Beijing looks set yet again to upstage Secretary of State Blinken and the Biden administration’s foreign policy, this time in Africa. On Monday and Tuesday, all of the continent’s countries — save for the Kingdom of Eswatini, which recognizes Taiwan — are slated to attend the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Likening what some might call the “21st century Scramble for Africa” as metaphorically akin to romantic courtship, Nigeria’s foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, told Mr. Blinken’s delegation, “Sometimes it’s a good thing for you if you’re the attractive bride and everybody is offering you wonderful things. You take what you can from each of them.”

One might then say America and China are eligible bachelors taking part in a form of international speed dating. If so, Mr. Blinken proved himself during his date with Africa neither a Lothario nor a devotee of realpolitik. Rather, he seemed a warm-up act for China’s upcoming Pan-African event.

In Nigeria, Mr. Blinken said Africa’s governments were “becoming less transparent” and its leaders were “ignoring term limits,” “rigging or postponing elections,” and suppressing “opposition figures” and the press. In a call with Sudan’s leaders, he cited a lack of progress on instituting democracy as keeping America from resuming suspended aid to that country.

The elephant in the room during Mr. Blinken’s African safari was Bachelor no. 2: The communist Chinese party boss, Xi Jinping. Mr. Blinken’s prudish ideas of a first date might have put off the coquettish African continent, but the bad boy, Bachelor no. 2, was full of innuendo suggesting anything was possible.

On Friday, the director-general of African affairs in China’s foreign ministry,Wu Peng, attested to his country’s“When in Rome” attitude, saying, “China respects the will of the African people,” adding that cooperation with Africa was “based on local conditions” and operates on “respect for Africa’s sovereignty and practical needs.”

That is, Mr. Xi is perfectly willing to overlook even Africa’s deepest blemishes — such as genocide — because he loves the continent for what’s on the inside, including oil and precious metals. On Friday, China’s Central Office of Foreign Propaganda issued a white paper entitled “China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals.”

The white paper made clear the oft-cited Chinese people’s feelings. “China and African countries have always been good friends who stand together through prosperity and adversity, good partners who share weal and woe,” the paper said, adding, “China has always championed the principle of African people solving African issues in their own ways.”

Rejecting criticism that China engages in predatory loans, Mr. Wu asked why China’s investments were labeled “debt traps” when investment from other powers were deemed “official development assistance.” An answer appeared the day before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation began, as Uganda defaulted on a $207 million loan brokered in 2015 and had to surrender Entebbe International Airport to its creditor, China.

What this portends is a dilemma for American foreign: adhere to such shibboleths as “progress on democracy” and thereby all but drive potential allies into China’s arms or prepare our politics for strange bedfellows, disagreeable as we may find them, if only to deny Beijing a conquest.

Meantime, expect Mr. Xi’s dance card to fill up at this week’s Pan-African forum, leaving America in danger of becoming the wallflower at the Pan-Africa Ball.

________

@LenczyckiPhilip.