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: July 7, 2020
OPay’s Failure Prompts Reflection in Nigeria’s Tech Community
Last week's announcement by the Chinese-owned Nigerian-based e-commerce and payments company OPay to suspend four of its services (ORide, OTrade, OCar, OFood) caught a lot of people by surprise. After raising an impressive $170 million in a Series B funding round last fall from some ...
Another High Profile Chinese Ambassador in Africa to Leave Soon
China's Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, is making the rounds this week to say good-bye to officials in Abuja ahead of his planned departure. Ambassador Zhou is the third high profile Chinese envoy to rotate out of their post in Africa following this spring's departure ...
Kenya’s Embattled Standard Gauge Railway Reopens After COVID-19 Lockdown and Now Has to Earn a Lot of Money Fast to Repay Chinese Loans
Kenya's ailing Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) announced plans to resume passenger service between Nairobi and Mombasa now that President Uhuru Kenyatta lifted the partial lockdown in the capitol. During the lockdown, brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, the SGR only carried cargo on its various ...
Chinese, Arab Foreign Ministers Wrap Up Uneventful Low Key Forum
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on Monday with his counterparts from North Africa, the Mideast, and the Gulf for a surprisingly low-key online ministerial conference. The 9th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, comparable to the Forum on China Africa Cooperation, was co-hosted by Jordanian ...
The Need to Discuss Race in China-Africa Relations
The domestic racial homogeneity of China and most African countries, as well as the lack of cross-cultural understanding between Chinese and Africans, have always been attributed as the rationale for the people-level clashes between Chinese and Africans, be it in Africa or China. However, in ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
COVID-19 is Changing the China-Africa Wildlife Trade
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the China-Africa wildlife trade. In response to the outbreak that was first detected in a wet market that sold live animals in Wuhan, the Chinese government has introduced a number of new ...