The U.S. and China Spend Millions Fighting Malaria in Africa, So Why Don’t They Work Together?

Both the United States and People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight malaria in Africa. A pair of experts at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia contend that if the U.S. and P.R.C. stopped working in parallel with one another and actually collaborated together they would be much more effective in combating the spread of the deadly disease.

Theoretically it may make a lot of sense for the U.S. and China to work together in Africa, particularly on humanitarian issues like fighting communicable diseases. The reality, though, is a lot more complicated, as officials on both sides really just don’t seem to trust each other very much. Moreover, African governments have also expressed reluctance about U.S. and China collaboration out of concern that a combined foreign presence could potentially become quite powerful and force local governments to make unwanted compromises.

Features

06.06.13

Bad Medicine

Kathleen McLaughlin

In 1967, as the United States sank into war in the jungles of Vietnam and China descended into the cataclysm of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese soldiers secretly fighting alongside the North Vietnamese also battled swarms of malarial mosquitoes...

In this edition of the China in Africa Podcast, Dr. Yawei Liu, Director of the China program at The Carter Center, and the program’s graduate assistant, William Pierce, join Eric and Cobus to discuss their upcoming paper, which explains why fighting the spread of malaria in Africa offers a unique opportunity for Sino-U.S. collaboration.

Recommendations

• “Leaked U.S. Budget Document Suggests Deep Humanitarian, Global Health Cuts,” Adva Saldinger and Michael Igoe, Devex, May 19, 2017
• “Look East to Contain Spread of Malaria,” Isaac Kalua, The Standard, April 20, 2017