( CNN ) -- There is a one-word subtext to President Obama 's trip to Africa : China . After 9/11 , the United States became embroiled in more than a decade of wars in Asia and the Middle East . As a result , U.S. engagement in Latin America and Africa largely atrophied . Meanwhile , China saw an opportunity . China has now displaced the United States as the largest trading partners of two key Latin American countries , Brazil and Chile . China 's economic rise is particularly marked in Africa ; it quietly surpassed the United States as the continent 's largest trading partner four years ago . Sino-African trade is now estimated to be $ 200 billion a year and is expected to rise to $ 325 billion in the next two years . While the conventional view has long been that Africa is largely a motley collection of economic basket cases , in fact , according to the most recent IMF figures , five out of 10 of the world 's fastest-growing economies are in Africa . Indeed , South Sudan , Libya and Sierre Leone are the globe 's top three economic hot spots with projected 2013 growth rates of 32 % , 20 % and 17 % respectively . As if to underline the importance that the Chinese see in Africa , within two weeks of assuming office in March 2013 , the new Chinese president Xi Jinping visited two of the three African countries Obama will be visiting on his African trip , Tanzania and South Africa . China is the largest trading partner for both of those nations . Read this : Obama 'plays catch up ' in Africa . Seemingly as a result of its substantial investments and trade in Africa , China is well liked on the continent . A 2007 Pew Research Center survey found 92 % of respondents held favorable views of China in the Ivory Coast and Mali , and between 67 % and 81 % held favorable views in Kenya , Senegal , Ghana , Nigeria , Tanzania and Ethiopia . Pew noted that these favorable views of China come at the expense of the United States : `` China 's influence is almost universally viewed as having a more beneficial impact on African countries than does that of the United States . '' In other words , the United States has considerable catch up to play in Africa . In 2012 then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured Africa and made what many assumed to be a not-so-thinly veiled swipe at China , which is heavily involved in African mineral and oil extraction : `` The days of having outsiders come and extract the wealth of Africa for themselves , leaving nothing or very little behind , should be over ... '' Obama is likely to avoid any criticism of China but he has chosen to visit Senegal , Tanzania and South Africa , countries that are all relatively functional democracies , and he is likely to dwell on the issues of good governance and respect for human rights in his public remarks , which will serve to subtly remind Africans that these are issues that the United States puts more value on than does China . But the real message Obama will be signaling is that America is open for business with Africa . In Tanzania , the president will have a closed meeting with some two-dozen leading American and African CEOs . And , according to Jennifer Cooke , an expert on Africa at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington , `` some 500 business leaders will join the president at various points in his trip to assess the opportunities for themselves . '' Perhaps they may conclude , as the World Bank did last year , that `` Africa could be on the brink of an economic takeoff , much like China was 30 years ago , and India 20 years ago . '' And if that happens , the United States , of course , would want to be part of this story .
President Obama is visiting Africa after years of little U.S. engagement with continent . Peter Bergen : China took advantage of the opportunity to vastly expand trade . The United States has been slow and reluctant in responding, but now it's getting a taste for what it's like to be on China's shopping list. Some African economies are growing very fast , and there are forecasts for more growth .