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: August 27, 2020
Tecno’s Response to This Week’s Malware PR Crisis: “Keep Calm and Carry On”
The news that Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno sold tens of thousands of phones infected with malicious viruses between 2018 and 2019 is now a major international story. CNN, the BBC and dozens of African news outlets have been ...
Leading Environmental Protection NGO Responds to Ghana’s Controversial Decision to Re-License a Chinese Trawler
The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) responded this week to the Ghanaian government's controversial decision to renew the fishing license for the Chinese trawler Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956. The EJF's main point of contention is that Lu Rong Yuan Yu ...
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta Wants to Know What Happened to the Missing Jack Ma PPE Donations
Under mounting public pressure, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered an investigation into Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and its handling of the March 2020 PPE donations from the Jack Ma Foundation, amid allegations that they were illicitly sold, lost or wasted. The ...
China’s New Top Diplomat For Sub-Saharan Africa Lays Out His Agenda
China's former ambassador to Kenya and the new head of the African Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wu Peng, laid out his agenda in a recent column published in the state-run China Daily newspaper. There ...
China’s Soft Power Play in Africa: Rapid Industrial Development
The Chinese embassy in Cameroon posted a short, seemingly innocuous video today that commemorated 40 years of development in Shenzhen, a once-sleepy fishing town near Hong Kong that is now one of the world's leading tech hubs with a population of 13+ million people. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
The Political Ramifications of China’s Reduced Appetite for African Oil
News that two of China's largest oil companies, Sinopec and CNPC, are going to scale down their presence in South Sudan provides the latest evidence of China's waning appetite for African oil. This isn't a new phenomenon. In fact, ...
China’s Ejiao Producers Are on a Quest for Africa’s Donkeys
In Africa it’s said that “if you don't have a donkey you become a donkey yourself”. A proverb that is becoming more relevant as China’s ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) producers look to the Continent for resources. Ejiao is a glue derived from ...