Parsifal D’Sola, director of the Bogota-based think tank Center for China-Latin America Investigation at the Andrés Bello Foundation thought that it was a bit strange that given the high level of concern among U.S. policymakers in Washington, D.C. about China’s growing influence in the Americas and Africa that not a single one of the 25 scholars who will receive a China fellowship from The Wilson Center plans to do research on either of these two regions.

There’s a lot of attention paid to U.S.-China relations, China’s activities in the South China Sea, ASEAN, and control of critical supply chains but not one will do any research on China’s role in the Global South beyond Asia.