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: October 13, 2020
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 ...
Score Keeping: Which African Countries Aligned With China at the United Nations on Xinjiang and Hong Kong
African countries were once again pulled into a bitter dispute last week at the United Nations between China and a coalition largely made up by the U.S. Germany and other European countries over human rights conditions in Xinjiang. For the second ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
A New Chinese-Built Egyptian Capital is Rising Out of the Sand Near Cairo
Egypt's new administrative capital located 45 kilometers outside of the current capital in Cairo is now taking shape and with towers rising from the barren, sandy landscape. The project's being built and financed by the state-owned construction giant China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).
China’s High-Risk, High-Reward C19 Vaccine Diplomacy in Africa
Last May, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing would make any future COVID-19 vaccine available to Africa and other developing regions as a "global public good." He didn't explain, though, what that actually meant. Since that speech to the World ...