China appears to be increasingly interfering in U.S. elections through intensive lobbying, control of foreign media outlets, and sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

On December 13, Ambassador John Bolton, President Donald J. Trump’s national security advisor, delivered the administration’s long-awaited encyclical on Africa before an overflow audience at the Heritage Foundation. In a typically blunt manner, Ambassador Bolton characterized China’s policies toward Africa as rapacious and neo-colonial, expressing concern that China would use its leverage over states heavily indebted to it in return for a monopolistic hold on the continent’s natural resource bounty.