Day: November 25, 2020
Related Posts
Africa and the China-Less Recovery
African policymakers will soon look back at the past ten years - the pre-COVID-era - with rosy nostalgia. How wonderful it was to sit under the Chinese tree and watch the fruits of loans, trade, and investment all fall with abundance. ...
Related Posts
Forget About Repayment Holidays, Kenya Wants Its Creditors (Ahem… China) To Cancel Some of Its Debts
The Kenyan Treasury is reportedly considering a new plan to approach its creditors to ask for outright cancellation of some of its debt, according to a report in Business Daily. Although a final decision has yet to be made, the Treasury is apparently considering ...
Kenya Treasury Secretary: “We Don’t Want to Give the Impression We Are Straining in Any Way”
The alarming headlines in today's Kenyan newspapers about the country's apparent inability to repay some of its debts contrasts sharply with the message conveyed by Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury Ukur Yatani in an interview with Bloomberg's Africa bureau chief David Malingha:
Allianz Research: Africa, Americas Had Better Brace for a “China-Less Recovery”
China is turning inwards and will slow its economic engagement in emerging markets in Africa and Latin America in the post-COVID-19-era, according to new analysis from the research arm of the German financial services giant Allianz. The report ...
Hundreds of Chinese Nationals Evacuated From Northern Ethiopia, Confirms Foreign Ministry Spokesman
600 Chinese nationals have reportedly been safely escorted out of the conflict zone in northern Ethiopia. "With the assistance of the Ethiopian side, the Chinese citizens there have basically been evacuated," confirmed Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at the regular ...
Chen Xiaodong Is as Much an Ambassador for the Chinese Communist Party as He Is for the Chinese Government
China's new ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, led a webinar discussion this week that highlighted the dual role that Chinese envoys play abroad: to represent both the Chinese state and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They're not the same thing.
Fresh or Frozen: Should Kenya and China Renegotiate Their 2019 “Avocado Deal”?
Whether it is ordering a vegetarian wrap or having a healthy fruit and veggie smoothie, the most sought after ingredient I crave for is avocado! Today, be it Beijing or Shanghai, restaurant chains and smoothie bars, are now catering to their customers' healthy tastes, delivering on this ...
Reporter’s Notebook: China’s Controversial Distant Fishing Fleet
The presence of China's distant fishing fleet in African waters is increasingly becoming a contentious domestic political issues in a number of countries, particularly in West Africa. At a campaign rally in September, Ghanaian vice presidential candidate
Development and the Complications of Tech
Today's news presents a vivid, if sobering, glimpse into the complications of Chinese tech in Africa. The same company - Transsion - is both boosting African startups and allegedly allowing African consumers to be scammed. The discussion about the spread ...
Ghana Renews Fishing Permit for Chinese Trawler That Has Refused to Pay a $1 Million Fine
Ghanaian fishing authorities have reportedly renewed the permit for the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956, a Chinese vessel operated by Rongcheng Ocean Fishery Co. Ltd., even though the company has so far refused to pay a $1 million fine it incurred last year for using illegal nets.
Chinese Embassy in SA Openly Worried About the Safety of Chinese Diaspora in South Africa After a Spate of Recent Murders
The Chinese embassy in Pretoria published a detailed statement on Monday in which it openly expressed concern about the safety of the Chinese diaspora in South Africa following the brutal murder of 7 Chinese nationals in the past 50 days. Embassy ...
Pre-Installed Malware on Some Tecno Phones Stole Money, Data From Unsuspecting Users in Africa
An investigation by the mobile security firm Secure-D confirmed that some Tecno phones sold in Africa and other parts of the world came pre-installed with malware. The infected phones would secretly download apps and attempt to trick users into subscribing for paid ...
Naspers Stock Rises on White House Assurances That Proposed WeChat Ban Won’t be as Broad as Previously Feared
Investors in Africa's most valuable public company, Naspers, breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after hearing that any White House measures against WeChat and its parent company Tencent won't be as broad as initially feared. A Naspers subsidiary is Tencent's ...
Opposition Leaders in Nigeria’s House of Representatives Concerned about Pause in Investigation Into Chinese Loans
PDP opposition legislators from the House of Representatives took to the media on Monday to voice their concerns that a three-week postponement will jeopardize the investigation into Chinese loans. The House of Representatives last week suspended all investigations, public hearings, and ...
Do People Give the Chinese a Pass in Africa Because They Hate the French Even More, Wonders Right-Wing French Legislator
Julie Lechanteux, a conservative French MP in the European Union parliament and a member of Marine Le Pen's right-wing Rassemblement National party, channeled the growing unease across wide swathes of French society about the country's declining influence in Africa and the rise of China on ...
A Primer in How Chinese Development Finance Works in Africa
Today, China is the world's largest official creditor, more twice as large as the World and the International Monetary Fund combined. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa where Beijing has lent an estimated ...
Excuse Me. Who Exactly is Mike Pompeo Referring to When He Talks About “The Free World?”
I'm afraid I've devolved into the kind of person who checks Twitter before even putting on my glasses in the morning. On good days it jolts me out of my lockdown torpor at least long enough to make coffee. On bad days it makes me want to ...
China’s Space Program Becomes New Soft Power Message in Africa
China's Ambassador to Botswana Zhao Yanbo was among a number of Chinese envoys and embassies who celebrated this week's launch of the Long March-3B rocket, which carried the new Beidou Navigation Satellite System into orbit. The new nav system presents an immediate challenge to the U.S.-led Global ...
World Bank President Says He’s Confident China, Private Creditors Will Deliver Debt Relief
World Bank President David Malpass (photo) told Bloomberg that he's confident private creditors will somehow come up with a way to restructure the $140+ billion of bond debt that poor countries owe investors. “The view of the international community was very ...
Ghana Signs Huge Deal to Buy Trains From China
Ghana's Railway Minister Joe Ghartey signed a $235 million agreement on Tuesday to buy dozens of locomotives and passenger trains from the state-owned Chinese company DongFang Electric International. All of the new trains will be standard gauge compliant, similar to rail standards ...
The Chinese Embassy, Mining Company Move Quickly to Defuse Tension in Zimbabwe Following Shooting
Chinese stakeholders in Zimbabwe moved quickly this week to try and make amends for Sunday's violent confrontation at a mining site in the central city of Gweru, where a Chinese manager shot two local employees in a salary dispute. Both employees ...
How Effective Crisis Communications Helped Defuse a Potentially Huge PR Disaster for the Chinese in Zimbabwe
Ten years after two Chinese managers at the Collum coal mine in Zambia opened fire and injured 11 workers who were protesting against low pay and poor conditions, a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale, occurred this past weekend in Zimbabwe. ...
Lusaka Mayor Personally Shuts Down Chinese Barbershop For Not Serving Local Customers. “This is Not Wuhan!”
Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa personally shut down a Chinese-run barbershop on Friday for allegedly not serving local customers and threatened the staff with arrest if they continue to only serve Chinese patrons. "This is not Wuhan!" he angrily declared.
Three Chinese Nationals Murdered and Their Lusaka Warehouse Burned in Apparent Robbery
The fire department in the Zambian capital Lusaka responded on Sunday to a blaze at a warehouse in the Makeni district. When they arrived on the scene they discovered the aftermath of a brutal homicide. Three Chinese nationals were killed in what police say was a robbery. ...
Heritage Foundation to Chinese Government: Thank You for Promoting Our New Report on Chinese Spying in Africa
John Cooper, a senior communications manager at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation think tank, gave a shout out this weekend on Twitter to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian for helping to publicize the new report by Africa & Middle East analyst ...
China’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe Says Calls for China to Pay Reparations for COVID-19 Are “Absurd”
China's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Guo Shaochun, stridently rejected calls for Beijing to pay reparations to other countries for the economic damage brought about from the COVID-19 outbreak. "Recently, some politicians have been trying to pin the blame for the COVID-19 outbreak ...
In a Dramatic Move, Kenya’s Solicitor General Wants to Terminate the SGR’s Contract With Its Chinese Operator
Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto is calling for the immediate termination of Kenya Railways's contract with the Chinese-owned Africa Star Railway Operation Company, two years ahead of the agreement's scheduled review date. Ogeto's move is apparently motivated by lower than expected revenue ...
Background: What Does Kenya Owe? And to Whom?
While there's widespread concern in Kenya about the country falling prey to a Chinese "debt trap," the reality is that Kenyans should be far more concerned about the consequences of failing to repay private creditors than the small Chinese portion of its national debt. ...
With No Debt Relief Deal in Place, Africa’s Economic Crisis Worsens by the Day
The cost of borrowing for many African governments is rapidly rising as the economic crisis on the continent worsens. While the double-digit yields on African bonds is great news for investors looking for new growth opportunities, it's an absolute tragedy for governments who are forced to divert even ...
Chinese Officials Are Rallying Behind the G20’s Debt Relief Efforts But Saying Little About All Those Bilateral Loans
China's Ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yiming, Tweeted out a summary of Wang Yi's comments related to Africa that the foreign minister shared at a press conference in Beijing on Sunday. While Ambassador Zhang and Foreign Minister Wang appear ...
Chinese FM Wang Yi Pushes Back Against Critics in Africa and Offers More Public Support for the G20’s Debt Relief Agenda
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on Sunday with both domestic and international journalists during the ongoing 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's annual legislative session. Unsurprisingly, China's handling of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis at home and abroad, ...
It’s Time to Talk About All That Debt
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took the initiative on Tuesday to talk about the proverbial elephant in the room: with Africa's economies spiraling downwards due to the worsening COVID-19 crisis, how are they ever going to be able to pay back all that money they owe ...
DRC President’s Refusal to Wear Mask in Meeting With Chinese Ambassador Sparks Concern
China's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo met with President Félix Tshisekedi yesterday in Kinshasa and while they did maintain a proper distance from one another, the president's refusal to wear a mask prompted concern among Congolese Twitter users. ...
African Twitter Responds to Hantavirus Death in China
A Tweet by the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper about a man dying from Hantavirus on a bus going to Shandong province in China sparked fears -- unfounded -- on African Twitter of "Coronavirus 2.0." ...
Fake COVID-19 News and Misinformation Now Rampant on African WhatsApp Channels and Social Media
With COVID-19 now steadily making its way across Africa, misleading or downright false information is becoming an increasingly serious problem across the continent. Posts like this one warn Africans on Twitter and WhatsApp about buying used mattresses from China because they are infected with the deadly virus. ...
Joy and Relief as Jack Ma’s Donated Masks and COVID-19 Test Kits Make Their Way to Countries Across Africa
Ethiopian Airlines jets packed with medical supplies donated by Chinese billionaire and philanthropist Jack Ma landed at airports across Africa yesterday. Each country is to receive an equal allocation of masks, COVID-19 testing kits and protective wear for medical personnel. ...
Ethiopian PM Abiy Puts Debt Relief on the COVID-19 Agenda. Now the Multi-Billion Dollar Question is How Will China Respond?
Confronted with an "existential threat," Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued an urgent plea to G20 countries for immediate debt relief. The "dramatic decline in exports, disruption of global chains, and the sudden drying up of travel of tourism are sure to wreak havoc to our economies,"
Tweet of the Day: It’s Been a Good Week for Huawei in Africa
Just days after Safaricom acting CEO Michael Joseph brushed off U.S. concerns about using Huawei equipment on its new 5G network in Kenya, the Chinese telecom giant also received good press in Nigeria for the company's corporate social responsibility initiatives.
“Washington Can do Better Than China-bashing and Travel Bans”
One week after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrapped up his three-nation African tour, a number of reviews considering the direction of Washington's current foreign policy in Africa are just coming in. There's an emerging consensus among a growing number of policy and media observers that ...
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Recent Trip to Africa Didn’t Make a Lot of News… And That’s a Good Thing
One of Washington's leading Africa analysts, Judd Devermont at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published a short Q&A that reflected on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent three-nation African tour that wrapped up last week. Devermont's key ...
Africa’s Largest Bank Makes Donation to Support the Fight Against COVID-19
Africa's largest bank, South Africa-based Standard Bank, made a $50,000 donation to the COVID-19 relief effort in China. Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Standard Bank South Africa made the donation on Monday during a ceremony with Chinese Ambassador Lin Songtian. It's worth noting ...
Black Monday in Johannesburg: The JSE Had One of Its Worst Trading Days in 20 Years Over Mounting COVID-19 Concerns
Share prices on Africa's leading index, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, plummeted on Monday amid surging investor fear over the economic damage caused by the escalating COVID-19 crisis. The JSE shed 4.5% in trading yesterday, making it one ...
China Announces Sweeping Ban of Eating and Trading Wildlife
China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), announced a sweeping ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals as part of the effort to stem the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that has crippled the country. ...
China’s Growing Influence in the Mideast, Persian Gulf & Mediterranean
China's crude imports from Saudi Arabia surged last year by 47% highlighting the Kingdom's growing importance to Beijing as a key oil supplier. This should also be concerning for Africa because the Chinese no longer feel as dependent on the ...
File image of an artisanal miner carrying raw ore at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe/File Photo
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Ange Kasongo The U.S. has made progress in its push to prise Congo's strategic minerals from China's orbit, but conflict, contested licences and compliance demands are still slowing Washington's advance into a region its rival dominates, diplomats and ...
Africa and the China-Less Recovery
African policymakers will soon look back at the past ten years - the pre-COVID-era - with rosy nostalgia. How wonderful it was to sit under the Chinese tree and watch the fruits of loans, trade, and investment all fall with abundance. ...
Forget About Repayment Holidays, Kenya Wants Its Creditors (Ahem… China) To Cancel Some of Its Debts
The Kenyan Treasury is reportedly considering a new plan to approach its creditors to ask for outright cancellation of some of its debt, according to a report in Business Daily. Although a final decision has yet to be made, the Treasury is apparently considering ...
Kenya Treasury Secretary: “We Don’t Want to Give the Impression We Are Straining in Any Way”
The alarming headlines in today's Kenyan newspapers about the country's apparent inability to repay some of its debts contrasts sharply with the message conveyed by Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury Ukur Yatani in an interview with Bloomberg's Africa bureau chief David Malingha:
Allianz Research: Africa, Americas Had Better Brace for a “China-Less Recovery”
China is turning inwards and will slow its economic engagement in emerging markets in Africa and Latin America in the post-COVID-19-era, according to new analysis from the research arm of the German financial services giant Allianz. The report ...
Hundreds of Chinese Nationals Evacuated From Northern Ethiopia, Confirms Foreign Ministry Spokesman
600 Chinese nationals have reportedly been safely escorted out of the conflict zone in northern Ethiopia. "With the assistance of the Ethiopian side, the Chinese citizens there have basically been evacuated," confirmed Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at the regular ...
Chen Xiaodong Is as Much an Ambassador for the Chinese Communist Party as He Is for the Chinese Government
China's new ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, led a webinar discussion this week that highlighted the dual role that Chinese envoys play abroad: to represent both the Chinese state and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They're not the same thing.