Donald Trump, China Visit,Lessons for African Leaders,
Abubakar Hashim
Donald Trump’s two-day high-profile state visit to China this week was purely transactional, as virtually all major CEOs of leading American companies were on board the US Air Force flight to Beijing.
Apart from Donald Trump, only two government officials were on board: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
All the other members of the entourage were top CEOs, including Elon Musk of Tesla; Jensen Huang of Nvidia; Tim Cook of Apple; Larry Fink of BlackRock; Jane Fraser of Citigroup; and Larry Culp of General Electric.
Others included David Solomon of Goldman Sachs; Dina McCormick of Meta; Ryan McInerney of Visa; Michael Miebach of Mastercard; and a few other American CEOs.
Also on board were journalists and presidential aides.
There was a 15-second handshake between Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, a state banquet, and a string of trade deals signed.
Lessons for African Leaders
Coincidentally, as the US and China — the world’s two leading superpowers — signed deals, the Africa CEO Summit was ongoing in Kigali, Rwanda.
Virtually all African presidents were in attendance, but with only a few African CEOs, like Dangote, BUA, and a few others.
The only major breakthrough was a call for value addition to Africa’s raw materials before export.
Africa needs more Dangotes to robustly drive industrialisation, as demonstrated by the recently concluded US-China business trip led by Trump.
Despite Trump’s erratic demeanour, one of his outstanding qualities is economic diplomacy, which is yielding results.
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