Chinese media have given minimal coverage to president Bush‘s week-long visit to Africa. While Xinhua ascribes the motivation for the five-nation trip to “strategic interests” that include military and energy security, it also acknowledges that the U.S. troop presence in Africa has been “tiny.” By contrast, Beijing seems much more concerned with Japan’s push into the continent, as evidenced by an article titled “Japanese diplomacy takes aim at Africa.” The piece appeared in last Wednesday’s edition of Liberation Daily and was subsequently reprinted by Xinhua. The article states that Tokyo has launched a new round of “diplomatic offensives” in Africa, beginning with last month’s visit to Tanzania by Japanese foreign minister Masahiko Koumura. During that visit, he unveiled a $260 million aid package to help African nations deal with conflicts and natural disasters. The piece reports that Japan’s new diplomatic targeting of Africa includes the hosting of two major international conferences later this year. The first of these is the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, to be held in Yokohama in May. The other is the G8 Hokkaido Summit in July. Host country Japan has invited 14 non-members to participate in the forum and fully half are from Africa. The Liberation Daily article further states that these actions are motivated by three factors. One is that, as a formidable voting bloc, Africa could help Japan achieve its goal of becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. This, in turn, would help transform the country from simply an economic power into a political one as well. The second factor is the continent’s vast energy resources. And finally, the article explains the push as an attempt to counter China’s growing influence in the region: