Day: March 26, 2020
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India’s Response to China’s Ascendance in Africa
Written together with Emma Mawdsley, Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at Cambridge Univeristy In the hugely popular movie, Wolf Warrior II, the arch-villain confronting our muscular hero, Leng Feng, is a white man called ‘Big Daddy’. The ...
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Egypt is the Newest Front in the U.S.-China Battle Over Huawei and Chinese Tech in Africa
The United States brought its campaign against Huawei to Egypt as part of a global effort to promote Washington's new "Clean Network" initiative that aims to build an alternative to China's dominance in the international telecom networking market. ...
Ghanaian Presidential Candidate Doesn’t See the Justice in Locking Up Locals for Illegal Mining When Chinese Are Released
Opposition National Democratic Congress presidential candidate John Mahama scolded the government for releasing Chinese nationals caught engaging in illegal artisanal mining (locally known as galamsey) while locking up locals for doing the same thing. “Our youth have been imprisoned for their involvement in ...
Cobalt Prices Slump Even as China Ramps Up Imports and the U.S. Declares National Emergency Over Critical Materials Supply Chains
Neither China's recent cobalt buying binge nor a declaration of a state of emergency by U.S. President Donald Trump about securing the supply chains for strategic minerals, including cobalt, have been enough to boost the price of the chemical element, which is used to make batteries for ...
With a Golden Boot on Her Foot, Barbara Banda Returns Home From China as a Star
20-year old Women's Chinese League sensation Barbara Banda returned home to Zambia last week where she was greeted as a genuine star after winning the Golden Boot, the league's most valuable player award. Banda trained with the Lusaka Dynamos Ladies FC as ...
Let’s Call It… China’s Won the Vaccine Diplomacy Contest
The White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows admitted this weekend what many of us have known for a long time: that the United States has all but given up in the fight against COVID-19. “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told CNN's ...
China’s Input Ensured the Elimination of Schistosomiasis from Zanzibar’s Pemba Island
The WHO and the Tanzanian government have heralded a Chinese project to combat schistosomiasis in Pemba island, Zanzibar, which ran from 2016 until this year. Its successful implementation of good practices like broad-based cooperation and its flexible project design to accommodate local specificities might have received more ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: In Forging Closer Ties With China, Iran Wants to Avoid Past Mistakes
As per usual, the articles published by the wider Mediterranean region’s media offer interesting insights into how China is perceived. Among the most valuable ones, we found commentaries published in Iran that further shed light on the local perception of the much-discussed new cooperation agreement between Beijing ...
Nigeria’s Dreams and Nightmares
Earlier this month, the Nigerian opposition politician Peter Obi delivered the 60th Founder’s Day lecture at the University of Nigeria. In his talk he took a swipe at the incumbent government’s handling of the current economic crisis, saying that instead of taking loans from China, Nigeria ...
Transsion’s Transgressions in Africa
Transsion has long been the pride of China's private sector engagement in Africa. It's conquered the African mobile phone market by providing affordable devices that include a number of fantastic features customized specifically for local consumers. Its suite of brands including Tecno, ...
Tecno Dismisses Malware Allegations, Saying It’s Old News
The Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno is rebutting new accusations that its W2 phones came pre-installed with malware. In a statement sent to the Nigerian tech news website Silicon Nigeria on Tuesday, Tecno claimed that the Triada malware was first discovered in April 2018 ...
The COVID-19 PPE Donated by the Jack Ma Foundation Has Turned Into a Complete and Total Mess in Kenya
It's been six months since the first shipment of personal protective equipment and other materials donated by the Jack Ma Foundation arrived in Kenya and still, only 24 of the 81 infrared thermometers have been distributed, according to the Ministry of Health. ...
Protestors Rally Against Sinohydro for Polluting Water Supply in Eastern Kenya
Protests turned violent this week in eastern Kenya's Kitui County, where local activists blocked the road to a Sinohydro construction site where they claim the Chinese contractor is polluting the local water supply. Sinohydro is building the new Kibwezi-Kitui–Migwani Road that will ...
Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe Gets Into Media Spat Over the Return of a Controversial Diamond Mine
In a highly unusual move, the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe published a detailed rebuttal on the Bulawayo24.com website against allegations that they were involved in the return of the controversial Anjin diamond mine. The spat began on Sunday when ...
Nigeria’s New Standard Gauge Railway Trains Are on Their Way From China
The Chinese state-owned contractor building the rail cars for the new Abuja-Kaduna Railway and Lagos-Ibadan Railway SGR lines proudly announced the trains have started their journey from China to Nigeria. But not everyone's happy about the news. A lot of people ...
China and the Future of Energy in Africa
China's played a pivotal role in financing a sizable portion of African energy infrastructure in recent years. But now amid the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 and a sharp downturn in Chinese support for energy projects in Africa and elsewhere ...
COVID-19 Crisis Sparks New Drive in Africa to Reduce Dependency on Chinese Imports and Boost Local Manufacturing
The disruption to global trade due to the COVID-19 outbreak and high levels of dependency on imported Chinese goods are prompting policymakers in a growing number of African countries to develop new initiatives that aim to boost local manufacturing. Uganda Wants ...
See What Happens When You Start to Talk Openly and Honestly About Chinese Debt?
Last week the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) published a refreshingly simple and transparent summary of the country's borrowing from China that included detailed information on how much the country owes, the terms and what the money's being used for. This is not something we've ...
“At Long Last, We Now Know How Much Poor Country Governments Owe China”
The team at the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C, has been poring through the treasure trove of information contained in the World Bank's newly released International Debt Statistics database. "For decades, researchers have ...
Africa Practice: Africa is Not Facing a Debt Crisis but Some African Countries Certainly Are
The London-based consultancy Africa Practice published a new infographic on Twitter that highlights the wide disparities between different countries' debt-to-GDP ratio across the continent.
South Africa FM: Debt is the Hippo Eating the Next Generation’s Inheritance
South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni issued a dire warning to the parliament on Wednesday about the country's debt crisis. With South Africa's debt-to-GDP levels breaking new records this year and forecast to grow to 82% in the next few months, Minister Mboweni compared the debt ...
Mike Pompeo Accuses China of Issuing “Empty Promises and Misleading Propaganda” in Africa
The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a blistering critique of China's COVID-19 diplomacy in Africa. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Secretary Pompeo denounced Chinese Xi Jinping for failing to provide "real transparency and accountability for the PRC’s role in ...
Chinese Workers in Angola Stage Protest to Go Home
University of London PhD candidate Hangwei Li shared an image of a small group of Chinese workers protesting outside of the Chinese embassy in Angola where they called on the government for help to send them home. Li explained ...
KTN’s Mike Gitonga: “The SGR Has Had Scandals Right From the Word Go”
KTN News presenter Mike Gitonga discussed The Standard's reporting on the escalating SGR scandal in his morning "Press Review" segment on Monday. Gigtonga cited years of "fraud" and "malpractice" allegedly committed by the Chinese operator CRBC and its subsidiary AfriStar.
Kenya Railways Dismisses Efforts to Cancel Contract With the Company’s Chinese Partner
Kenya Railways downplayed reports that it will be forced to cancel its contract with the Chinese-run AfriStar, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned enterprise China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), that currently operates the country's Standard Gauge Railway, according to The Standard newspaper.
Zambia Killings Prompt Online Debate Over Compassion and Discrimination
Frustration emerged among some Chinese netizens about the apparent lack of any African response to the murder of three Chinese nationals in Zambia that happened on Sunday. Twitter user @CaliCali2000 started the discussion that then generated considerable discussion
Chinese Embassy in Zambia: Murder of Three Chinese Nationals Was “Vicious and Appalling”
The Chinese embassy in Zambia responded on Monday to the murder of three of its nationals, calling the attack "vicious and appalling." According to local law enforcement, the assailants, two men, and a woman, posed as customers ...
Kenya Star Newspaper Fact Checks Allegation China Sending COVID-19 Infected Mattresses to Africa
Quick update on the story we told you about yesterday regarding the fake news posts circulating around the African internet warning people that China is sending mattresses and clothing infected with COVID-19 from Wuhan and other cities. The fact-checking team at ...
A Simple Twitter Typo Sparked Accusations That Zimbabwe Officials Made Off With Jack Ma’s Donated COVID-19 Safety Gear
Someone on either the social media team at the Chinese embassy in Harare or the Ministry of Health in Harare made a critical typo that prompted immediate speculation that Zimbabwean officials had fleeced the COVID-19 protective suits donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.
Africa’s Knocking on the Wrong Door for Debt Relief
The whole discussion going on today over calls from African leaders to write off or reschedule their countries' debts feels completely disconnected from reality. For some reason, they're focusing all of their attention on the G20 leaders summit that's going to take place today and comments ...
COVID-19 Expected to Cause Widespread Economic Disruption in Africa
Editor's Note: although Africa, so far, has been spared from the health consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the economic impact is already being felt across the continent and is expected to have severe repercussions in most countries through reduced export earnings, higher borrowing costs, and ...
Early Warning Signs Indicate Coronavirus Crisis Could Provoke Anti-China Backlash Among Some Policymakers in Africa
Chinese officials would be well-advised to pay close attention to the Twitter account of Kenyan Senator Ledama Olekina who last week Tweeted to his 73,000+ followers an angry conflation of the debt and coronavirus issues. If the virus makes ...
BBC Interviews African Students Trapped in the Wuhan Quarantine
There's been surprisingly little social media content published by the hundreds, likely thousands of African students who are trapped in the massive quarantine zone in and around Wuhan in China's Hebei province. BBC Africa managed to make contact with an African ...
Pangolins and Other African Wildlife Could be Among the Only Beneficiaries of This Crisis
The outbreak of coronavirus is being traced back to one of Wuhan's many live animal markets that sell a variety of wildlife including snakes, turtles, and cicadas, guinea pigs, bamboo rats, badgers, hedgehogs, otters, palm civets, even wolf cubs. Now that this ...
Africa’s Oil and Tourism Sectors to be Impacted First by Coronavirus Outbreak in China
Although most of the attention in Africa about the coronavirus is appropriately focused on what can be done to prevent the virus from spreading, there are growing concerns over the potential economic impact across the continent -- particularly since China is the largest trading partner for the ...
Across the Continent, African Authorities on High Alert for Coronavirus
African health authorities across the continent are now actively screening passengers at key ports of entries, particularly international airports, to screen passengers for the flu-like symptoms that highlight the deadly coronavirus that has infected thousands in China and killed several dozen people.
Photos by BAY ISMOYO / AFP
In 2025, China remained a top-three source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Southeast Asia, following only the U.S. and intra-Southeast Asian flows. While much of the investment falls under the umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is important to distinguish between broad private investment and state-led ...
Kenya Star Newspaper Fact Checks Allegation China Sending COVID-19 Infected Mattresses to Africa
Quick update on the story we told you about yesterday regarding the fake news posts circulating around the African internet warning people that China is sending mattresses and clothing infected with COVID-19 from Wuhan and other cities. The fact-checking team at ...
A Simple Twitter Typo Sparked Accusations That Zimbabwe Officials Made Off With Jack Ma’s Donated COVID-19 Safety Gear
Someone on either the social media team at the Chinese embassy in Harare or the Ministry of Health in Harare made a critical typo that prompted immediate speculation that Zimbabwean officials had fleeced the COVID-19 protective suits donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.
Africa’s Knocking on the Wrong Door for Debt Relief
The whole discussion going on today over calls from African leaders to write off or reschedule their countries' debts feels completely disconnected from reality. For some reason, they're focusing all of their attention on the G20 leaders summit that's going to take place today and comments ...