Day: February 22, 2021
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Blinken Wrapped Up Africa Tour With a New Softer, More Conciliatory Message About Competition With China
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned home on Saturday after wrapping up a three-nation, five-day tour of Africa with stops in Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal. Throughout the trip, Blinken sought to reassure his African hosts, and stakeholders across the continent, ...
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The Stark Difference Between How African and U.S. Governments See Engagement With China Was Clearly Evident in Nigeria
The huge divide between how African governments see their engagement with China and how it's framed by the United States was on full display at a press conference late last week in Abuja with visiting Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his host Nigerian ...
U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa No Longer About Confronting China, Says Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at pains last week to emphasize that confronting China is no longer the central focus of U.S. foreign policy towards Africa, as it was during the Trump administration. While the Trump White House
U.S. Beltway Analysts and Journalists Mostly Praise Blinken’s New Approach to China in Africa
Journalists, think tank analysts, and scholars largely expressed approval for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's new, less confrontational approach to China's engagement in Africa. It's important to note, however, that often the views of these analysts tend to be far ...
The U.S. President’s Son Involved in Controversy About a Chinese Mining Deal in the DR Congo
U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter (photo), is once again at the center of a rapidly expanding controversy, this time about the sale of U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan's stake in the massive Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine in the DR Congo to the Chinese mining giant China ...
Tanzanian Authorities Arrest Chinese Farmer For Illegally Pumping Millions of Liters of Water From Local Rivers
A Chinese large-scale farmer was arrested by local authorities in the small village of Kidogozelo in eastern Tanzania for using a high-capacity pump to draw water from the Ruvu river to irrigate his vegetable farm. The unnamed Chinese national is accused of installing and using an illegal ...
Xi Wants to Reboot the Belt and Road Initiative to Become Greener and Less Financially Risky
Xi Jinping laid out what state media described as a "new vision" for the president's Belt and Road Initiative with a focus on more environmentally and economically sustainable projects. The President called for tighter control over BRI projects and for more ...
A Chinese Province Seeks to Make Inroads in the Kenyan Market
While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Kenya last week, a low-key B2B trade show was taking place nearby in Nairobi's Sarit Exposition Centre. It would probably have been worthwhile for the Secretary and his entourage to check it out.
FOCAC PERSPECTIVES: What’s Next For China’s Commitment to African Media Development, Climate-friendly Infrastructure, and Resources-for-Infrastructure Deals?
Every day leading up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference on November 29th and 30th, CAP will feature perspectives from journalists, academics, activists, and business leaders about what they hope will emerge from the FOCAC event in Dakar. If you ...
The Colonial Connection to Chinese Labor Disputes in Africa
The last year or so has seen a constant drip-drip-drip of social media videos showing Chinese managers abusing African workers. The trend has understandably cast a harsh light on Africa-China labor relations. To my mind, the resultant framing of Chinese labor practices in Africa as neo-colonial is ...
Folashadé Soulé on West Africa’s Priorities at FOCAC 8
The triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit is just weeks away now and speculation is now starting to build as to what will be on the agenda. As of now, very little is known as to what's going to happen, ...
China Will No Longer Build Coal Power Plants Overseas, Xi Tells UN
China's long history of building coal-fired power plants in developing countries around the world is now over, said President Xi Jinping in a short, 15-minute video address to the United Nations General Assembly. "China will step up support ...
Biden Touts B3W Developing World Infrastructure Plan in UN Address
Joe Biden didn't say the word "China" once in his sweeping, half-hour-long address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, his first as U.S. president, but confronting Beijing nonetheless emerged as a key theme. On issues ranging from COVID vaccine distribution ...
For a continent of 1.2 billion people, the quantity of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China and other Global North countries remains shockingly low. Bear in mind that the vast majority of these donations are for two-shot vaccines, so the total number of people inoculated is around 25 million.
It’s Time For a More Nuanced Discussion About China
Recently, I caught up by phone with a long-time Chinese friend. The conversation started off friendly enough but soon veered into a heated debate after he accused me of turning from pro-China to anti-China. I met my Chinese friend while I was working at the Chinese embassy’s ...
Kenya Weighs Using SDR Allocation From IMF to Pay Debts to China
The Kenyan government is considering using its allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the International Monetary Fund to repay some of its outstanding debts to China, according to a report in the Business Daily newspaper. While at ...
One Dead, Another Injured Following a Violent Gang Robbery of a Chinese-Owned Warehouse in Nairobi
The Chinese embassy in Nairobi is working with local law enforcement to determine who was responsible for a brutal gang robbery of a Chinese-owned warehouse in a Nairobi suburb. Two Chinese nationals were sleeping in the warehouse when the gang broke in last Friday, ...
While China’s Global Vaccine Distributions Close in on a Billion Doses Delivered, Africa’s Share Remains Small
While China ramps up its global vaccine distributions, particularly in Asia, deliveries to African countries have remained consistently modest since the beginning of the pandemic. So far, only 61.1 million doses have been delivered to African countries, predominantly in the MENA ...
With U.S. COVID Jabs Now Landing in Africa, Vaccine Rivalry With China Likely to Intensify
For the first since the beginning of the pandemic, U.S.-made vaccines are arriving in Africa, opening what will likely become another front in the burgeoning global rivalry with China. The first half of an order of 300,000 doses of Johnson & ...
New Data Reveals China’s Growing Dependence on Middle Eastern Oil
Middle Eastern oil producers now account for 48.3% of China's oil buys in the first half of the year, according to the latest Chinese customs data. Saudi Arabia is the top provider, with 16.8% of the market in H1 2021, followed by Russia with 15.3%.
New Guidelines Suggest Chinese Government Wants Companies to Be Greener When Investing Abroad
The Chinese government appears to be taking much more concrete steps in promoting more environmentally sustainable foreign direct investment. Two of the country's largest ministries, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology, jointly published ...
Beijing’s New Man in Kampala
China's newly-appointed ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong, presented his credentials on Wednesday to Foreign Minister Jeje Odongo. During the brief ceremony, Zhang also gave Odongo a copy of the 668 page "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume Three."
AFP Fact Checks Misinformation Circulating About a Recent Fight in Sierra Leone That Went Viral
Regular readers of this newsletter will know that the viral video of a fight between a Chinese employee and safety inspectors at the Tonkolili mine took place in Sierra Leone, but apparently a lot of people online erroneously think it occurred in Kenya. ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: China Emerges as Key Mediator in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Standoff
Among the most interesting topics discussed this month in the media published throughout the wider Mediterranean region, the crisis over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia stands out. We also found a number of interesting reports regarding the relations between the countries of ...
Why the Neocolonialism Story Will Never Die
The revelation of what appears to be massive illegal Chinese gold mining and logging operations in rural Sierra Leone could open a contentious new front in Africa-China conversations. Or more accurately, it could revivify one of the ur-themes underlying the whole relationship: the idea that China is a ...
Xi Reportedly Agrees to Reschedule Republic of Congo’s Chinese Debts
Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly agreed in principle to reschedule the Republic of Congo's debts to Beijing in a move that will presumably pave the way for a half-a-billion dollar IMF rescue package to take effect. President Xi made the ...
Many in U.S. & Europe Think China’s Belt and Road is Slowing Down. Leading Chinese Development Scholars Says They’re Looking at the Wrong Data.
Leading U.S. think tanks including CSIS and international media outlets like the Financial Times have settled on a narrative that the sharp reduction in Chinese overseas development lending provides the clearest evidence to date that China's Belt and Road Initiative is "pulling back" ...
India Wants to Replace China as Africa’s Preferred Construction Partner
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kenya this week as part of New Delhi's ambitions to become a major development partner to Africa. Like the G7, Jaishankar wants to challenge China's dominance in the African construction market and position Indian contractors as a competitive, more sustainable alternative. ...
Namibian Authorities To Demolish a Relatively New Chinese-Built Multi-Purpose Center Due to Poor Construction
Local authorities in the south-central Namibian town of Mariental have decided to demolish a Chinese-built multipurpose youth center rather than spend $54,000 to repair the building, according to a report in today's Namibian newspaper. Even though the building is ...
Asia, Latin America Remain Top Destinations For Chinese Vaccines While Shipments to Africa Have Largely Stalled
China crossed the 300 million mark last week for the number of COVID-19 vaccines shipped overseas with more than half going to countries in Asia, according to the latest figures the Beijing-based consultancy Bridge Beijing's weekly vaccine tracker report.
With the COVID Crisis Exploding in India, More Countries Turn to China to Fill the Vaccine Void
The vaccine distribution dynamic is rapidly changing in response to the unfolding calamity in India, where the country's healthcare system has collapsed due to an explosion of infections across the country. Experts say the Indian ...
FT: The Evidence From Chile Says Sinovac’s Vaccine is Working
Despite earlier concerns over its low efficacy rate, the Chinese-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine appears to be performing well in its largest test to date in Chile, according to the findings by the Financial Times' Senior Data-Visualization Journalist John Burn-Murdoch.
Seems Like Building an Alternative to China’s BRI is the Thing to Do. Now, the EU and India Want to Give It a Try.
The European Union and India are reportedly in talks to develop a new partnership to build infrastructure around the world in an effort to provide an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. If this sounds familiar, well, it is. U.S. ...
The U.S. Congress Wants to Know More About What the Chinese Are Doing in Africa
In a rare display of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 21-1 on Wednesday to move a bill designed to counter China's growing influence around the world. Next, the "Strategic Competition Act of 2021" will go to the full Senate ...
The Top Commander for U.S. Forces in Africa Tries to Make the Case For Why Americans Should Care About the Continent (Hint: It Has Something to do With China)
Army General Stephen J. Townsend (photo), the top commander for U.S. forces in Africa (AFRICOM), really wants Americans to pay more attention to what's going on in Africa. "China and Russia don't ignore Africa, and that alone should say something," he said. ...
Growing Civil Society Anger in Ghana About the Government’s Perceived Double Standard in How It Treats Chinese “Galamsey”
There's growing frustration in Ghana over the government's apparent refusal to crack down on Chinese participation in illegal gold mining, a practice known locally as galamsey. This is an issue that's been simmering for years, but recently activists and commentators have become much more vocal in denouncing ...
Chinese Legislators Meet With Counterparts in Burkina Faso and Egypt
There's been a noticeable uptick in the number of engagements between Chinese and African legislative leaders. In Burkina Faso, members of the Foreign Affairs Commission from China's National People's Congress held a video conference with representatives from the National Assembly.
China to Build a New Library at the University of Nairobi
Beijing's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, announced on Twitter yesterday that the Chinese government will build a China-themed library at the University of Nairobi. The university is already home to a Confucius Institute. Wu added that he ...
China Cranks Up the Campaign to Lobby African Stakeholders on Xinjiang
With Xinjiang now emerging as a core dividing issue in the increasingly acrimonious U.S.-China relationship, it appears that Beijing is leaning even more on its ties in Africa and other parts of the Global South as part of an effort to build a coalition ...
John Magufuli Took a Lot of Inspiration From the Chinese Communist Party in Shaping Tanzania’s Ruling Party
Late in John Magufuli's life, some observers mistakenly came to see the former Tanzanian President as a budding China hawk for his high-profile rejection of a $10 billion deal with China Merchants Holdings to build out the Bagamoyo port. But the ...
China’s COVID-19 Vaccine Donations Align Suspiciously Close to Beijing’s Geopolitical Priorities in the Global South
The latest tracking data of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine sales and donations around the world by the Beijing-based consulting firm Bridge reveal an interesting distribution around the world that appear to align closely with China's broader geopolitical priorities. ASEAN: Distribution ...
Hundreds of Thousands of Chinese Vaccines Landed in Egypt, Benin, and Niger Over the Weekend
Large shipments of vaccines imported from China landed in North Africa over the weekend, providing some countries with their first jabs needed to kick off national inoculation programs in the region: BENIN: An unknown quantity of Chinese-made Sinovac vaccines arrived in ...
Namibia’s State TV Channel NBC to Broadcast 4-Part Series Produced by CCTV
TV viewers in Namibia will be able to watch a four-part documentary series produced by China's state-run broadcaster CCTV beginning on Monday at 17:20 local time. The show, Glamorous Namibia, will be aired on the state-owned Namibia Broadcast Corporation and is timed to coincide with the 31st anniversary ...
Some African Governments Can’t Have it Both Ways
African governments and multilateral institutions frequently say that they want no part of any new so-called "Cold War" between the U.S. and China. Leaders in those organizations are very quick to remind everyone that they remember the last time Africa got swept up in a Great Power ...
“Them” But Also “Us”
The recent striking images of Texans stuck in freezing temperatures without electricity and queueing for water were hard to process. I felt much solidarity with them, especially when a blackout in Johannesburg made it impossible for me to join Eric ...
It May Be Too Late For the U.S. and Europe to Catch Up With China’s Vaccine Distribution Drive in the Developing World
The reality that China and Russia together have distributed almost a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines lingered over Friday's virtual G7 summit. While attendees expressed concern about the unfair distribution of vaccines, ironically brought on by hoarding in their countries, the leaders from the ...
WSJ Report Provides Clearest Overview to Date of China’s Vaccine Logistics Operation That’s Taking Shape in Africa
A trio of Wall Street Journal reporters in Asia and Africa have compiled what is the most detailed report of China's burgeoning vaccine logistics and distribution operation that's now ramping up from hubs in Ethiopia and Dubai among other places. Last ...
More Chinese Vaccines to Algeria
China's ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe announced late last week that Beijing would donate 200,000 doses of vaccines manufactured by Sinopharm. This is the second shipment of Chinese jabs to Algeria following of vaccines in January from CanSino. (CGTN AFRICA)
Zimbabwe Embarks on National Vaccination Drive With Donated Sinopharm Jabs
Less than one week after Zimbabwe took delivery of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China, the government announced an additional 75,000 are on their way from India. Even though vaccines are now starting to make their ...
China Provides Modest Debt Relief and New Grant to Rwanda
Rwanda's Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana and Chinese ambassador Rao Hongwei announced on Friday that Beijing would forgive $6 million of debt and provide a new $60 million grant to the government in Kigali as part of COVID-19 relief efforts. If the debt forgiveness ...
China-Africa Trade Held Up Last Year Despite the Pandemic
China's top diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, revealed the final two-way China-Africa trade figure for 2020 that came in at $187 billion. All things considered given the massive economic disruptions that occurred last year in both ...
Vaccines Are the New Currency of Geopolitics
It looks like reality is starting to sink in among U.S. and European leaders that their unwillingness/inability to lead the global vaccine relief effort is going to generate some unpleasant outcomes. Sure, G7 leaders said all of the right things at last Friday's virtual summit, where vaccine ...
The Full Picture: China, Africa, and the Global South
The last year has seen the China-Africa space undergoing massive changes. The impacts of COVID-19, the pandemic-induced debt crisis and rapid shifts in Chinese financing to Africa have shifted some of the core assumptions underlying what we think of as ‘China-Africa relations.’
The Plunge in China’s Overseas Lending
Getting a loan from one of China's two largest policy banks is significantly more difficult than it was just a couple of years ago. According to data from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, lending by the China Development Bank and ...
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 ...
“Them” But Also “Us”
The recent striking images of Texans stuck in freezing temperatures without electricity and queueing for water were hard to process. I felt much solidarity with them, especially when a blackout in Johannesburg made it impossible for me to join Eric ...
It May Be Too Late For the U.S. and Europe to Catch Up With China’s Vaccine Distribution Drive in the Developing World
The reality that China and Russia together have distributed almost a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines lingered over Friday's virtual G7 summit. While attendees expressed concern about the unfair distribution of vaccines, ironically brought on by hoarding in their countries, the leaders from the ...
WSJ Report Provides Clearest Overview to Date of China’s Vaccine Logistics Operation That’s Taking Shape in Africa
A trio of Wall Street Journal reporters in Asia and Africa have compiled what is the most detailed report of China's burgeoning vaccine logistics and distribution operation that's now ramping up from hubs in Ethiopia and Dubai among other places. Last ...
More Chinese Vaccines to Algeria
China's ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe announced late last week that Beijing would donate 200,000 doses of vaccines manufactured by Sinopharm. This is the second shipment of Chinese jabs to Algeria following of vaccines in January from CanSino. (CGTN AFRICA)
Zimbabwe Embarks on National Vaccination Drive With Donated Sinopharm Jabs
Less than one week after Zimbabwe took delivery of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China, the government announced an additional 75,000 are on their way from India. Even though vaccines are now starting to make their ...
China Provides Modest Debt Relief and New Grant to Rwanda
Rwanda's Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana and Chinese ambassador Rao Hongwei announced on Friday that Beijing would forgive $6 million of debt and provide a new $60 million grant to the government in Kigali as part of COVID-19 relief efforts. If the debt forgiveness ...
China-Africa Trade Held Up Last Year Despite the Pandemic
China's top diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, revealed the final two-way China-Africa trade figure for 2020 that came in at $187 billion. All things considered given the massive economic disruptions that occurred last year in both ...
Vaccines Are the New Currency of Geopolitics
It looks like reality is starting to sink in among U.S. and European leaders that their unwillingness/inability to lead the global vaccine relief effort is going to generate some unpleasant outcomes. Sure, G7 leaders said all of the right things at last Friday's virtual summit, where vaccine ...