Day: June 22, 2020
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Bloomberg Asks Zhao Lijian the $4 Billion Dollar Question About Its Zambian Loans: “Will China Opens Its Books?”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian faced questions yesterday by a Bloomberg reporter as to whether Beijing would do more to help alleviate investor concerns over the lack of transparency of China's loans to Zambia. Zhao echoed a brief comment published on ...
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New AidData Research Explains Why China Isn’t Fully Participating in the DSSI and Not Interested in Seizing Assets
Bradley Parks, executive director of AidData, discussed the preliminary findings of a new investigation into the terms and conditions of Chinese loan contracts around the world. AidData researchers studied 83 Chinese loan contracts to 21 low-and-middle income countries. The contracts involved the ...
U.S. Government Targets African Twitter Users With Paid Campaign Criticizing Chinese Fishing Practices
Senegal-based freelance journalist James Courtright noticed an interesting paid tweet from the U.S. government's official French language account that appeared in his feed this week. The "promoted" post (that means "paid" in Twitter's vernacular) attacked China's distant fishing operations around the world: ...
Wow! Whoever’s in Charge of the Chinese Embassy in Somalia’s Twitter Account Really Went on a Tear
In the space of two hours yesterday, the social media manager at the Chinese embassy in Somalia published an impressive 32 tweets in what was a disjointed stream of Chinese propaganda's greatest hits. They covered a lot of ground:Alleviating Chinese ...
When It Comes to the G20’s DSSI, China’s Playing by a Different Set of Rules
There's an enormous disconnect between how the Chinese are approaching the debt crisis in poor countries and the expectations of the world's legacy donors. People like World Bank President David Malpass seem befuddled as to why China is not fully supporting ...
China to Increase Support for Peacekeeping Operations According to New White Paper
China will speak today at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which is taking place online this year. Peacekeeping will likely be a key topic of discussion for the Chinese given the increasingly prominent role Beijing plays in UN operations around the world, particularly in ...
China Responds to Criticism That Peacekeeping Ops Serve Its National Interests in Africa
The Chinese government appears to be aware of the criticism that its contributions to international peacekeeping efforts are a cover to promote its own national security agenda in places like Africa, where it has sizable economic and geopolitical interests. In what ...
New “Wolf Warrior”-Style Doc on China’s UN Peacekeeping Ops in South Sudan Opens in Theaters
Timed to coincide with the release of China's new white paper on peacekeeping, a slick new documentary opened in theaters on Friday that showcases Chinese troops taking part in the UN peacekeeping operation in South Sudan. Judging by
U.S. Link of Kenya Free Trade Deal to Support for Israel Sparks Criticism
A reported requirement by the United States that Kenya support Israel's commercial and political interests or else risk jeopardizing its possible free trade agreement with the U.S., is not sitting well with some commentators in Africa, who see a double standard. ...
One of America’s Most Prominent Economists Has a Sober Warning for U.S. Policymakers: Don’t Disengage From Africa
One of America's most prominent economists, Laurence H. Summers, issued a warning to U.S. policymakers to remain engaged in Africa or else risk ceding influence to China in what he says would be an "error of historic proportions." Summers, a former Treasury Secretary and president emeritus of ...
Taiwan’s New Rep Office in Somaliland is Really Ramping Up Its COVID-19 Donation Diplomacy
Taiwan's newly-opened representative office in the capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland is ramping up its COVID-19 donation diplomacy with its latest government-to-government handover of PPE. Last week, Taiwan's representative Lou Chenhwa donated ...
Glimpses of Future China-Africa Engagement
For a while, I've been wondering about Chinese peacekeeping in Africa. Specifically, I was wondering where it went as a topic of discussion. A few years ago, every second China-Africa seminar seemed to focus on peacekeeping. Then attention moved to debt, and I assumed that Beijing was ...
President Edgar Lungu Just Straight Up Asked Xi Jinping for Zambia’s Debts to be Cancelled
African appeals for Chinese debt relief have until recently been somewhat vague and indirect, at least publicly. Well, that changed when the spokesman for Edgar Lungu released details of Zambian president's call on Monday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. “President ...
Chinese Media Coverage of the Xi-Lungu Call Didn’t Say Anything About Debt Relief But Did Mention the One China Policy
Chinese official news coverage of Monday's call between President Xi Jinping and Zambian leader Edgar Lungu highlighted the stark disparity between the two countries' current political priorities. Neither the Xinhua news agency nor the China Daily ...
China’s Ambassador to Somalia Attempts to Downplay African Debt Concerns
China's Ambassador to Somalia, Qin Jian, is on something of a Twitter tear these past few days. He's posted dozens of short commentaries on everything from Taiwan (not surprising given the recent Somaliland-Taiwan announcement), Somalia's potential for natural resource ...
UN Agency is Upset With Moody’s After the Firm Took Action Against Four African Countries
The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs is disappointed with Moody's Investors Services after the global ratings agency put four African countries up for review following their decision to join the G20's debt service suspension initiative (DSSI), according to a report in ...
The Algerian Army is the First Customer for China’s New Shoulder-Mounted HJ-12 Anti-Missile System
In a somewhat surprising move, the Chinese military will not be the first client to get its hands on the new HJ-12 (红箭-12) shoulder-mounted anti-tank missile system produced by the large state-owned weapons contractor NORINCO. That honor will instead go to the Algerian army. It bought an ...
New Book Explains Why You Shouldn’t Focus Only on Hard Metrics to Evaluate China’s Engagement in Africa
A highly-anticipated new book by acclaimed China-Africa scholar Lina Benabdallah went on sale today. "Shaping the Future of Power" details a key difference that distinguishes China's engagement strategy in Africa from that of other countries: its extensive professional and skills-transfer initiatives. ...
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Zambian President Edgar Lungu might have been surprised to hear that the big takeaway from his call on Monday with Xi Jinping wasn't debt relief or anything to do with COVID-19. In the unlikely event that he opened a copy of the China Daily newspaper on Tuesday ...
Relationships: China’s Competitive Advantage in Africa
To many outside observers, Chinese engagement in Africa is often evaluated based on hard metrics like the amount of trade, the number of immigrants, investment figures. While those data points are no doubt important, Wake Forest University Assistant Professor Lina Benabdallah ...
A Chinese Debt Trap in Nigeria? Hardly!
Back in May, the online Nigerian financial news site Nairametrics ran an article with the frightening headline: "Nigeria is falling into China’s debt trap." This, of course, is nothing new. Many Nigerians, along with countless others across Africa, now firmly believe that China ...
One of the First Classes of Nigerian Railway Engineers Graduates From University in China
One of the first classes of Nigerian railway engineers graduated this weekend from China's Central South University (中南大学）in Hunan and will soon return to help manage the new Chinese-built railways back home. ...
CARI Slides From Last Week’s Presentation Now Available Online
If you missed last Thursday's webinar by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University about Chinese debt relief in Africa, the slides used in the presentation are now available online. Since CARI's data and analysis on the Chinese debt ...
Ed Cropley: China is Caught in a Zambia Debt Trap
Contrary to widespread perception, Zambia is not ensnared in any kind of Chinese debt trap, argues Reuters Breakingviews columnist Ed Cropley in a recent op-ed video published on the news agency's YouTube channel. Quite the opposite, in fact. If anyone's caught ...
Lots of Confusion Over Nigeria’s Debt Profile
Washington, D.C.-based Eurasia Group Africa Practice Director Amaka Anku sought to clarify a key point of confusion that emerged last week, when the Nigerian Ministry of Finance released a report stating that the country's debt servicing costs was equivalent to all of the revenue generated by the ...
Debt Trap? What Debt Trap? Nigeria Doesn’t Borrow Anywhere Near Enough From China to be Caught in a Trap Says Government
Amid all of the talk of Chinese debt traps and moves by Nigerian legislators to review the past 20 years of loan contracts with China, the country's Debt Management Office (DMO) in Abuja wants to clarify a few things. The DMO on Friday published a short statement ...
Kenyan Government’s Hiring of the State-Owned Chinese Company Used to Build the SGR Ruled Illegal by Court of Appeals
Kenya's Court of Appeals dealt a devastating blow to the government and its national rail company when it ruled on Friday that the $4.7 billion (Ksh 500 million) contract with the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) was illegal and violated the constitution. ...
The Chinese Government’s “10,000 African Villages” Project in Two Mozambican Villages: Kung Fu, Confusion and Flags
Several months ago, on a bus ride spanning the provinces of southern Mozambique, I passed a seemingly infinite number of advertisements painted on the walls of homes and stores when I suddenly passed one that I had not seen before – a hand-painted advertisement featuring Chinese and ...
Chinese-owned Farms Struggle to Help Improve Food Security in Zimbabwe
Strategic investments by the Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe's agriculture sector face mounting challenges that are scuttling plans to assist the southern African country's erstwhile foothold as a net food producer. The Sino-Zim ventures were launched with the aim of assisting the southern African country's struggling food security ...
He’s Back! China’s Outspoken Former Ambassador to South Africa Reappears on State Media
After hurriedly leaving South Africa in early April to return to China, apparently because of the pandemic-related shutdown of commercial flights between the two countries, former ambassador Lin Songtian has kept a low profile over the past couple months. But ...
Heritage Foundation: China’s Construction of Government Buildings in Africa Potentially Enhances Beijing’s Spying Capabilities
The conservative Heritage Foundation in the United States published a new report on Wednesday arguing that China's intelligence capabilities are potentially enhanced by Beijing's drive to construct government buildings across the continent. "Chinese companies have constructed or renovated ...
How is China Going to Approach the Debt Crisis in Africa?
One of the big questions around the burgeoning debt crisis in Africa is how will China respond? With an estimated $152 billion of outstanding loans on the continent, Beijing is by far the continent's largest bilateral creditor. No discussion ...
Even if Africa’s Creditors Reach a Debt Relief Deal, Moody’s Says It Won’t Matter in the Long Run
The global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Services issued a grim warning this week that even if African governments are able to finalize a debt relief deal with their creditors, it won't help very much. "While debt-service relief will allow some ...
African Development Bank President: “It’s Not Fair”:
People like World Bank President David Malpass and AfDB head Dr. Akinwumi Adesina are surprisingly upbeat about the prospect of finding a solution to Africa's worsening debt crisis. Maybe they have to because it's their job, but the reality is that their ...
Reports of Arson Attacks Against Chinese Businesses in Nigeria and Arrest of Archbishop Protesting Treatment of Africans in Guangzhou Highlights Growing Tensions
Videos are spreading rapidly on Nigerian social media, purportedly showing hundreds of young men burning down Chinese-owned businesses and factories in the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone outside of Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Although these videos were shot last week and posted ...
Will COVID-19 Be the End of Africans in Guangzhou? I Think So, and This Is Why.
Migration to China will never be the same after COVID-19. The health crisis and its consequences will severely impact on local, translocal, and transnational forms of migration. Once COVID-19 ceases to be a threat, foreigners in China will face a new regime of mobility characterized by artificial ...
Africa Braces for the Arrival of the Wuhan Coronavirus
A number of governments across the continent are proactively ramping up temperature screenings at ports of entry and proactively starting to issue public communications to reassure their publics that, so far, the virus has not made landfall. The glaring exception, though, ...
A Taliban security personnel operating an anti-aircraft gun keeps watch for Pakistani airstrikes near the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Nangarhar province on February 27, 2026 following overnight cross-border fighting between the two countries. Photo by AIMAL ZAHIR / AFP
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared "open war" against Afghanistan on Friday amid a surge of fighting between the two South Asian neighbors. Pakistan said it's retaliating against Afghanistan for a series of attacks, including a suicide bombing in early February that killed at least 36 people ...
A Chinese Debt Trap in Nigeria? Hardly!
Back in May, the online Nigerian financial news site Nairametrics ran an article with the frightening headline: "Nigeria is falling into China’s debt trap." This, of course, is nothing new. Many Nigerians, along with countless others across Africa, now firmly believe that China ...
One of the First Classes of Nigerian Railway Engineers Graduates From University in China
One of the first classes of Nigerian railway engineers graduated this weekend from China's Central South University (中南大学）in Hunan and will soon return to help manage the new Chinese-built railways back home. ...
CARI Slides From Last Week’s Presentation Now Available Online
If you missed last Thursday's webinar by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University about Chinese debt relief in Africa, the slides used in the presentation are now available online. Since CARI's data and analysis on the Chinese debt ...
Ed Cropley: China is Caught in a Zambia Debt Trap
Contrary to widespread perception, Zambia is not ensnared in any kind of Chinese debt trap, argues Reuters Breakingviews columnist Ed Cropley in a recent op-ed video published on the news agency's YouTube channel. Quite the opposite, in fact. If anyone's caught ...
Lots of Confusion Over Nigeria’s Debt Profile
Washington, D.C.-based Eurasia Group Africa Practice Director Amaka Anku sought to clarify a key point of confusion that emerged last week, when the Nigerian Ministry of Finance released a report stating that the country's debt servicing costs was equivalent to all of the revenue generated by the ...
Debt Trap? What Debt Trap? Nigeria Doesn’t Borrow Anywhere Near Enough From China to be Caught in a Trap Says Government
Amid all of the talk of Chinese debt traps and moves by Nigerian legislators to review the past 20 years of loan contracts with China, the country's Debt Management Office (DMO) in Abuja wants to clarify a few things. The DMO on Friday published a short statement ...
Kenyan Government’s Hiring of the State-Owned Chinese Company Used to Build the SGR Ruled Illegal by Court of Appeals
Kenya's Court of Appeals dealt a devastating blow to the government and its national rail company when it ruled on Friday that the $4.7 billion (Ksh 500 million) contract with the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) was illegal and violated the constitution. ...