Russia may lose to China in the competition for Africa.

Russian authorities regularly emphasize that Africa could become a strategic partner and a key market for Russian technologies, goods, and resources. However, Africa has long been dominated by another investment partner – China. And competing with it will be very difficult. The United States has already lost this competitive war.

The first thing China did to strengthen its presence on the continent was to dump the most modern technologies, equipment, and goods, which allowed it to strengthen its economic influence, especially in the poorest countries.

Chinese companies currently account for 8% of Africa's total mineral production, and this share continues to grow through acquisitions of copper mines in Zambia, cobalt deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and lithium mining projects in Zimbabwe. The extracted minerals are used locally to produce components for renewable energy sources and electric vehicles. For example, in September, Morocco received $5.6 billion in Chinese financing to build the continent's first energy storage system factory, according to a study by Asia Society.

At the same time, China is strengthening its political influence on the continent through cultural exchanges, outreach to African universities, scholarships, and the operation of ideological training schools. As a result, public opinion in Africa is increasingly sympathetic to China.

At last year's China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, Xi Jinping offered Africa $50 billion and a million jobs, without even a lecture on human rights. For a continent facing enormous development needs, such an offer is hard to refuse.

Meanwhile, European countries, which until recently had their own colonies in Africa, and the United States, which is focusing on returning to its greatness, have reduced their attention to the region.

In recent years, Russia has stepped up its activity in Africa: it has written off $20 billion in debt to countries in Africa, provides charitable grain and fuel donations, invites African leaders to summits and forums, invests in oil, bauxite, diamond, and other mineral extraction projects, maintains factories established during the Soviet era, and so on. However, the level of domestic technology and, most importantly, the cost and conditions for implementing new projects in Africa may prove less competitive in the long term than China's.