Cristina Nambendi receives training on farming techniques from an American-funded program in Angola. But when asked if she had ever heard of President Biden or knew much about the United States, she looked stumped.

克里斯蒂娜·南本迪在安哥拉接受美国资助项目的农业技术培训。但被问及她是否听说过拜登总统或对美国了解多少时，她显得很困惑。

When asked about China, however, her eyes lit up.

然而，被问及中国时，她的眼睛亮了起来。

“What I hear and what I see is that they are building tall buildings and houses, and they are selling stuff,” said Ms. Nambendi, 47, who has been farming corn and beans for more than two decades in this southern African nation.

“我听到和看到的是，他们正在建造大厦和住宅，他们在卖东西，”47岁的南本迪说。她在这个非洲南部国家种植玉米和豆类已有20多年。

Mr. Biden visits Angola on Monday in his only trip to Africa as president and what is scheduled to be his last foreign trip in office. He will be there to promote the Lobito Corridor, an 800-mile railway project funded in part by the United States that is meant to be his signature initiative on the continent and an answer to China’s outsize influence across many African nations.

拜登于周一访问安哥拉，这是他作为总统唯一一次访问非洲，也是他任期内最后一次出访。他将在当地推广“洛比托走廊”，这是一个约1300公里的铁路项目，部分资金由美国提供，将是他在非洲大陆的标志性倡议，也是对中国在许多非洲国家巨大影响力的回应。

United States officials say the corridor will encourage private investment in Angola and provide the West with better access to minerals necessary for electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies. Yet China has already spent decades funding projects in the country and around the continent, leaving some to wonder whether America can compete with its rival.

美国官员说，这条走廊将鼓励在安哥拉的私人投资，并为西方国家提供获得电动汽车和其他清洁能源技术所需矿产的更好途径。然而，中国已经花了几十年的时间，在该国和整个非洲大陆资助项目，这让一些人怀疑美国是否能与其对手竞争。

安哥拉本格拉的农场工人，这是连接安哥拉与刚果民主共和国和赞比亚的洛比托走廊的一部分。

Beijing has built ostentatious shopping malls and roads with Chinese logos and signs. Angolans say the Chinese have made life easier and created jobs. Rather than funding such development projects, the United States has sought to create conditions that will attract private investment, though there’s no telling how long that will take or when Angolans might see the benefits. Some are skeptical those benefits will come at all.

中国在这里修建了许多华丽的购物中心和带有中国标识与标志的道路。安哥拉人说，中国人让他们的生活更加便利，创造了就业机会。美国没有为这些发展项目提供资金，而是寻求创造条件，吸引私人投资，但不知道这需要多长时间，也不知道安哥拉人什么时候能看到好处。一些人对这些好处能否实现持怀疑态度。

“What is real is real,” said Edu Xiong, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Luanda, the capital. “To speak loudly is easy, but to make it real is another thing. Some people are talking about this corridor. ‘We will hire a lot of people.’ But we have not seen that.”

“真的就是真的，”首都罗安达的中国驻安哥拉大使馆发言人埃杜·熊（音）说。“高谈阔论是很容易的，但让它成为现实是另一回事。有人谈起这条走廊。‘我们会雇用很多人。’但我们还没有看到。”

Angola is the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. When it emerged from a devastating civil war in 2002, the government knocked on the doors of wealthy nations to ask for help rebuilding. America said no. China said yes. Angolans remember that.

安哥拉是撒哈拉以南非洲第二大石油生产国。2002年，正在从惨痛的内战恢复的安哥拉去敲富国的门，请求他们帮助重建家园。美国拒绝了。中国同意了。安哥拉人记得这件事。

Thus far, America’s only significant economic investment in the country has been in its oil and gas industries. Those who are critical of the corridor say oil and gas remain America’s true interest.

到目前为止，美国在安哥拉唯一的重大经济投资是在石油和天然气工业领域。对该走廊持批评态度的人说，石油和天然气仍然是美国的真正利益所在。

The election of Donald J. Trump has deepened uncertainty about how the United States will engage here, and there is no shortage of skepticism about what America is really after.

特朗普的当选加深了美国将如何参与当地事务的不确定性，人们对美国的真正目的也不乏怀疑。

“Sometimes they say, ‘We do care about agriculture as well,’” Beto Pinheiro, a 48-year-old farmer in the coastal city of Benguela, said of American officials. “But at the end of the day, it’s only petrol and minerals.”

“有时他们会说，‘我们也关心农业，’”在沿海城市本格拉，48岁的农民贝托·皮涅罗谈到美国官员时说。“但归根结底，他们只关心汽油和矿。”

Despite the skepticism among Angolans, the country’s president, João Lourenço, has bullishly pivoted toward the United States in recent years, in some cases spurning traditional allies like China and Russia to do so.

尽管安哥拉人持怀疑态度，但该国总统若昂·洛伦索近年来还是坚定地转向了美国，在某些情况下，甚至不惜抛弃中国和俄罗斯等传统盟友。

安哥拉本格拉省洛比托港的景色。

Since Mr. Lourenço took office in 2017, he has met with Mr. Biden twice. Rather than selecting a Chinese company to oversee the Lobito railway, his government chose a consortium of European companies, even though it was China that rebuilt the century-old rail line after the Angolan civil war. Mr. Lourenço has also turned to the United States to help modernize his country’s aging military, which has historically been aligned with Russia.

自2017年洛伦索上任以来，他与拜登两次会晤。他的政府没有选择一家中国公司来负责洛比托铁路，而是选了一个由欧洲公司组成的财团，尽管是中国在安哥拉内战后重建了这条有百年历史的铁路线。洛伦索还求助美国帮助该国老化的军队实现现代化，尽管其军方历来与俄罗斯结盟。

Many Angolans still harbor resentment toward the United States for not supporting its fight against Portuguese colonizers. The United States also supported the opponents of Angola’s largest anticolonial movement, which had embraced communism, during the civil war that came after independence in 1975.

许多安哥拉人仍然对美国心怀怨恨，因为美国没有支持该国反抗葡萄牙殖民者的斗争。1975年安哥拉独立后的内战期间，美国支持的力量反对该国最大的反殖民运动，该运动采纳了共产主义主张。

Mr. Lourenço, in an interview, said Angola should be more like Japan or Vietnam, countries that were once at war with the United States but had moved on and now welcomed American investment.

洛伦索在接受采访时表示，安哥拉应该更像日本或越南，这两个国家曾经与美国交战，但已经放下过去，现在欢迎美国的投资。

“Angola also could be one more of those countries that have turned the page,” he said. “We joined the market economy, and today there is no country in the world that has joined the market economy without having good relations with the U.S.”

 “安哥拉也可以成为翻过这一页的国家之一，”他说。“我们加入了市场经济，今天，世界上没有一个国家在加入市场经济后不与美国保持良好关系。”

Critics have argued that the Lobito Corridor is another example of foreign powers stripping African nations of their resources. The line runs from Angola’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to the port city of Lobito, on the Atlantic Ocean. From there, minerals can be more easily shipped to the United States, Europe and other countries.

批评者认为洛比托走廊是外国势力剥夺非洲国家资源的又一例证。这条铁路线从安哥拉与刚果民主共和国的边境一直延伸到大西洋上港口城市洛比托。从那里，矿产可以更容易地运往美国、欧洲和其他国家。

China is far ahead of the United States in its access to critical minerals in Africa. But the corridor could reduce that advantage, which may appeal to Mr. Trump, said J. Peter Pham, an Africa policy expert who worked in the first Trump administration.

在获得非洲关键矿产方面，中国远远领先于美国。但曾在特朗普第一届政府任职的非洲政策专家J·彼得·范说，该走廊可能会削弱这一优势，因此可能引起特朗普的兴趣。

“It’s in no one’s interest that any one country lock up the supply chain,” Mr. Pham said. “If you want to make America great again and rebuild the industrial base, you’re not going to do that without critical minerals.”

“任何一个国家封锁供应链都不符合任何人的利益，”范说。“如果你想恢复美国伟大荣光，重建工业基础，没有关键的矿产，你将无法做到这一点。”

克里斯蒂娜·南本迪在家中。她是美国支持安哥拉女性农民项目的参与者。

Mr. Biden has pitched the corridor as a catalyst that will help Angola diversify its economy. It will entice manufacturers to build factories along the railway because they can use it to ship goods, U.S. officials say. And it won’t bury the country in debt. (Since 2002, Angola has accumulated more than $42 billion in Chinese debt, more than any other African nation.)

拜登称这条走廊是帮助安哥拉实现经济多样化的催化剂。美国官员说，这将吸引制造商在铁路沿线建厂，因为他们可以利用铁路运输货物。而且它不会让安哥拉陷入债务之中。（自2002年以来，安哥拉累积了超过420亿美元的中国债务，比其他任何非洲国家都多。）

U.S. officials say the corridor could allow small, subsistence farmers to ship their harvests overseas, rather than selling them at roadside markets as most currently do. The United States has also introduced programs that teach agricultural best practices, like the one helping Ms. Nambendi in Cubal, a village that the Lobito railway cuts through.

美国官员们表示，这条走廊可以让自给自足的小农户将收成运往海外，而不是像目前大多数人那样在路边市场出售。美国还引进了一些传授最佳农业实践的项目，在洛比托铁路途经的库巴尔村帮助了南本迪的项目就是其中之一。

Women in the program said they had learned how to produce their own fertilizer and properly space seeds when planting. They were also taught to read and write so they could run a business.

参加这个项目的女人们说，她们学会了如何自己生产肥料，并在播种时适当地将种子隔开。她们还学会了读写，这样就可以经营自己的生意。

Ms. Nambendi, a mother of seven, said she earned so much in her first harvest since joining the program that she was able to buy a goat, invest in her modest house constructed from mud blocks and build an outdoor, wood-burning oven to support her other business, baking bread.

南本迪是七个孩子的母亲，她说，自从加入这个项目以来，她第一次收获农作物就赚了很多钱，让她能够买一只山羊，投资建造她用泥砖盖起来的简陋房子，并建造了一个户外木柴烤箱，支持她的另一项生意——烤面包。

These are small inroads that American officials hope will add up.

这些都是美国官员希望累积起来的小进展。

It’s important that Angolans understand these U.S.-backed initiatives are supporting them, said William Butterfield, the representative to Angola of the United States Agency for International Development, which funds the program.

为该项目提供资金的美国国际开发署驻安哥拉代表威廉·巴特菲尔德说，重要的是安哥拉人要明白，美国支持的这些举措是在支持他们。

南本迪家的孩子们。自从加入这个项目以来，她靠着第一次农作物收获赚了很多钱，得以买下一只山羊。

“It helps us create the good will that’s necessary to do a lot of our other business,” such as trade and defense, he said.

他说：“这有助于我们营造善意的氛围，这是我们开展其他许多业务所必需的，”比如贸易和国防。

Some Angolans are starting to take note.

一些安哥拉人开始注意到这一点。

Antonio Andrade, the deputy administrator for Cubal, stood on the farm where the women received their training, envisioning a future in which America’s efforts led to neat rows of crops resembling large commercial farms, factories that produce fruit juice and corn flour and slaughterhouses for cattle.

库巴尔的副行政官安东尼奥·安德拉德站在女人们接受培训的农场上，展望着这样的未来：在美国的努力下，一排排整齐的庄稼如同大型商业农场，还有生产果汁和玉米粉的工厂，以及牛的屠宰场。

“America has a name to protect,” he said. “They don’t just go for quick profit.”

“美国要保守自己的名声，”他说。“他们不只是为了快速获利。”

Along Via Expressa, a busy highway that cuts through Luanda, billboards with Chinese characters advertise Beijing’s presence. “Tough world, tough equipment,” read an ad for LiuGong heavy machinery. China City, a massive, open-air mall, occupies several blocks along the highway.

在途经罗安达的繁忙高速公路Via Expressa上，随处可见写着汉字的广告牌，宣传着北京方面的存在。柳工中国重型机械的一则广告写道：“艰难的世界，坚固的设备。”中国城是一个大型露天购物中心，占据了高速公路沿线的几个街区。

But with economic challenges at home, China has decreased its investment in Africa in recent years. Many African nations are also less willing to take on more Chinese debt. Private Chinese entrepreneurs are turning to industries like green energy, mining and manufacturing. Some also say they, too, could reap the benefits of the Lobito Corridor.

但由于国内经济面临挑战，中国近年来减少了对非洲的投资。许多非洲国家也不太愿意承担更多中国债务。中国民营企业家正转向绿色能源、矿业和制造业等行业。一些人表示，他们也可以从洛比托走廊中获益。

“This Lobito project is a very good project for Angola’s development,” said Zheng Gang, a Chinese entrepreneur who has been doing business in Angola for 18 years. “Angola’s economy grows, which means that we will have more opportunities.”

“洛比托项目对安哥拉的发展来说是一个非常好的项目，”在安哥拉经商18年的中国企业家郑刚（音）说。“安哥拉的经济在增长，这意味着我们将有更多的机会。”

副行政官安东尼奥·安德拉德在库巴尔火车站，库巴尔是洛比托走廊的一部分。