China is “trying to replicate” specific USAID programs in Africa the Trump administration cut, according to the commander of U.S. Africa Command.

The Trump administration effectively gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development as a part of its governmentwide attempt to reduce the size of the federal government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the State Department decided to cut “83% of the programs at USAID,” and folded the remaining programs into the department.

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Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of U.S. European Command, and Gen. Michael Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, addressed the void left by the U.S. across Africa during their testimony in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

“There’s a number of programs that we see that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to replicate. They can’t do what we do. They can’t do what we do in PEPFAR, that extended the life span of a number of Africans by 20 years,” Langley said, referencing the two-decade-old program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which is credited with saving more than 25 million people.

“They’re trying to replicate that. They’re trying to match what we do. So that’s what we’re seeing as we start to fold in the capabilities of USAID under [the] State Department,” he said, adding, “Those capabilities are needed for the U.S. to maintain a strategic advantage over the Chinese Communist Party.”

More than a decade ago, China launched its Belt and Road Initiative, which is its development strategy to create foreign partnerships through infrastructure agreements that benefit Beijing primarily, often at the expense of the nation that makes the deal.

Langley said he couldn’t come up with a single African country that was better off having started a partnership with China.

Last month, a Chinese-owned mine in Zambia was responsible for an acid spill that contaminated a major river that Langley said affects five million people downstream.

“They want to be the global hegemon now, Chairman Xi [Jinping] has put out a 2049 plan, but they want to get there earlier. So there in lies the importance that we engage and show assurance actions, but we just harbor the facts, but we don’t own the narrative. That’s being drowned out by the CCP and their campaign plans to influence civil society, influence the militaries.”

The State Department’s decision to cut hundreds of USAID contracts, leaving former recipients looking for alternative partners, seemingly contradicts the Pentagon’s stance on the threat China poses.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memo last month that called for the military to prioritize preparing to win a possible war against China by “assuming risk” in Europe and other parts of the world, according to the Washington Post.

The guidance, which traces back to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, calls for the U.S. to pressure allies in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia to spend more on defense to deter other adversaries like Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The Pentagon, which has not been immune from the government’s cuts, has reportedly discussed the possibility of merging U.S. Africa Command and U.S. European Command. Such a merge would put more than fifty countries within the new combatant command’s area of responsibility.

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Langley called such a merge a “daunting task,” while Cavoli said it would be a “stretch” and “would have to be studied very, very closely.”

“The challenges in Africa have increased exponentially over the last 10 years, not just the terrorism that was there during the previous period of the last 20 years but the increasing activity of Russia and China,” Cavoli said. “There are a lot of problems there.”