Day: April 15, 2021
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DOUBLE EPISODE: Andy Mok Reflects on FOCAC Plus a Discussion About Bad China-Africa Journalism
With the end of the year fast approaching and time running out to get everything into the last remaining shows of the season, we're bringing you a special double episode this week. First, join us ...
Related Posts
Nigeria’s Debt Crossed the $90 Billion Threshold… But Not Because of Chinese Loans
Nigeria's total debt, both external and domestic, edged up by 4% to $92.6 billion as of the end of September according to the latest data from the Debt Management Office (DMO). The DMO said the increase was due largely ...
Nigeria’s Controversial Transport Minister Will Likely Run For President Touting the Success of New Chinese-Built Railways
Nigeria's high-profile and rather controversial transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi is under mounting pressure from political allies to run for president in the upcoming election scheduled for 2023. And if he does run, there are indications he's going to put ...
The U.S. and China Are Squabbling Over a Chinese-Financed Railway. This Time It’s in Vietnam, Not Kenya
U.S. and Chinese state-backed media outlets are once again exchanging fire over a Chinese-backed railway project in the Global South... but this time it's not the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, instead, it's Hanoi's brand new subway in Vietnam that is at the center of yet another ...
The New U.S. Strategy for the Indo-Pacific Region Sounds a Lot Like Washington’s New Approach to Africa
Secretary of State Antony Blinken doesn't want developing countries to feel they have to choose between the U.S. and China. He also wants to discourage these countries from building costly low-quality infrastructure and vowed that Washington will now be more committed to their region. ...
BRI Scholar Reflects on U.S.-China Competition For Influence in ASEAN and the Critical Role of Railways
The new $6 billion, 1,000-kilometer China-Laos railway that opened a couple of weeks ago is widely seen as the most visible evidence of Beijing's push to expand its presence in Southeast Asia. The railway's debut came just before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region ...
The ‘China Building a Military Base in Equatorial Guinea’ Narrative is Fast Becoming Normalized… No Evidence Needed
The unsubstantiated claim by the U.S. military that China is considering Equatorial Guinea as the location of its next military base in Africa is widely gaining traction among U.S. and European journalists, scholars, and analysts despite the fact that there is still no evidence to verify the ...
South African Foreign Policy Too Much of a “Mess” For China to Exert Significant Influence Analyst Tells Sky News Australia
An interesting exchange took place on a recent episode of the Global Focus program on Sky News Australia where host Chris Pyne wanted to know from fellow Australian author and Africa scholar Jamie Miller whether China is exerting undue economic and political influence in South Africa.
What Does ‘African Agency’ Actually Look Like? We’ll See…
The moral panic in Uganda about a possible Chinese seizure of the Entebbe airport as a result of a loan default is a rare example of a trend that’s both trivial and serious. In the former sense, the panic is based on misreporting. The loan is still ...
Liberia’s House of Reps Blocks Controversial Chinese Mining Deal
A fascinating political struggle is playing out in Liberia over a controversial 25-year iron ore deal with Chinese company BAO Chico. Last week, the Senate ratified the deal in what critics contend was effectively a rubber stamp decision after only minimal discussion and no expert ...
Tensions are Rising Between Chinese Mining Companies and Rural Communities in Zimbabwe
This year has seen steadily rising tensions between Chinese companies and local communities in rural Zimbabwe. These communities live in areas where Chinese firms have been expanding their granite, diamond, and other mining and construction activities. There's ...
Antony Blinken Heads to Africa For First Trip as Secretary of State
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a week-long, three-nation tour of Africa on Monday, making up for a trip that was originally scheduled in August but canceled so the Secretary could focus on the troop withdrawal fiasco in Afghanistan. ...
U.S. Generals Continue to Insist China Plans to Build New Military Bases in Africa Even Though There’s No Evidence
The United States military is turning up the volume on its longstanding allegation that China is actively considering building new military bases around the world, including in four African countries. The Pentagon restated the assertion earlier this month in a report to Congress, even though ...
How the U.S. Allegation Over More Chinese Bases in Africa Fits into a Broader U.S. Narrative
The conservative Heritage Foundation's Senior Policy Analyst for Africa and the Middle East, Joshua Meservey, commented on Friday about the U.S. Defense Department report that included the allegation that China is considering at least four countries in Africa to build new military outposts. Meservey
World Bank Chief David Malpass on Debt Transparency and the Challenges of Working With the Chinese
World Bank President David Malpass pushed back against the suggestion that China engages in predatory lending to developing countries and instead described the lack of transparency in working with China as a "challenge." Malpass made the comments during an interview on Sunday with CBS Face the Nation ...
China Surpassed 1 Billion Vaccine Exports: But What More Can It Do?
By Alex Henderson, Zoe Leung, Marisa Lim, and Christine Ow Global demand for COVID-19 vaccines has never been of higher significance. While many countries have already reached high vaccination rates, new rationales have again increased the relevance of vaccines. In ...
Will China Go Green After Going Out?
By Lukas Fiala and Hugo Jones, China Foresight LSE IDEAS With environment and climate change concerns at the center of attention ahead of the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow, Beijing is increasingly seeking to portray China as a leader in combatting climate ...
Lightning Round: Africa-France Summit, FOCAC & UK Port Deal
An often contentious leaderless summit took place last in Montepellier where African youth activists did not hold back in telling French President Emmanuel Macron what they thought needed to be done to improve ties between the two regions. Eric & Cobus ...
Under Pressure, Chinese Government to Prosecute Six of its Mining Companies in the DRC For Environmental Crimes
China's unfolding drama in the Democratic Republic of Congo took an unexpected turn on Tuesday evening when Wu Peng, Beijing's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, announced on Twitter that the Chinese government will prosecute six small mining companies that operated illegally in the far eastern ...
Chinese Embassy to Set Up a Special Unit That Aims to Combat Illegal Mining (Presumably by Chinese Companies)
TWEET TRANSLATION: The Chinese authorities have taken action to support the Congolese government in the fight against the illegal exploitation of natural resources. A special unit has also been set up within the Chinese Embassy in the DRC. China's ambassador to the ...
Online Reaction to Wu’s Tweets Was a Mix of Cautious Optimism and Outright Skepticism
More than a hundred comments were posted in response to the tweet by China's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, about the Chinese government's decision to prosecute six Chinese mining companies found to be violating the law in the DRC's South Kivu province. ...
There’s a Lot More Discussion on WeChat About What Chinese Mining Companies Need to Do to Comply With DRC Law
The steadily rising pressure on Chinese mining companies operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo is prompting some very lively discussions on the Chinese social media network WeChat. The discussions focus on giving legal guidance on what Chinese companies need to do to better comply with local ...
TRANSLATION: Assessing the New Risks For Chinese Companies, Projects and Personnel in Post-Coup Guinea
The city of Shanghai's department of commerce posted a fascinating six-point analysis of the new risks confronting Chinese companies operating in Guinea following the recent overthrow of President Alpha Condé by a military junta. The post appeared on an official WeChat ...
Madagascar’s Military Will Soon Learn to Say 你好 (Hello)
Officials in Madagascar's Ministry of Defense will soon have the chance to study Mandarin thanks to a new program set up by the embassy's new military office in Antananarivo. The objective of the course is to facilitate "broader, smoother and sounder communication" between the two militaries.
Africa Should Negotiate Collectively with China at FOCAC. But That’s Not Going to Happen.
As the next Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) draws closer, the same sentiments and concerns over Africa’s relative position in the 20-year-old arrangement keep coming up. It is widely acknowledged that the continent generally gets the short end of the stick ...
Chinese Businesses in South Africa Form Armed Self Defense Groups to Protect Their Property From Looters
Chinese business owners in KwaZulu-Natal's third-largest city Newscastle are forming armed civil patrols to protect their property and residents from the violent protests that have steadily escalated since July 8th, according to a report published by the Chengdu Commercial Daily newspaper. The Newcastle area ...
Amid Escalating Violence in South Africa, Chinese Embassy Warns Its Citizens To Take Urgent Precautions
The Chinese embassy in Pretoria is warning all Chinese nationals in South Africa to take immediate precautions to protect themselves and their businesses from the rapidly deteriorating security situation in KwaZulu-Natal province and other regions around the country. "The ...
Weibo User: Where Are the Wolf Warriors to Rescue Chinese Nationals in South Africa?
Where's Wu Jing and the Wolf Warriors to help overseas Chinese impacted by the violence in South Africa wondered Weibo user "Little Tiger" (某小老虎) in a post on the Chinese social network on Wednesday. Although "
Burkina Faso Launches New Huawei-Powered Smart City Initiative Using Loan From the China Exim Bank
The Burkina Faso government announced an ambitious new plan last week to build a 650-kilometer fiber-optic network that will connect all of the country's major cities to a new Huawei-powered Smart City platform. Sensitive to the perception that the ...
Hunan Provincial Authorities Provide Film & Media Training to 65 Journalists From Across Francophone Africa
Media companies and government officials from China's central Hunan province are in the midst of a two-week training program for French-speaking journalists from across Africa, including 20 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and others from Senegal, Cameroon, and Gabon among other countries. ...
Meet 16-Year Old Guangzhou Native Su Yuliang Who’s Poised to Make History in China’s Pro Soccer League
There will be a young, fresh face playing for Guangzhou FC when the Chinese Super League (CSL) opens its new season. Born in the southern Chinese city to Nigerian and Chinese parents, Su Yuliang (苏宇亮) was drafted by the club and, at 16 years old, if he ...
Chinese News and Social Media Commentary Largely Dismiss G7’s Plans to Challenge BRI and Vaccine Distribution
After a flurry of announcements at the end of the three-day G7 summit in Cornwall, observers around the world spent Monday digesting the communiqué, various government fact sheets, and news coverage to try and piece together what it all means. China, ...
The U.S. Campaign to Challenge China’s Vaccine Distribution Drive in Developing Countries Gets Off to an Awkward Start
The U.S. effort to catch up with China's vaccine distribution drive in developing countries got off to a rocky start on Monday when the embassy in the Caribbean island state of Trinidad and Tobago announced on Twitter that it would donate a total of ...
Attracting Private Investment to Build Infrastructure in Africa May Sound Like a Great Idea, but It’s Really Difficult in Practice
With the launch of the G7's new "Build Back Better World" initiative (B3W) that aims to distinguish itself from China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by channeling private sector capital to build infrastructure in developing countries, three senior leaders in the International Monetary Fund's ...
China’s Largest Commercial Bank Says It Plans to Phase Out Financing Coal Projects
The chief economist at China's largest bank, the International Commercial Bank of China, and one of the world's largest financiers of fossil fuel projects said the bank will begin to phase out support for coal power projects. Zhou Yueqiu told a ...
Nigeria’s Transport Minister Questioned About “Tricky” Chinese Loans, Debt Traps and Repayment
Nigerian Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi made the rounds of national TV news channels to promote Tuesday's official launch of the Chinese-built Lagos to Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway service. In an interview with Arise TV, Rotimi fielded a ...
China Paid For a Second Article in South African Media to Promote Vaccine Agenda
Quick update on a story that we brought you last week about China's use of paid content marketing to promote the use of its vaccines in South Africa. A second article has now been published in the "Partnered Content" section of ...
B3W and the Democracy Issue
One of the interesting divisions emerging from the Biden administration’s campaign to re-energize the G7 and NATO against China is its attempt to divide the world into ‘democracies’ and ‘autocracies,’ and to insist that the two groups are squaring off against each other as if they’re in ...
Chinese Vaccine Deliveries to Africa Lag Far Behind the Rest of the World
New data about where Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine are shipped around the world reveals that despite lots of lofty political rhetoric and media coverage, deliveries to Africa lags far behind the rest of the world. To date, just over 6 million doses ...
More Than Half a Billion Doses of Chinese Vaccines Will be Manufactured Overseas Every Year
Chinese pharmaceutical companies have finalized production licensing agreements with seven countries around the world that will enable the production of just under 600 million COVID-19 vaccine doses every year, according to data from Bridge. Bridge notes that at ...
Although Quantities Remain Low, the Pace of Chinese Vaccine Deliveries in Africa Accelerates
The confirmation from the Bridge tracking report that the overall quantity of Chinese vaccine deliveries to Africa is comparatively low provides a new perspective on the constant vaccine-related propaganda news coverage produced by China's state-owned media outlets and its official diplomatic Twitter channels across the ...
With the J&J Jab Stalled in South Africa, EFF Party Leader Julius Malema Calls on Government to Approve Chinese, Russian Vaccines
One day after the South African government suspended the rollout of the U.S.-made Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to worries about blood clots, opposition leader and head of the Economic Freedom Fighters party Julius Malema called on the government to grant emergency approval ...
VOA Report Criticizes Chinese Vaccines Using Many of the Same Propaganda Tactics That Chinese Used to Point Out Flaws in U.S. Jabs
There was widespread outrage in the U.S. last year when Chinese propaganda outlets and Foreign Ministry spokespeople issued false claims and sowed doubts over the safety of Pfizer vaccines. Now, it appears that the U.S. government-owned media is doing something similar, with poorly reported ...
Anxiety Over Chinese Loans is Once Again Front Page News in Nigeria
A front-page story on The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday highlighted renewed worries in Nigeria about the country's debts to China. There was no new information in the story as Chinese lending to Nigeria has remained largely flat over the ...
New Independent China-Africa Think Tank Opens in Ghana
Two years after it was founded, a new Ghana-based China-Africa research center launched on Tuesday with a virtual ceremony. The Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations is an Accra-based think tank that aims to provide policymakers, scholars, and the public with critical analysis on contemporary issues in China-Africa ...
Africa and the Suga-Biden Summit
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga left Tokyo today for a crucial summit on Friday with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. This is going to be an important get-together, not only because it's the first time that Biden will host a visiting leader as president ...
Why Would Burundi Endorse China’s Controversial New Election Law in Hong Kong?
The small landlocked East African country of Burundi reportedly felt so strongly about China's controversial new election law for Hong Kong that it published an enthusiastic endorsement of the legislation and praised Beijing's "wisdom to ensure the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong ...
Asia, Not Africa, Will Soon be Awash in COVID-19 Vaccines Thanks to China’s Worsening Ties With Rivals
Leaders of the four-nation Indo-Pacific coalition known as "the Quad" (short for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) announced a new initiative after a virtual summit on Friday to distribute one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to countries in Asia, predominantly in the ASEAN region.
Second Batch of Chinese Vaccines to Arrive Today in Zimbabwe
A chartered Air Zimbabwe flight is scheduled to land at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare with the second batch of Chinese-made vaccines. The fact that Ambassador Gao Shaochun mentioned in a Tweet that the new jabs have been procured from China indicates that this latest shipment ...
China Donates Vaccines to UN Peacekeepers and International Olympic Committee
China will donate COVID-19 vaccines to the United Nations for use by peacekeepers stationed around the world, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at the regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday. Zhao did not mention how many doses would be offered or when they ...
With a Reference to Africa, Comedian Bill Maher Warns Fellow Americans “We’ve Lost” to China
U.S. comedian and political commentator Bill Maher issued a scathing indictment of the U.S. and failure to keep pace with China in the 21st Century. "We're not losing," he said on his show Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, "we've lost." He referenced the BRI and ...
China’s “Global Public Good” Vaccine Pledge Misses the Mark
No one was really sure what to expect from President Xi Jinping's pledge last May to make Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a "global public good." In typical Chinese fashion, there was no explanation of what he meant, instead, Chinese officials for months just kept repeating "
The Reappearance of Blackface on China’s Most Popular New Year’s TV Program Sparks Angry Debate
The use of blackface for the second time in just three years to depict Africans on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala program broadcast last Thursday, provoked a heated debate on social media networks around the world over the weekend. The program is one of China's ...
With a Mix of Defiance and Defensiveness, CCTV Blackface Issue Emerges as a Contentious Issue on Weibo
Just as CCTV's use of blackface to depict Africans in the annual Spring Gala TV show sparked an immediate response by those outside of China, there's was a near-immediate reaction on Weibo, one of China's largest social media networks. But the ...
Q&A: Black Livity China Creators Explain Why African Diaspora Communities Are Growing Weary of Chinese Racial Insensitivities
Last Thursday's blackface episode on CCTV's hugely popular Spring Gala TV show is just the latest incident of anti-Black racial insensitivity in China that's prompting mounting frustration within the African expatriate community in China and the diaspora population abroad. There's a ...
Death of the Chinese Debt Trap Narrative
Critics of China's lending practices in Africa and much of the developing world have gone suspiciously quiet over the past 6-7 months. A year or so ago, Kenyans were up in arms over erroneous reports that China was going to seize the Port of Mombasa. A few months ...
New Stats Reveal China-Africa Trade, Aid Flows Rose in 2019, But FDI Kept Falling
Researchers at the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. published a highly-anticipated update on Wednesday to their data sets that track Chinese economic engagement with the continent. The new figures for 2019 can't be summed up in a single, simple narrative. While trade and foreign aid both increased ...
China’s Rapidly Evolving Relations in the DR Congo
Foreign Minister Wang Yi's stopover in Kinshasa on his latest Africa tour highlights the growing importance of the DR Congo in Chinese foreign policy. During his visit, Wang announced a modest debt relief package and that the DRC would become the ...
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 ...
Chinese Vaccine Deliveries to Africa Lag Far Behind the Rest of the World
New data about where Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine are shipped around the world reveals that despite lots of lofty political rhetoric and media coverage, deliveries to Africa lags far behind the rest of the world. To date, just over 6 million doses ...
More Than Half a Billion Doses of Chinese Vaccines Will be Manufactured Overseas Every Year
Chinese pharmaceutical companies have finalized production licensing agreements with seven countries around the world that will enable the production of just under 600 million COVID-19 vaccine doses every year, according to data from Bridge. Bridge notes that at ...
Although Quantities Remain Low, the Pace of Chinese Vaccine Deliveries in Africa Accelerates
The confirmation from the Bridge tracking report that the overall quantity of Chinese vaccine deliveries to Africa is comparatively low provides a new perspective on the constant vaccine-related propaganda news coverage produced by China's state-owned media outlets and its official diplomatic Twitter channels across the ...
With the J&J Jab Stalled in South Africa, EFF Party Leader Julius Malema Calls on Government to Approve Chinese, Russian Vaccines
One day after the South African government suspended the rollout of the U.S.-made Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to worries about blood clots, opposition leader and head of the Economic Freedom Fighters party Julius Malema called on the government to grant emergency approval ...
VOA Report Criticizes Chinese Vaccines Using Many of the Same Propaganda Tactics That Chinese Used to Point Out Flaws in U.S. Jabs
There was widespread outrage in the U.S. last year when Chinese propaganda outlets and Foreign Ministry spokespeople issued false claims and sowed doubts over the safety of Pfizer vaccines. Now, it appears that the U.S. government-owned media is doing something similar, with poorly reported ...
Anxiety Over Chinese Loans is Once Again Front Page News in Nigeria
A front-page story on The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday highlighted renewed worries in Nigeria about the country's debts to China. There was no new information in the story as Chinese lending to Nigeria has remained largely flat over the ...
New Independent China-Africa Think Tank Opens in Ghana
Two years after it was founded, a new Ghana-based China-Africa research center launched on Tuesday with a virtual ceremony. The Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations is an Accra-based think tank that aims to provide policymakers, scholars, and the public with critical analysis on contemporary issues in China-Africa ...
Africa and the Suga-Biden Summit
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga left Tokyo today for a crucial summit on Friday with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. This is going to be an important get-together, not only because it's the first time that Biden will host a visiting leader as president ...