Day: January 28, 2021
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The Pressure is on the G20 to do Something… Anything… About Debt Relief at This Weekend’s Summit in Rome
Debt relief for the world's poorest countries will once again be a topic of discussion at yet another high-profile G20 gathering this weekend in Rome. Yet, there's good reason to doubt that little more will come out of this meeting than any of the ...
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CARI Researchers Critique AidData’s Report on Chinese “Hidden Debt” in BRI Countries
AidData's landmark research report published last month, "Banking on the Belt and Road," generated tremendous media coverage around the world, particularly related to the report's finding that $385 billion in so-called "hidden debts" are owed to China. ...
With New Chinese Money Hard to Come By, Kenya’s Treasury Turns to the Bond Market to Finance Infrastructure
The Kenyan government is making preparations to float its largest-ever bond offering, a record $1.3 billion (Sh150 billion) issuance. It will be used to settle debts with contractors, possibly including some Chinese companies, and to fund road projects that are currently in development.
Chinese State Media: Blame the U.S. For the Coup in Sudan
Although the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been largely silent this week about the military coup in Sudan, the country's largest television broadcaster, CCTV (央视新闻), appears to be framing the story in a way that lays the blame for the collapse of the civilian government squarely at the ...
Two Chinese Experts Call for Beijing to Do More to Provide Non-Vaccine Assistance to Combat COVID in Africa
Simply shipping more jabs to Africa will not be enough to fulfill Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment to make COVID vaccines a "global public good," argued two experts in a column published this week on the site "China and International Development."
Three Years Since Ghana Signed That Big Bauxite-For-Infrastructure Deal With China and Not One Road Has Been Built Yet
A fierce debate broke out this week in Ghana over the status of the 2018 bauxite-for-infrastructure deal with China and the fact that three years later, not a single road has been built. Opposition MP Cassiel Ato Forson, the ...
Chinese Sources Refute Story That a Chinese National Was Jailed For Insulting the DR Congo’s Mining Minister
Chinese sources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are challenging reports first published by human rights activist Géorges Kapiamba that Wang Haifang, a Chinese national, was sentenced to three months in jail and fined $500,000 for insulting the Minister of Mines Antoinette N'samba. ...
Ford’s CEO is Unhappy with China and the DRC’s Control Over EV Supply Chain
Ford chief executive Jim Farley said the cost of electric vehicles remains too high, in part because of the cost of importing key raw materials like cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and relying on batteries made in China. Instead, Farley called for both to ...
Slowly, More Chinese COVID Vaccines Are Landing in Sub-Saharan Africa
China's total vaccine shipments to Africa now total 61.9 million doses (both sold and donated) with more shipments going to sub-Saharan countries including deliveries of more than a million jabs each to Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Although not included in
Grappling with African Success
This week saw the second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, held in Changsha, the capital of China’s Hunan province. As we’ve covered over the last few years, the city is rapidly emerging as a hub of Africa-China trade. It houses a new cocoa trading facility and is ...
Q&A: What Lessons Can the DRC Learn From Ghana’s Experience Combatting Illegal Chinese Mining Activities?
In the last few weeks, we have witnessed heightened campaigns against illegal mining activities associated with Chinese companies in the Congolese provinces of Ituri and South Kivu. Several Chinese miners were arrested in the far Eastern Ituri province where it is believed that an unknown number ...
Reports: Authorities Force Beijing Hotel to Mandatory Quarantine After Zimbabwean VP Tested Positive For COVID
Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper is reporting that the Beijing Wangfujing Legendale Hotel is now under a mandatory 21-day quarantine after a Zimbabwean Vice President, most likely Constantino Chiwenga, tested positive for asymptomatic COVID-19.
Chile, Belarus Poised to Join the Growing List of Global South Countries That Will Produce Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines
China's drive to build manufacturing capacity for its COVID vaccines in countries across the Global South is poised to expand. Talks are now underway to build so-called "fill and finish" facilities in both Belarus and Chile. ...
Major U.S. Conference on Africa Went All Day Without a Single Mention of the Word “China”
The 13th U.S.-Africa Business Summit kicked off on Tuesday with a number of online forums on issues like infrastructure development, COVID-19, and strengthening US investment on the continent. Several senior White House officials, African heads of state, and corporate leaders from both sides are taking part. Remarkably, ...
Zhang Hongming: China’s Strategic Need for Africa in a Time of Great Change
The perception among many stakeholders in the West and across Africa is that China's engagement in Africa is motivated by a need for natural resources and markets for its finished goods. While that may have been true during the early stages of China's presence on the continent ...
Nigeria and the Chinese Debt Trap Myth
The current slump in global oil prices combined with a surge of Nigerian borrowing is prompting a fresh wave of media anxiety related to the country's financial future and specifically whether China will take advantage of the growing instability to seize strategic assets in the event of ...
Pro Tip: Pay Attention to How Hunan Province Is Positioning Itself as China’s African Business Hub
Most people outside of China have never heard of Hunan Province and if they have it's largely because their neighborhood Chinese take-out joint is called something like "Hunan Palace." But not in the China-Africa space. ...
Why the Chinese Embassy in DRC Needs To Take Labor Abuse Videos Seriously
China's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhu Jing, is probably hoping that the fuss from the recent emergence of multiple social videos that depict violent abuse of local Congolese workers by Chinese managers will blow over. ...
Ethiopian PM Opens New Chinese-Funded Leadership Academy in Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed opened a new Chinese-funded training academy intended to support business and political leaders. China covered $34 million of the $50 million construction budget to build the new African Leadership Excellence Academy, the latest ...
Third Wave Sweeps Across Africa as Scarce Vaccine Supplies Run Out
A number of countries throughout Africa are exhausting their limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines just as a devastating third wave of the virus sweeps across the continent. Africa is by no means alone. Dozens of developing countries in other parts of ...
Will Chinese Vaccines Hold Up Against the Delta Variant? That Depends on Who You Trust.
The rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus in Indonesia is prompting growing concern that the Chinese vaccines the country's now reliant on may not be up to the challenge. The Indonesian Medical Association reports that 10 of the ...
Policy Brief: China Now Among Key Factors Complicating U.S. Foreign Policy in the Sahel
The growing presence of "malign Chinese and Russian activities and influence" is one of three key factors complicating U.S. foreign policy in the Sahel Region of Africa, according to a new policy brief from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. ...
A Chinese Woman Gets a Ceremonial Chieftancy in Nigeria and the Internet Goes Berserk
A well-known Nigerian chieftain in Lagos bestowed honorary chieftaincy titles on three foreign nationals and nine Nigerians earlier this month to commend them for their contributions to economic development in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole. The story largely ...
Tanzania President Hassan is Talking to the Chinese Again About a Port Deal in Bagamoyo. But She Might Be Too Late.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan took everyone by surprise late last week when she announced that long-stalled talks with China about expanding the port of Bagamoyo are being resumed. Negotiations over a multi-billion dollar port deal with China Merchant Holdings (CMH) famously ...
Better Late Than Never: Can China Help Kenya Break The 2% Vaccine Wall?
After walking out of the COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Nairobi, with my arm slightly sore after receiving my first free dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, I felt hopeful that this reflected a new stage in Kenya’s COVID-19 response. However, a few weeks on, it has become clear ...
Uganda Wants to Make It Big in China’s Booming Coffee Market
Uganda, like many African countries, suffers from an enormous trade deficit with China. Last year, according to UN figures, Uganda exported just $40 million worth of goods to China but imported more than $1.3 billion in return. The government in Kampala ...
Blinken Warns of Chinese Debt Traps and Imported Labor in Q&A With African Youth
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken resuscitated widely debunked theories about debt traps and imported labor to warn African countries about the dangers of working too closely with Beijing. His comments on Tuesday provide the most detailed ...
Maybe Antony Blinken Thinks China Uses Debt Traps in Africa After Reading Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal
It's not surprising that a lot of people, including the U.S. Secretary of State, remain mistaken in their belief that the Chinese seize physical assets in the event of a loan default, given that it continues to appear in news reports -- including ...
Debunking the Chinese Unskilled Labor Myth in Africa
Antony Blinken is just the latest U.S. Secretary of State to accuse China of bringing over large numbers of unskilled workers to build infrastructure in Africa, presumably at the expense of local labor. Every Secretary of State over the last decade ...
Antony Blinken Revealed He Doesn’t Really Know Much About What China’s Doing in Africa
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed yesterday that when it comes to understanding the dynamics of China's engagement in Africa, he really doesn't know very much. When a young person floated him a softball question about how the U.S. plans ...
Transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Q&A Exchange About Chinese Engagement in Africa
WAZAM OBANOR: Considering the growth of the Chinese in Africa, will the U.S. be competing with China in Africa -- especially as it pertains to Africa's growth over the next few years? U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Thank you Wazam, ...
China’s Engagement in Africa Becomes Focal Point at Linda Thomas- Greenfield’s Confirmation Hearing to Become U.S. Envoy to the UN
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, came under criticism on Wednesday during her confirmation hearing, for a speech she made in 2019 at a now-closed Confucius Institute in Savannah, Georgia. Republican senators argued the speech was overly complimentary ...
If/When Two Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Get Approval From WHO, Demand From Developing Countries Likely to Increase
Two Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinopharm and Sinovac are now under evaluation by the World Health Organization to receive the highly prized prequalification (PQ) status. If the Chinese vaccines do receive WHO PQ certification, that could open up vast new ...
Black Market Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Poses a Significant Threat to China’s Vaccine Push in Developing Countries
News that Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were smuggled into the Philippines sparked concern around the world that the already thriving black market trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals will inevitably extend to the coronavirus vaccine. Lebogang Mokoena, a columnist for the South ...
Chinese State Media Isn’t Taking Vaccine Criticism Very Well
Questions about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines and whether China and India have engaged in a form of "vaccine rivalry" really seem to have gotten under the skin of China's bombastic national tabloid Global Times. In fact, they seem downright hurt by the critiques and seem to ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Testimony Reveals Gaping Holes in U.S. Understanding of Chinese Engagement in Africa
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked on several occasions to comment on how she perceives China's engagement in Africa. Remember that Thomas-Greenfield is ...
A Taliban security personnel operating an anti-aircraft gun keeps watch for Pakistani airstrikes near the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Nangarhar province on February 27, 2026 following overnight cross-border fighting between the two countries. Photo by AIMAL ZAHIR / AFP
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared "open war" against Afghanistan on Friday amid a surge of fighting between the two South Asian neighbors. Pakistan said it's retaliating against Afghanistan for a series of attacks, including a suicide bombing in early February that killed at least 36 people ...
China’s Engagement in Africa Becomes Focal Point at Linda Thomas- Greenfield’s Confirmation Hearing to Become U.S. Envoy to the UN
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, came under criticism on Wednesday during her confirmation hearing, for a speech she made in 2019 at a now-closed Confucius Institute in Savannah, Georgia. Republican senators argued the speech was overly complimentary ...
If/When Two Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Get Approval From WHO, Demand From Developing Countries Likely to Increase
Two Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinopharm and Sinovac are now under evaluation by the World Health Organization to receive the highly prized prequalification (PQ) status. If the Chinese vaccines do receive WHO PQ certification, that could open up vast new ...
Black Market Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Poses a Significant Threat to China’s Vaccine Push in Developing Countries
News that Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were smuggled into the Philippines sparked concern around the world that the already thriving black market trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals will inevitably extend to the coronavirus vaccine. Lebogang Mokoena, a columnist for the South ...
Chinese State Media Isn’t Taking Vaccine Criticism Very Well
Questions about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines and whether China and India have engaged in a form of "vaccine rivalry" really seem to have gotten under the skin of China's bombastic national tabloid Global Times. In fact, they seem downright hurt by the critiques and seem to ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Testimony Reveals Gaping Holes in U.S. Understanding of Chinese Engagement in Africa
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked on several occasions to comment on how she perceives China's engagement in Africa. Remember that Thomas-Greenfield is ...