurge in bilateral and multilateral foreign policies, which have seen other super powers, especially the US on the edge without openly conceding such.

For instance there is a lot of suspicion that one of the most critical factors that ultimately compelled the decision of the Americans to set up a US Military Command in Africa is to checkmate China’s inroad into that continent. But US government officials have consistently dismissed such presuppositions.

However, Empowered Newswire reports that an annual report on China’s military power sent to the US Congress from the Secretary of Defence for this year and last year specifically mentioned Nigeria in the American government’s review on China’s military, while in 2005, the same report referred to Africa.

The US government made it clear in the 2007 report that it welcomed the rise “of a peaceful and prosperous China and it encourages China to participate as a responsible international stakeholder.” However, the report expressed the view that “much uncertainty surrounds the future course China’s leaders will set for their country, including in the area of China’s expanding military power and how that power might be used.”

Although the reports are in themselves essentially glimpses into the deeper core of American’s own foreign policy and military complex, observers say the US government is clearly considering China’s inroad to Nigeria, Africa and some other regions of the world as an essential aspect of military strategy of China, which the Americans cannot ignore.