Day: May 13, 2020
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What Role Will China Play in Joe Biden’s Africa Policy?
After a tumultuous 3.5 years, a wide array of African stakeholders are hoping for a "reset" in Washington's ties with the continent following the election of President-elect Joe Biden. Specifically, they're hoping the United States will re-engage multilateral institutions like the ...
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The Collectivity Question
Is unrelenting grimness more palatable if it is also instructive? Africa's current debt crisis will soon provide an answer. The continent's slide into debt distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been very revealing of Africa's position in the world. Despite ...
China’s Foreign Ministry Rebuts Critics of its Debt Relief Strategy in Africa
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian pointedly rejected accusations that Beijing is not doing enough to help alleviate the worsening debt crisis in Africa. Speaking to reporters at the ministry's regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Zhao refuted the suggestion that China is ...
Ghana’s Finance Minister: “Africa Is Not Asking for Charity. It Is Asking for Equity.”
Ghana's Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta issued an urgent call for action on African debt relief in a column published in the Financial Times on Monday that also included stinging rebukes of the United States, China, and the financial services industry for their perceived failures.
It’s Been a Busy Month in Algiers With Visits From the U.S. Defense Chief Followed by Yang Jiechi, One of China’s Highest Ranking Officials
Yang Jiechi, one of China's top foreign policy officials and also a member of the politburo, spent last weekend in Algiers where he held talks with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum. Yang's visit comes just ...
File image of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam in Ecuador that was financed and built by China. Image via amalavida.tv CC BY 2.0
By Julie Radomski Ten years after the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam first came online, the Chinese state-owned construction company Sinohydro Corporation finally turned the project over to the Ecuadorian state last Friday. Yet Ecuador only agreed to accept it under the condition that ...
Person to Watch: China’s Deputy Ambassador to Zimbabwe is Emerging as a Prominent Twitter Diplomat
Long before it was fashionable, (or, more specifically, permitted,) Zhao Baogang was on Twitter. The Deputy Chinese ambassador in Zimbabwe first opened his account back in 2015, well ahead of most of his peers who are relative newcomers to non-Chinese social media platforms. More recently, Zhao is ...
After a Brief Lull, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian Announces a Raft of New COVID-19 Aid Programs for Africa
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian announced a significant increase in Chinese government-sponsored COVID-19 medical aid missions in Africa. Zhao revealed on Monday that medical teams and relief supplies will be sent to three African countries in the coming days and weeks:
One Month Later, Vast Segments of African Civil Society Remain Angry Over What Happened in Guangzhou
The first images of African residents in Guangzhou being forced out onto the streets of the southern Chinese city started to emerge during the weekend of April 10th. Now, a full month later, the frustration and anger those accounts sparked keep seething on African social ...
African Finance and Development Ministers Meet With Private Creditors to Try and Reach a Debt Suspension Deal
At least a dozen African finance ministers, along with several development ministers, spoke via video conference with more than 100 private creditors on Monday as part of an effort to reach a consensus over suspending some or all of the repayments to bondholders and other investors.
China’s Been Doing Agricultural Development in Africa For 10+ Years. Is it Helping?
China’s approach to agricultural assistance in Africa differs markedly from those of other donors from Japan, Europe and the United States. While other countries frame their development programs under the larger of “aid,” the Chinese instead go out of their way ...
New Data: The Chinese Government May Claim Credit For COVID-19 Donations but Its the Private Sector That’s Actually Paying For It
The Washington, D.C.-based consultancy RWR Advisory published a set of fascinating new charts that detail China's COVID-19 donation activities over the past couple of months. The firm revealed that although the Chinese government and embassies abroad tend to take credit for donations of PPE and other medical ...
A Popular Nigerian Political Commentator Offers China Some Sobering Advice: Be Careful, There Are More of You Here Than Us Over There
In response to the growing alienation that a lot of Nigerians and other Africans feel about China in the wake what happened in Guangzhou last month, popular online commentator Onye Nkuzi (nom de plume) cautioned that unless China makes meaningful progress in persuading Africans that it does ...
First Moody’s Now the IMF, Warnings About Kenya’s Debt Levels Are Starting to Pile Up
The International Monetary Fund raised Kenya’s risk of debt distress to high from moderate in a statement on Tuesday because of the costly impact of the worsening COVID-19 crisis. The IMF said that even though Kenya's debt load is still manageable, the ...
Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Bribe a Senior Official in Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Agency
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested two Chinese nationals, Meng Wei Kun and Xu Koi, this week for allegedly attempting to bribe the head of the EFCC's office in the northern city of Sokoto. The two were reportedly caught in an undercover sting operation after they ...