Italy has announced its formal withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative after joining the China-centered infrastructure and investment project in 2019.
The timing of the announcement that Rome won’t renew its BRI commitment is notable. It came only a day before the EU-China summit, which kicks off on Thursday. The summit will likely be more contentious than usual, with European leaders expected to push China on the treatment of EU firms amid discussions ...
Day: April 29, 2020
Report: Workers at a Private Chinese Mining Company in Zimbabwe Blinded From “Dodgy” COVID-19 Tests, Embassy Responds Defensively
The Chinese embassy in Harare is confronting a new public relations crisis related to a reportedly private Chinese gold mining company in Zimbabwe that allegedly used sub-standard COVID-19 testing equipment that injured, even blinded, an unknown number of local workers, according to the news ...
Fact-Checking The Claim That Chinese Medical Aid Received in Ghana Has Been Contaminated With COVID-19
Fake news and other rumors started to circulate widely on Ghanaian social media this month claiming that imported personal protective equipment from China was infected with COVID-19: “As long as they allowed materials from china which contains COVID-19 the number of ...
China’s Role in Africa Emerging as Key Conservative Talking Point in U.S. Push For COVID-19 Blame
Conservative U.S. politicians and their respective media are focusing more attention lately on Chinese COVID-19 aid in Africa to highlight what they perceive as Beijing's plan to use this current crisis to expand its influence on the continent and around the world.
China Uses a Mix of Old and New Public Diplomacy Techniques to Try and Sway Opinion in Africa on Guangzhou Crisis
Prior to the recent crisis in Guangzhou, China's public diplomacy momentum in Africa looked unstoppable. Dramatic images of planes filled with donations from Alibaba founder Jack Ma were everywhere on state-run media channels, local news outlets, and diplomatic Twitter accounts, and receiving enthusiastic responses from African leaders. ...
The Guardian: Anti-African Discrimination Persists in Guangzhou
Despite repeated assurances by the Chinese government and media that discrimination does not exist in Guangzhou or elsewhere in China, The Guardian newspaper reports that African nationals in the southern Chinese city continue to encounter difficulties that they contend is attributable to ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
Economics Versus Narrative in the China-Africa Relationship
As the COVID-19 crisis drags on, we're seeing the emergence of two contradictory trends. On the one hand, the crisis has revealed the relative fragility of public diplomacy ties between China and Africa. While high-level government-to-government diplomacy continues, the Guangzhou crisis ...