Day: December 5, 2020
Related Posts
There Are Valuable Lessons For African Policymakers in the China-Australia Feud
The Guardian this week published a fascinating analysis of how the increasing diplomatic tensions between China and Australia could impact Africa. There are fears that recent Chinese crackdowns on Australian wine, barley, coal, and other commodities could be visited on the country’s exports of iron ...
Related Posts
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.
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 ...
Kenyatta Aims to Diversify Infrastructure Finance and Development Away From Dependence on China
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta returned on Saturday from a four-day trip to France loaded with $165 million (Sh17.91 billion) of new concessional loans, grants, and various other financing agreements for health and infrastructure development initiatives. The president signed ...
“Unlocking the Black Box” of Chinese Development Aid: A View From France
Chinese overseas development aid and finance remains something of a mystery to many outside observers. The opacity of the Chinese system, combined with large language and cultural differences often lead international stakeholders to complain that it's difficult to distinguish between Chinese aid, concessional financing, and market-based lending/investments. ...
Bondholders Reject Zambia’s Request to Delay Repayments Due to Concerns Over How Much Government Owes China
Zambia's burgeoning debt crisis got a whole lot worse on Friday after a committee representing bondholders rejected the government's request for a six-month repayment holiday on about $3 billion of Eurobond notes. The committee represents 14 international financial ...
IMF and World Bank Leaders Say the World’s Debt System is Broken and in Need of Urgent Repair
Leaders from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, including IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, declared that the current "debt architecture" is broken and needs urgent action to prevent a full-blown crisis in some of the world's poorest countries. "The ...
U.S. Defense Secretary Wraps Up Tour of North Africa With a Parting Shot Towards China
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wrapped up a low-profile five-day, four-country tour of the Mediterranean and North Africa over the weekend and just before he left, he fired off one final diss against China and Russia, accusing them of engaging in "destabilizing actions ...
This Chart Explains Why the U.S. Just Invested $25 Million in a Company That Will Help Diversify Its Supply of Cobalt
The United States Development Finance Corporation invested $25 million in a company that will help to develop a Brazilian nickel and cobalt mine. The U.S. and a growing number of European countries are becoming increasingly concerned about China's dominance of the global cobalt supply chain, given the ...
Chinese Ambassador to Chad’s Inspection of New Huawei Facility Highlights Beijing’s Growing Tech Dominance
China's ambassador to Chad, Li Jinjin, paid a vist on Sunday to a new network operations center that Huawei is building. Judging by the tweet, it seems like a rather mudane diplomatic excursion. But a look at the broader context reveals how "China's winning the war for ...
Finding New Ways to Finance African Infrastructure
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta looked like he had a great time in France last week. After all, the weather in Paris this time of year is absolutely lovely and this being his first trip out of the country since the COVID-19 outbreak, he was able to get ...
The China-Funded Mobile Browser That’s Zeroing in on the African Market
Four years ago, Opera was most famous for Opera Mini, a simple data compression browser, gaining traction in African countries with high data costs. Today, Opera’s software holdings have developed into an interconnected nexus spanning file sharing, news, digital payments, ride hailing, food delivery and news.
Finally, Some Straight Talk on Chinese Loans to Africa
Seemingly fed up with the past week of overheated controversy in Nigeria over Chinese loans, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi is telling it like it is. People may not like the Chinese, they may not like the terms of Chinese loans and they may not like the debt they're ...
Nigeria’s Conversation About Chinese Debt
The first thing to say about the ongoing controversy about Chinese loans purportedly compromising Nigerian sovereignty is that it's based on a misreading of standard language found in loan contracts. Rather than stating that, in the case of a default, China will have the right to seize ...
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Tepid Response to the Escalating Loan Controversy in Nigeria
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday issued a statement in response to the escalating "sovereign immunity controversy" in Nigeria. The ministry did not specifically address "clause 8(1)" which stipulates that Nigeria will waive its sovereign immunity in the event of a default on ...
Hunting for Illegal Chinese Miners With Nigeria’s Amotekun Patrols
Operation Amotekun (Leopard) is a pioneering new joint task force that launched in January and now operates throughout six southwestern Nigerian states. These well-equipped forces are intended to support to local police and traditional rulers in combatting regular terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping in the country's ...
China Shakes Up the Leadership of Its Sub-Saharan African Diplomacy
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made leadership changes in its African policy team. Dai Bing, who was the Director-General of the African Affairs Department (a role comparable to that of the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs) is now in New York where he's ...
Africa’s Endangered Rhinos Are Getting a Reprieve Thanks to COVID-19. It May Not Last Much Longer Though.
South Africa's endangered rhinos are among the world's only beneficiaries of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Poaching rates have plunged by 53% so far this year, according to new data from Barbara Creecy, the minister of environment, forestry, and fisheries. The minister explained that lockdowns and ...
A Chinese-built Road in Uganda Makes Life a Whole Lot Easier for Local Farmers
In 2014, Longjian Road and Bridge Company Limited, a Chinese construction firm, won a contract to rebuild Yellowknife road and Kabula access road, in Masaka, an agricultural city in Southern Uganda (East Africa). The two roads among several others plus buildings were ...
Africa’s Private Debt: What to do About Those Vulture Funds Circling Overhead?
It's been almost three months since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued one of the first calls for emergency debt relief for Africa. Back in March, when the prime minister posted his appeal to the G20 on Twitter, COVID-19 had ...
Nigerian Representative Benjamin Kalu Explains Why He Wants to Check the Immigration Status of Every Chinese National in the Country
The following is a transcription of a 13-part Twitter thread published by Nigerian Representative Benjamin Kalu that explains the motivations behind his recent motion to heighten immigration enforcement against Chinese illegal immigrants. Earlier, I moved a motion along with ...
Meet Lin Jing: China’s Newest “Wolf Warrior” in Africa
China's Consul General in Cape Town, Lin Jing, is emerging as one of China's newest so-called "Wolf Warrior" diplomats who's spending a lot more time on Twitter taking direct shots at the U.S. and other critics of Beijing. Over the weekend, ...
One of Kenya’s Major Newspapers Wades Into the Sensitive Debate Over Chinese Accountability for COVID-19
One of Kenya's leading newspapers waded into the highly sensitive territory over accountability for COVID-19 and the origin of the deadly virus. Although today's editorial in The Standard newspaper is the publication's first on the topic, the paper published two columns ...
Representative Benjamin Kalu: “We Want to Know How Many Chinese Are in Nigeria”
Nigerian Representative Benjamin Kalu appeared on Plus TV to discuss the motion he submitted in the House of Representatives calling for immigration checks of every Chinese national in the country. STARTING WITH CHINESE: "What COVID has done ...
Has the Anti-African Discrimination in Guangzhou Really Been Contained? It Depends Who You Ask
While the Chinese central government and provincial authorities in Guangdong repeat over and over that all the issues that led to the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou have been settled, a steady flow of reports that suggest otherwise continues to emerge from the southern Chinese city.
A Desire to Move the Guangzhou Narrative Beyond Polarization
While African social media, Nigeria's legislature, and media outlets across the continent boil with rage over the reports of maltreatment and discrimination against Africans in China, some Chinese commenters are calling for more nuance in the debate. The fact that these ...
Prominent Africa Scholar in China Says COVID-19 & Guangzhou Provides Opportunity for Chinese and Africans to “Reflect on How We View Each Other”
In a subtle yet important recognition of the burgeoning chasm between Chinese and African civil societies, one of China's most prominent Africa scholars, Dr. Liu Haifang from Beijing University, called on scholars and other researchers to step back from the various crises that have recently shaken the ...
The COVID-19 Crisis is Rapidly Evolving From a Health Crisis to an Economic Crisis to a Governance Crisis for Some African Leaders
Largely spared of the serious health consequences from the COVID-19 outbreak around the world, the crisis in Africa is now rapidly evolving into an economic and now, increasingly, a political crisis as constituents in a number of African countries express frustration over how their governments have handled ...
Chinese Officials Are Now Trying to Reshape the COVID-19 Narrative: “Coronavirus is Not a China Virus”
Now that the COVID-19 infection rate in China is steadily declining and the government appears to be gaining some measure of control over the outbreak, officials in Beijing are now turning their attention to getting the domestic economy going again and to re-shaping ...
Selling Ugandan Coffee in China: What Really Works?
Timothy Mukisa, Director of Nile Café in Shanghai explains what it takes to successfully penetrate the booming Chinese coffee market. He recently sat down with the Daily Monitor newspaper in Kampala to insights on his success in such a competitive sector. ...
Tweet of the Day: China’s Confucius Institutes in Africa Expand Beyond Cultural Education
Folashadé Soulé is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford and a leading scholar in China-Africa negotiations with a particular emphasis on Chinese engagement in ...
So Far, Africa’s Been Spared… But Why?
While Southeast Asia and other regions around the world brace for a rapid escalation in the number of people infected with the deadly Novel Coronavirus, Africa, so far, has been spared. There are a number of factors that might explain why no cases have been reported on ...
There Are Lots of Ways to Still Fly Direct Between China and Africa
Amid growing concern over Ethiopian Airlines' refusal to halt its direct flights to China in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak that is ravaging Wuhan and other regions in China, it's worth noting that a number of other airlines continue to transport passengers ...
Ethiopian Airlines Gambles With its Hardwon Brand Equity by Continuing to Fly to China
Ethiopian Airlines' decision to continue operating direct flights to China amid the worsening coronavirus outbreak threatens to erode the airline's hardwon brand equity. While 59 other carriers from 44 different countries have all grounded their flights to China, Ethiopian Airlines
Ren Hanjun, a visiting professor at Peking University, posted a commentary on WeChat that was shared tens of thousands times entitled "Wars are easy to start, difficult to end."
The following is a transcript of a commentary posted on WeChat by Ren Hanjun, a visiting professor at a Peking University think tank who also posts video commentaries on international affairs on his WeChat channel 老任财富故事会 (Lao Ren’s Wealth Stories). This particular post about the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran went viral ...
There Are Valuable Lessons For African Policymakers in the China-Australia Feud
The Guardian this week published a fascinating analysis of how the increasing diplomatic tensions between China and Australia could impact Africa. There are fears that recent Chinese crackdowns on Australian wine, barley, coal, and other commodities could be visited on the country’s exports of iron ...