Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Day: June 16, 2020
Judd Devermont: COVID-19 Provides African Governments With the Opportunity to Reset Geopolitical Ties
"African governments are fed up with the state of the world," declared Judd Devermont, director of the Africa program at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank CSIS, in his latest note on how COVID-19 is transforming the geopolitical calculus across the continent. ...
Acting Ambassador to South Africa Li Nan Summarizes the Key Obstacles in China’s Ties With Africa
China's Acting Ambassador to South Africa, Li Nan, spoke on Monday about the obstacles facing China-Africa relations and provided a list of challenges that he feels need to be overcome. This is not the kind of tone we would have heard from Acting Ambassador Li's predecessor, Lin ...
Transsion’s VC Fund Makes First Investment in an African Fintech Start-Up; the Chinese-owned Opera Mobile Browser Well Positioned to Capitalize on Financial Services
International interest in Africa's burgeoning fintech sector dropped considerably in the first half of the year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but now we're starting to see some of the first signs of interest from Chinese VCs and other investors.
Africa Likely to be Impacted by Massive Cuts to China’s Aid Budget
China's fledgling aid agency, CIDCA, will have nearly half its budget slashed this year due to the ongoing economic slowdown brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. CIDCA is by no means alone -- the central government unveiled across-the-board cuts for the remainder the year, ...
UPDATE: Chinese Embassy in Kenya Denies Evacuation Flight Scheduled for Today, Confirms Ambassador’s Departure
The Chinese embassy in Nairobi is denying the recent report published in the Daily Nation newspaper that 400 Chinese nationals are scheduled to be evacuated from Kenya on Tuesday, June 16th. Those Chinese nationals, according to the Daily Nation story, obtained a clearance from the High ...
Debunking Fake China-Africa News
AFP Fact Check journalist Mayowa Tijani joins Eric & Cobus from Lagos to discuss his reporting that debunks fake news, particularly videos and other stories related to China-Africa. Misleading and downright false information have long been a hallmark of ...