Day: February 8, 2021
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A Strange Controversy in Liberia Over a Joint Statement Denouncing Chinese Human Rights in Xinjiang
For some inexplicable reason, the Liberian Observer, one of the country's leading dailies, published an article on Monday about China's "disappointment" with Monrovia for joining 42 other countries at the United Nations to sign a French-led statement "on the human rights ...
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A DRC-Government Affiliate Forcefully Refutes Congo Hold-Up Allegations, Calling the Report a “Western Conspiracy”
An agency affiliated with the DR Congo government issued its most forceful denunciation to date of the Congo Hold-Up investigative report that detailed massive corruption related to the $6 billion 2008 Sicomines deal. John Omombo (photo), spokesman for the ...
Why the Era of Low-Cost Imports From China May be Coming to an End in Africa (At Least For Now)
The ongoing supply chain disruptions are having a profound impact on the types of goods that consumers in Africa and other Global South countries can access. It used to cost just $1,000 per container to ship low-cost socks, shoes, electronics, and other ...
China Grabs on to Deborah Brautigam’s Frustration With the BBC
The Chinese government and state media have picked up on the controversy that erupted last week when Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, complained on Twitter that the BBC had edited her comments on allegations of 'Chinese debt-trap ...
The Chinese Government Briefs Diaspora in Africa on FOCAC and Also Wants to Make Sure Everyone’s Sufficiently Patriotic
China's Ambassador to Botswana, Wang Xuefeng, led a post-FOCAC briefing of overseas Chinese diaspora from Africa to bring them up to speed on everything that happened at the conference in Dakar and just to make sure they're all aligned when it comes to key issues like Xi Jinping ...
The 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa is the Setting For a New Blockbuster Chinese Drama
Ebola Fighters (埃博拉前线) is a big-budget drama that premiers today on China's largest streaming platforms. It depicts the efforts of frontline Chinese medical staff in the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. ...
The Different Readings of FOCAC
One of the intriguing results of last week’s FOCAC meeting has been a narrative pushed by key English-language publications that it represents a reduction in Chinese engagement with the continent. Bloomberg set the tone in its initial report which counted the sums mentioned in President Xi Jinping’s speech and ...
Chinese, Senegalese Governments Formally Announce FOCAC Dates and Themes
After months of speculation, the Chinese and Senegalese governments last week announced the dates for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation ministerial conference that will take place in Dakar on Monday, November 29th, and Tuesday, November 30th.
Representatives From 50 African Countries Take Part in Inaugural China-Africa Beidou Forum
More than 600 representatives from almost every African country, including eight ministers and eight ambassadors, attended the first-ever China-Africa Beidou System Cooperation Forum that took place on Friday in Beijing and also online with stakeholders in Africa. ...
Scholars, Diplomats in South Africa Discuss the Future of Africa-China Ties
The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) together with the Chinese embassy in Pretoria hosted an online forum last week that featured discussions among Chinese diplomats, including Ambassador Chen Xiaodong, and scholars from both China and Africa to discuss the future of ties between the two ...
Lina Benabdallah Reflects on How This Year’s FOCAC Will Differ From Past Gatherings
Acclaimed China-Africa scholar, Lina Benabdalla, an assistant professor at Wake Forest University in the U.S., reflected on Twitter about how the upcoming FOCAC ministerial conference will be different than previous leadership summits. The following is a lightly edited transcript of her four-part thread on Twitter:
In a Rare Move, China Joins U.S. in UN Statement Calling For Ceasefire in Ethiopia
The 15-member United Nations Security Council achieved rare consensus on Friday when it issued a statement that called on the warring parties in Ethiopia to halt fighting and engage in ceasefire talks. Both China and Russia have ...
Chinese Embassy in Nairobi Dismisses “Fact-Neglecting” U.S. Allegation The PLA Considered Kenya to Set Up a New Base
The United States Defense Department renewed a longstanding allegation, that as of today remains unsubstantiated, that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) "likely considered a number of countries" to set up new military bases including Kenya, Seychelles, Angola, and Tajikstan among other states around ...
Liberian Senate Approves Controversial Resources-For-Infrastructure Deal With Chinese Mining Company
The Liberian Senate voted on Friday to approve a controversial $2.5 billion iron ore for infrastructure deal with the Chinese mining giant BAO Chico. The origins of the deal date back to the 2018 FOCAC summit when President George Weah negotiated the arrangement ...
A Small Chinese Aid Donation in The Gambia Reveals One of China’s Bigger Priorities in Africa
At a glance, Saturday's announcement that China would provide a $23 million grant to The Gambia for unspecified "economic and technical cooperation" (that's often diplomatic speak for unrestricted aid) doesn't seem remarkable at all. Ambassador Ma Jianchun ...
China To Upgrade Equipment at Somalia’s Government-run Media Outlets
China's newly arrived ambassador to Somalia, Fei Shengchao, visited the broadcasting facilities of Radio Mogadishu and the Somali National Television last week and promised to help the government-run broadcasters to upgrade their outdated equipment.
A Group of South African Tourist Guides Graduated From a Chinese Language and Culture Program… But There’s One Small Problem Though
16 tour guides in South Africa graduated on Friday from a six-week program that taught them Chinese language and culture in the hope they'll be able to better support what was once one of the fastest-growing sources of tourism to SA.
The Mysteries of Popularity
Last week we spoke with Joanna Chiu about her fascinating book China Unbound: A New World Disorder. The book focuses on the mechanics of Chinese influence-building around the world. It touches down in several places, including Greece, Russia, Turkey, and Hong Kong, but its main focus falls on ...
China’s Love-Hate Relationship With Coal
If you're confused about China's stance on the use of coal, well, you're definitely not alone. This week, China went on a global coal buying binge in a frantic effort to put a stop to rolling ...
Global Metals Market on Edge Following Guinea Coup and Mounting Concerns About China’s Economy
The coup in Guinea combined with new indicators that China's economy may be slowing is contributing to a period of considerable turbulence in global metals markets as investors try to gauge the impact of these trends on Chinese demand for bauxite, copper, and iron ore:
This Chart Explains Why China is So Concerned About Events in Guinea
"The outcome of the coup attempt is unclear, but the political turmoil offers a test for this relatively new supply chain. Investors need to mull a range of possibilities, from a relatively peaceful power transfer in Conakry that preserves the bauxite status quo, to more disruptive scenarios ...
Guinea Coup Complicates China’s Desire to Wean Itself Off Australian Imports
So far, Guinean bauxite exports to China appear unaffected by last Sunday's coup and policymakers in Beijing are no doubt hoping it stays that way. They would like to avoid having to turn to Australia for further supplies of the critical metal used to manufacture aluminum.
Chinese Mining Interests Purportedly Block Congolese Government Investigators By Smashing Into Their Car
A new video surfaced today on Congolese social media where a DRC government delegation from Kinshasa claims that Chinese mining interests protected by FARDC soldiers blocked their inspection by intentionally causing a road accident. Soon after the incident, one ...
Video Appears of 9 Chinese Miners Arrested For Illegally Mining in Congo’s Far Eastern Ituri Province
The far eastern province of Ituri is emerging as one of the major hubs of illegal Chinese mining in the DR Congo where an unknown number of Chinese migrants and companies are operating without permits. A
New Research Finds That Mix and Matching Chinese Vaccines Boosts Protection Against COVID-19
Various new studies conducted in different regions around the world are all coming to a similar conclusion that Chinese vaccines made by CanSino, Sinopharm and Sinovac can boost immunity protection when either mixed with one another or other jabs like Astra Zeneca.
China’s New Man in Somalia
China's newly-appointed ambassador to Somalia, Fei Shangchao, presented his credentials to President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo on Tuesday at the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Afterward, Fei and President Famaajo discussed the importance of the One China Policy which is ...
What to Expect From the Upcoming China-Africa Leaders Summit?
With the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation leaders summit now widely expected to take place sometime in November, scholars and analysts are starting to set the expectations for the outcomes of the triennial gathering that will likely be much more contentious this year than in the past. ...
Meet China’s Newest E-Commerce Live Streaming Stars: African Ambassadors
The Chinese government launched a new three-month promotional campaign leading up to the FOCAC summit to promote African goods to Chinese consumers on television and via live streaming on popular e-commerce apps. Rather than use celebrities, African ambassadors to China will instead appear on camera ...
TRANSLATION: What Chinese Companies Can Learn From Indian Pharmaceutical Companies in Africa
With health issues, specifically the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, expected to be high on the agenda at the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation leaders summit that is scheduled to take place later this year in Senegal, there's heightened interest in China over how Chinese pharmaceutical ...
The Rapidly Changing Vaccine Distribution Dynamics: Asia to Get Millions of Jabs While Supplies in Africa Run Low
The politics of global vaccine distribution are intensifying as the world's major democratic powers mobilize their own "vaccine diplomacy" initiatives in a bid to compete head-on with China for influence in strategically vital regions, particularly in Asia. Both
China Now the Largest Source of Vaccines For African Countries
This month, a mere 12 million vaccine doses arrived in Africa, twice as many as the previous month, but still a fraction of what's required for a continent with a population of more than a billion people, according to new data from the Beijing-based ...
China May Be Providing More Vaccines to Africa Than Anyone Else, But That’s Not Saying Much
China's total vaccine deliveries to Africa increased slightly over the past week by just 300,000 doses to 20.3 million, according to the latest data from the vaccine tracking reporting compiled by the Beijing-based Bridge Consulting. Asia remains the ...
Botswana to Administer Second Dose of Sinovac Jabs
Frontline workers, elderly residents and others in Botswana who received their first dose of Sinovac vaccines back in March will be able to receive their second dose from today. Health officials also announced that second doses for those who received AstraZeneca jabs will be available as of ...
U.S. Concerns About Chinese Infrastructure and Debt Financing in Africa Date Back More Than Half a Century
Judd Devermont, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted in his daily Africa history Tweet that U.S. anxiety about Chinese infrastructure development in Africa is not a new phenomenon. In fact, as he remarked on Monday, ...
Checking In on Black Life in Shanghai in 2021
It's been a while since social media weighed in on the theme of Black life in China. The topic was immensely popular in the aftermath of anti-Black discrimination that occurred in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou last Spring, but faded in the second half of the ...
Can the G7 Imagine a Different Relationship With the World?
This week, the prominent Financial Times commentator Gideon Rachman argued that the upcoming G7 summit in Cornwall could be ‘the west’s last chance to lead.’ He acknowledged that the seven rich democracies that make up the group (the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and Canada) have seen ...
Algeria to Become Second African Country to Manufacture COVID-19 Vaccines
Algeria announced that it would become the second country in Africa to begin local manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines. Pharmaceutical Minister Lotfi Benbahmed said on Wednesday that the government will partner with Russia to begin production of the Sputnik V vaccine in September.
Chinese Expats in Namibia Line Up at the Embassy For COVID-19 Vaccine Shots
The Chinese embassy in Namibia is one of the first missions in Africa to participate in Beijing's "Spring Sprout" program that aims to inoculate Chinese expatriates. The embassy provided the first of two shots to 1,800 people yesterday from the local ...
Mounting African Frustration Over the Lack of Access to COVID Vaccines Aligns Neatly With China’s Narrative
Namibian President Hage Geingob was visibly frustrated yesterday over the lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines during a video conference with World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to mark World Health Day. The president used an increasingly popular refrain on ...
Dozens of Tanzanian Soybean Companies Get the Go-Ahead to Start Exporting to China
Chinese customs authorities granted approvals to 49 Tanzanian soybean companies this week to begin exporting their crop to China. While the opening of this new market could prove to be very lucrative for Tanzanian farmers, it's unlikely that it'll have much impact on China's soybean imports that ...
After Living in China For 6 Years, This Female Entrepreneur Returns Home to Launch Zimbabwe’s First All-Women-Owned E-Scooter Delivery Business
After spending years living and working in China as an English teacher at an international school. Elizabeth (last name withheld) returned to her native Zimbabwe inspired by China's prowess in logistics and widespread use of electric scooters. Now she's leveraging her ...
G20 Suspends Debt Repayments For Another Six Months
The G20 is providing developing countries with yet more breathing room to repay their debts. G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs met yesterday and announced that it would extend the Debt Service Suspension Initiative by another six months from June through December.
Wang Yi Press Conference Provides Insights Into China’s Foreign Policy Agenda in the Year Ahead
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave a wide-ranging press conference in Beijing yesterday on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress, the annual rubber-stamp parliamentary event, that provided some of the clearest indications to date as to how Chinese foreign policy is going to ...
Hundreds of Thousands of Chinese Nationals in Africa Will Receive COVID-19 Vaccines
China will launch a new program to provide millions of COVID-19 vaccines to its nationals in Africa and elsewhere overseas, according to Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Wang added that Chinese expatriates would be vaccinated either by a Chinese-made jab or one from another country, but either way, ...
Online Tool: COVID-19 Chinese Vaccine Distribution Tracker
The team at the privately-run Beijing-based development consultancy Bridge Beijing launched a new interactive online tool to track global sales and donations of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines. Information is updated weekly. Check out the new COVID-19 vaccine tracker ...
China’s #2 at the Embassy in Zimbabwe Gets in a Twitter Feud Over Vaccines With Opposition Youth Leader and Media
The outspoken Minister Counsellor (similar to the role of Chargé d'Affaires at other embassies) at the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe, Zhao Baogang, got into a high-profile Twitter smackdown with a youth leader from the opposition MDC Alliance over the efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines.
The Economist Intelligence Unit Mapped Out Chinese Trade and Investment in Africa
The London-based Forecast Director for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Agathe Demarai, has been posting quite a bit lately on China-Africa issues, albeit with varying degrees of accuracy (her assertion that Africa as a continent had a Chinese debt problem is not correct, for example) ...
South African Retailers Under Pressure to Ensure Supply Chains Free of Xinjiang Cotton
South Africa's major retailers are under scrutiny from civil society groups to ensure their supply chains do not contain any apparel products that use cotton from China's Xinjiang autonomous region. There are well-documented concerns that Uyghur minority populations are forced to pick cotton by hand.
Anti-Colonial Liberation Ideology Still Very Important in the Chinese Framing of Its Ties With Africa
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunyin posted a tweet on Sunday that reveals how important the anti-colonial liberation struggles of the 1960s and 70s are in today's framing of Beijing's ties with Africa. With the ascendency of President Xi Jinping as ...
China, Africa and the Internet, Again
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa recently discussed African elections and, not surprisingly, the conversation became about China. The lawmakers latched on to a narrative that the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to ...
Why Was Xiaomei Havard Appointed as a Replacement MP in South Africa Given That She Has No Political Experience?
Although the overt racist and xenophobic reactions following last month's appointment by South Africa's ruling African National Congress of Xiaomei Havard as a replacement member of parliament have largely died down, many party members are now wondering how someone with no previous political experience or other relevant ...
China’s Confusing, Contradictory Environmental Agenda
While scrolling today I came across this great piece by the China expert and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, laying out the wider implications of China's much-discussed commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Rudd points out that ...
China’s Growing Influence in the Mideast & Persian Gulf
China is steadily reducing its dependence on African oil suppliers who once accounted for a third of Chinese crude imports. Today, China buys more oil from Saudia Arabia than any other country in the world. From 2019 to 2020,
What It Was Like to Watch the Insurrection in the U.S. From South Africa
Lordeee…I went to bed early on Wednesday night, only to wake up to a full screen of notifications from the New York Times, and pictures of horned men storming the US Capitol. On the edge of the world in Johannesburg, I’m struck by the fact that these events ...
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 ...
Why Was Xiaomei Havard Appointed as a Replacement MP in South Africa Given That She Has No Political Experience?
Although the overt racist and xenophobic reactions following last month's appointment by South Africa's ruling African National Congress of Xiaomei Havard as a replacement member of parliament have largely died down, many party members are now wondering how someone with no previous political experience or other relevant ...