Day: January 14, 2020
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Chinese Development Finance is Changing. We Just Don’t Know Exactly How.
A lively discussion broke out over the weekend about Boston University's new Chinese overseas development finance database and whether the dramatic plunge in lending that purportedly took place last year is accurate. Some scholars are suggesting that BU's data
Related Posts
Researchers Challenge Boston University’s “Porous Dataset” That Purportedly Showed a Plunge in Chinese Overseas Lending
A pair of researchers from Central Asia are questioning the findings of a new dataset produced by Boston University's Global Development Policy Center (GDPC) which purportedly shows a sharp drop in Chinese overseas lending. Among the key ...
Report: China Lacks Comprehensive Debt Relief Strategy
A new report by the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at the Central University of Economics and Finance in Beijing appears to echo some of the same themes that emerged from Boston University's Overseas Chinese Lending Database, specifically related to an apparent sharp decline ...
Chinese Debt Relief in Africa Definitely Helps in the Short Term, But in the Long Term? Hard to Tell Says New Analysis
Although China's debt relief efforts are often downplayed by many of its critics in the U.S. and EU, the fact is that Beijing's done more to renegotiate and cancel loans to African countries during the current financial crisis than it has previously:
Chinese Private Sector Engagement in Africa is Going to be Much More Important in 2021 And Beyond
Over the past several weeks, Chinese officials have convened a series of high profile forums with key African stakeholders in what appears to be an effort to lay the groundwork for next year's triennial Forum on China Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC) that is scheduled to take place ...
This Graphic Shows the Huge Diplomatic Opportunity For China If It Can Provide Africa With Sufficient Supplies of C19 Vaccines
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Africa is going to be the last region around the world to secure sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to innoculate a majority of its population, according to data from the Economist Intelligence Unit. John Nkengasong, ...
Zambia’s Debt Demand Shows Limits of China’s Checkbook Diplomacy
Zambia’s request for blanket debt-service suspension from creditors edges the country closer to default and highlights the limitations of China’s debt diplomacy. The government has decided to ask all external creditors to agree to debt service suspension on the same terms, ...
G20 Finance Ministers Expected to Approve Multi-Billion Dollar Debt Freeze Extension For the World’s Poorest Countries
Finance ministers and central bankers from China, the United States, and other G20 countries are expected to release a communiqué on Wednesday, according to Reuters, which will extend the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) beyond the end of this year. It's not clear, though, ...
The World Bank Has a Cool New Interactive Tool Showing How Much DSSI-Eligible Countries Pay to Service Their Debts
The World Bank released a new interactive database that details how much each of the DSSI-eligible countries will pay in 2020 and 2021 to service their bilateral debts. As the world's preeminent bilateral creditor, it's not surprising that the largest boxes on the graph represent China's outsized ...
With or Without Debt Relief, Most Chinese Contractors in Africa Still Benefit
China has come under intense criticism from stakeholders in Africa, the U.S. and Europe for its refusal to enact an across-the-board debt relief plan for African borrowers. Instead, Beijing has opted to negotiate bilaterally and reach debt settlement agreements separately. Marketwatch ...
How China Uses “Soft Law” To Engage Countries in Its Belt and Road Initiative
Since a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or a so-called "cooperation agreement" is not legally binding, many U.S. and European stakeholders often shrug when China announces that it's signed one of these agreements with countries along its Belt and Road Initiative. That's ...
The Head of One of China’s Major Foreign Policy Think Tanks Proposes 4 Ways to Revive Slumping China-Africa Trade
Two-way China-Africa trade dropped by almost 20% to just $82 billion in the first half of the year due to lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. With China's economy recovering well, it's possible that some of those losses will be made up in Q3 ...
In One of His First Public Appearances as China’s New Ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong Reaffirms Beijing’s Commitment to African Infrastructure Development
China's newly-arrived envoy to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, made one of his first public appearances on Tuesday in a webinar organized by the South African Institute of International Affairs. Speaking from the embassy in Pretoria, Ambassador Chen spoke for about thirty minutes at the beginning of the ...
Who Exactly is the Chinese Embassy in Liberia Trying to Reach by Publishing a Tweet in Chinese With a WeChat Link?
China's ambassador to Liberia, Ren Yisheng, made a pro forma visit this week to meet the new foreign minister, Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and, as is now customary, the embassy published a Tweet about the meeting. But what's unusual is ...
Africa’s Major Economies Sinking Under the Weight of Surging Debt, Reduced Trade, and Massive New Social Welfare Costs
The economic fundamentals in a growing number of Africa's major economies are showing signs of rapid deterioration amid the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly every week there's a new downgrade, analyst warning, or economic indicator that points to an increasingly dire situation ...
China’s New Ambassador to Kenya Makes the Rounds
Given China's extensive involvement in building transportation infrastructure in Kenya, it's not surprising that Chief Secretary James Macharia was high on the list of key cabinet stakeholders to meet, as the newly-arrived Chinese ambassador, Zhou Pingjiang, settles into his new role. ...
The Chinese Embassy in Harare Responds to Zimbabwe’s National Park Mining Ban
The Chinese embassy in Harare responded late last week to the Zimbabwean government's surprise decision to ban all mining activities in the country's five national parks and in most river beds. Although Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa did not mention China by name when announcing the ...
A New China-Ethiopia Venture is Now Producing COVID-19 Test Kits
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured a new Chinese-Ethiopian joint venture on Sunday that will be able to produce up to 10 million COVID-19 test kits per year. The new test kits will be used to help mitigate the spread of the virus domestically and will ...
More Unsubstantiated Reports of Chinese Troop Deployments to Africa
Longstanding fears of Chinese troop deployments to Namibia resurfaced last week when a legislator claimed, without evidence, that 3,500 Chinese soldiers are currently in the country. Defense Minister Peter Hafeni Vilho didn't help matters when he refused to comment on the ...
Chinese Port-building Along the BRI: “There’s a Lot More Than Meets the Eye”
Daniel R. Russel and Blake Berger, two scholars at the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute, have published a new report that looks at the broad security implications of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Although Chinese officials have long maintained that ...
Taiwan’s New Rep Office in Somaliland Opens Twitter Account
If you'd like to follow what's going on at Taiwan's newly-opened representative office in the Horn of Africa in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland, you can do so on their equally new Twitter account. Follow "Taiwan In Somaliland" ...
Developing Countries Have Had Enough of the U.S.-China Feud
The prevailing narrative among large swathes of the conservative media in the United States is that Washington and Beijing are now engaged in a new "Cold War." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in fact, suggests that the current confrontation with China is actually even ...
COVID, International Cooperation, and China-Africa: What Next?
Compared to global COVID-19 hotspots such as Latin America, the United States, and India, African countries have – on average – fared relatively well thus far in the pandemic. However, cases are on the rise, with states such as South Africa and Egypt particularly badly hit, ...
A Critical Look at Chinese Agricultural Engagement in Africa
The Chinese take a very different approach to their agricultural development programs in Africa compared to those of traditional donors. Rather a conventional aid model, China instead built dozens of centers in countries across the continent that bring together Chinese technical ...
Neither a Pandemic nor Economic Crisis Appears to be Slowing China’s Infrastructure Building Spree in Africa
Regular readers will have noticed the almost daily announcements of Chinese infrastructure projects across Africa. While quantifying all these new contracts is a challenge, it does appear that China's state-run construction companies' African operations have been quite resilient during the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent economic crisis. ...
Twitter Thread: Nigeria’s Covert Military Procurement Deals With China
The widely-read military blogger Defense News Nigeria explained in a multipart Twitter thread published yesterday why Abuja felt it necessary to negotiate a series of covert military procurement deals with Beijing. The thread explains how U.S. export controls on attack drones ...
Why Africa’s Oil Exporters Should be Very Concerned About the Proposed China-Iran Mega-Deal
Iran and China are reportedly nearing completion of a wide-ranging oil-for-infrastructure deal that would pave the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investment in Iran's energy, telecommunications and financial service sectors in exchange for a 25-year supply of oil.
“Blitzscaling” in African Markets: Opera’s Opay Optimizes Its Operations
Recently, OPay, the Chinese-backed super app operating in Nigeria made an announcement that garnered plenty of attention. Best known for its lime-green ‘Uber for motorcycle taxis’ service, the company, which is backed by Softbank and Meituan Dianping (China’s other super ...
Wang Yi Works the Phones With African Foreign Ministers
In another sign that Beijing is paying more attention to COVID-19 in Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi appears to be increasing the frequency of his outreach to his African counterparts. This week alone he held two phone conferences with ministers from Angola and Ethiopia.
This Chart Shows What African Union and UN Negotiators Are Desperately Trying to Avoid
Interest rates on Zambian 10-year bonds have more than doubled since January to an astonishing 38%. So, it's not surprising there's growing speculation that Lusaka will have no choice but to default on its $3 billion of bond holdings. ...
Al Jazeera: African Countries Turn to China for Debt Relief
Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Adow reports from Nairobi on how rapidly deteriorating economic conditions in East Africa due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak is prompting more governments in the region to look to China for help... at least in terms of repaying their debts.
Paris Club Chief Says She’s Confident China Will Join International Debt Relief Effort for Developing Countries
The Chair of the Paris Club of wealthy donor states, Odile Renaud-Basso, is increasingly confident that China will join the broader international effort to provide debt relief to countries facing high levels of economic distress. In Africa, China has an ...
African COVID-19 Aid Re-Emerges as a Top Chinese Foreign Policy Priority
China's once again ramping up its COVID-19 donation diplomacy efforts in Africa. After dialing down their efforts for a couple of weeks, the pace of announcements of new medical team deployments, PPE donations and charitable contributions from Chinese private sector stakeholders have all gone up considerably this ...
The African Migrant Crisis in Guangzhou Emerges as New Point of Contention Between the U.S. and China
The United States government further escalated its denunciations of China for reported instances of discrimination and xenophobia against African migrants in Guangzhou. Washington's top diplomat for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy, posted his views on Monday and described the situation over the weekend in Guangzhou ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Moves to Calm Tensions With African Diplomats Over the Recent Crisis in Guangzhou
Diplomatic tensions between China and a number of African governments and institutions appear to have considerably following the crisis over the weekend in Guangzhou where African migrants and residents were forcibly removed from their homes and hotels. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang ...
A Western (read US) Role in What’s Happening in Guangzhou Emerges as a Key Chinese Message Point
One of the key themes to emerge from China's rebuttal to well-documented instances of maltreatment of African migrants in Guangzhou centers around the role that Western governments are playing to foment discord in China and in its ties with African countries. ...
View From Beijing: How the COVID-19 Crisis is Impacting China-Africa Trade
So far, Africa has been spared from an outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 that has killed more than a thousand people in China and infected tens of thousands across the country. But now, more and more, the impact from a contagion ...
Debunking the China-Africa “Debt Trap” Meme
Swedish scholar Johanna Malm is one of the world's leading researchers on China-DR Congo relations and now joins the growing number of experts who refute the still widely-held China "debt trap" narrative. In a recent interview published by the government-run Swedish Institute, Dr. Malm explained that there's ...
3 Reasons Why the “China Debt Trap” Meme is Flawed
The "debt trap" meme lives. It just keeps going and going and going. It doesn't seem to matter to China's critics that there isn't actually any evidence to support the assertion that China is using massive, unsustainable loans to poor developing countries in a bid to seize ...
China is Financing an Electric Power Building Boom in Africa
African policymakers up and down the continent will all tell you that one issue, more than any other, stands apart as the key priority in 2020: electricity. Without additional electric power capacity, both generation and distribution, none of their ambitious industrialization plans will be possible. Industries need ...
Iranian women hold portraits of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the funerals of security forces personnel killed in recent protests in Tehran on January 14, 2026. Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP
By Andrea Ghiselli More than a hundred children at a girls’ primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, are reported dead. Missiles and drones are striking targets across Israel as well as the Gulf, from Kuwait to Oman, with the barrage not limited to military ...
Debunking the China-Africa “Debt Trap” Meme
Swedish scholar Johanna Malm is one of the world's leading researchers on China-DR Congo relations and now joins the growing number of experts who refute the still widely-held China "debt trap" narrative. In a recent interview published by the government-run Swedish Institute, Dr. Malm explained that there's ...
3 Reasons Why the “China Debt Trap” Meme is Flawed
The "debt trap" meme lives. It just keeps going and going and going. It doesn't seem to matter to China's critics that there isn't actually any evidence to support the assertion that China is using massive, unsustainable loans to poor developing countries in a bid to seize ...
China is Financing an Electric Power Building Boom in Africa
African policymakers up and down the continent will all tell you that one issue, more than any other, stands apart as the key priority in 2020: electricity. Without additional electric power capacity, both generation and distribution, none of their ambitious industrialization plans will be possible. Industries need ...