The purpose of the paper is to explore the real interests behind the existence of both the People's Republic of China and United States of America in Africa as in spite of the end of colonialism era -theoretically- in Africa, the international intervention still exists by other means than the old traditional one. Although the American war on terrorism since 2001 was an important tool for USA to increase its existence in the region; it paved the way for Chinese safe investment in the region and here come the main question of the study as: does the American war on terror led to increase or decrease in the Chinese existence in the region. To answer such question, the paper depends mainly upon the Role Theory ; to analyze the different roles played by USA and China in the region; also adapting the comparative approach to see the similarities and differences between both American and Chinese tools and real interests in the East African region mainly. It is also important to analyze the soft power of china in such region and know if the American war on terror was the only reason for such Chinese rise in Africa or there are other factors that led to such existence.