20世纪60年代中期,为摆脱传统殖民主义和南部非洲种族主义的束缚,坦桑尼亚和赞比亚两国提出了修建铁路的计划,并得到中国政府的支持和大力援助。当时,中美处于冷战对抗最为尖锐的时期,美国担心中国借援建铁路获得政治利益,担心中国借机向非洲输出革命,更担心共产主义在非洲扩大影响。为此,美国政府先后使用“拖延”和以大北公路“替代”坦赞铁路的策略,企图阻止中国援建坦赞铁路,以实现将中国阻隔于南部非洲之外的目的。 In the mid-1960s, Tanzania and Zambia proposed a plan to build a railway to get rid of the traditional colonialism and racism in southern Africa, with the support and assistance of the Chinese government. At that time, China and the United States were in the sharpest period of the Cold War confrontation. The United States feared that China would benefit from the political benefit of using the Aid-built Railway, fearing that China might take the opportunity to export a revolution to Africa and be more worried about the expansion of communism in Africa. To this end, the U.S. government has successively adopted the strategy of “procrastinating” and using the Dabei Highway “instead of” the Tanzan Railway in an attempt to stop China from aiding the Tanzania-Zambia Railway so as to achieve the objective of blocking China from being located in southern Africa.