The Trump administration has cited concerns over Beijing’s scientific spying programme as the reason it wants to block a Chinese plan to build an $80m headquarters for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia, amid growing competition for influence in the continent.
“It’s a threat to Africa. Africa has vast amounts of genomic data and the Chinese want to build the CDC to eventually steal the data from all the other centres,” an administration official told the Financial Times, referring to five regional Africa CDC hubs, some of which were built by the US. Based in Egypt, Nigeria, Gabon, Kenya and Zambia, they handle high-risk viruses, health crises, research and data collection.
The role of Africa CDC, launched in 2017 in the wake of the deadly 2014 west African Ebola crisis, is to respond to disease outbreaks including coronavirus. It is owned and part-funded by the African Union’s 55 members, with additional financial support from the US, China, the World Bank and other donors including Kuwait and Japan. Its secretariat is based at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. African foreign ministers are expected to discuss a new headquarters for the first time on Thursday.
“Out of nowhere the Chinese swoop in and want to build the Africa CDC headquarters,” the administration official said, adding that the US had invested $900m in the past 15 years to support health in Africa. “If the Chinese build the headquarters, the US will have nothing to do with Africa CDC.” Washington gave $14m to Africa CDC in its first year of operation and still pays the Africa CDC director’s salary along with those of senior medical staff seconded from the US CDC.
On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson responded to the allegations, saying: “This is just as ridiculous as the recent allegation by some in the US that China is building the AU conference centre to steal AU data. It shows that some people in the US always make presumptions by their own pattern.”
China is attempting to force a groundbreaking ceremony and other public events to give the appearance they are moving forward
Beijing has already built the AU’s $200m conference centre, which houses the Africa CDC secretariat, in Addis Ababa. The building was mired in controversy following 2018 claims denied by Beijing that it bugged the 19-storey building and uploaded a nightly data cache, including audio recordings, to Chinese servers for five years.
The Obama administration reached a 2016 agreement with Beijing to jointly support the Africa CDC and strengthen links between Chinese, African and American health experts. But this co-operation has withered under the Trump administration as the two countries clashed over trade.
China has invested billions of dollars into Africa, increasing its strategic hold over the continent. Beijing told AU officials it wanted to build the headquarters in 2018, but the Trump administration has criticised it as an opaque deal that has not been reviewed by the union’s 55 member states.
“China is attempting to force a groundbreaking ceremony and other public events to give the appearance they are moving forward,” said a second person briefed on the matter, adding that Beijing had requested to name facilities after Chinese scientists.
The same person said China also planned to build eight labs on the continent despite a history of allegedly “reckless” health security, citing a Beijing mission to fly the live Ebola virus to China on a commercial Air Canada flight in March last year. Canadian health officials have said there was no problem with this mode of transport.
Ebba Kalondo, spokesperson for the AU, said she was not aware of the Trump administration’s threat and could not comment on specifics but said the organisation had a “robust partnership” with the US which it hoped to scale up, and that it was also co-operating with China.
The Africa CDC has welcomed Chinese proposals to increase funding and strengthen their contribution to the organisation, including sending two technical experts from China’s own CDC as well as building the headquarters.
Under the Africa CDC statutes, any relocation of the organisation from AU headquarters would be subject to review by African heads of state. African foreign ministers meet at the AU on Thursday, when the US hopes its allies will stymie Chinese plans.
The Chinese embassy in Washington referred questions to China’s AU mission, which could not immediately be reached for comment. The Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing did not respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Don Weinland
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