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How’s the Belt & Road Doing During the Pandemic? Well, the Answer Depends on Who You Ask

There are conflicting assessments of the health of China's Belt and Road Initiative and how it's fared during the past 7-8 months amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A new report from the London-based analytics and consulting firm ...

Kenyan Newspaper Pleads With Government to Stop Borrowing Money

The influential financial newspaper Business Daily published a sharply-worded editorial on Wednesday that blasted the government for taking on more debt amid the country's worsening economic crisis. "The implications of the rapid accumulation of debt are stark. The rising repayments are ...

China’s Decision To Hold on To Its Oil Assets in Sudan May Now Start To Pay Off

Sudan's oil industry is starting to rumble back to life, following this year's landmark peace agreement with rival South Sudan and a dramatic improvement in ties with the United States, which recently took Khartoum off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Port Competition Along Africa’s East Coast Intensifies With China as a Central Player

After the Dubai-based ports operator DP World was effectively pushed out of Djibouti by China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPH), the Emiratis packed up and headed a few hundred kilometers down the coast to set up shop at the Port of Berbera in the self-declared ...

Construction Begins on a Massive New Chinese-Financed Cultural Center in Kinshasa

The Chinese embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced that construction had begun on an enormous new art and cultural center in the capital Kinshasa. Work on the enormous new facility had been delayed due to COVID-19.

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

Dear Mr. Soon-To-Be President-Elect…

It's probably too early to congratulate you since they're still counting ballots in the last few states that'll likely put you over the top. But since the odds now seem in your favor, I thought this would be a good time to share a few ideas about ...