Month: April 2021
Related Posts
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, ...
The U.S. Tries to Repackage What’s Effectively a Zoom Call Into Secretary Antony Blinken’s “Virtual Travel to Africa”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will "embark on his first virtual trip to Africa" on Tuesday as part of an effort to reach out with young people in Kenya and Nigeria. Even though the State Department ...
Quad Queries
I’ve wondered in the past whether ‘the Quad’ – the alliance among the United States, Japan, Australia and India dedicated as a counterweight to China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region – has taken on such prominence simply because the word is so fun to say. Quad quad ...
Why African Energy Exporters Should Be Concerned About CNOOC’s Interest in a Massive Qatari Gas Deal
One of China's three major oil and gas companies, CNOOC, is reportedly interested in joining the world's largest natural gas project in Qatar. The company's CFO Xie Weizhi said CNOOC is exploring the option to invest in the $29 ...
Egypt Approves Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use
Egypt's drug authority said on Monday it had granted approval to China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. Egypt has so far approved and received shipments of the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines and has said it is preparing to produce up ...
The Stuff That Goes Into Making a Battery For Electric Vehicles is Getting a Lot More Expensive
Prices for the key commodities needed to produce electric vehicle batteries have been rallying all year on stronger demand for new energy vehicles. They spiked in recent days, following the U.S.-led summit on climate change that took place online last week. ...
In a Bid to Get People Back in the Air, Ethiopian Airlines Deploys Chinese Tech For Rapid Passenger COVID Testing
Ethiopian Airlines is hoping that a new Chinese-made COVID-19 rapid testing facility at its hub in Addis Ababa will resuscitate its passenger business. The airline partnered with BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China's biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co, to build the new testing center at Bole ...
Just Because a Country Places an Order For Chinese Vaccines, Doesn’t Mean They’ll Be Delivered on Time
The Beijing-based consultancy Bridge Consulting provides an important reminder that announcements about vaccine deals between China and various African governments are a little bit like many of those MoU announcements that too often fail to deliver real projects. With vaccines, the ...
China, Africa and the Fast-Changing Geopolitics of Vaccines
Public health authorities across Africa are scrambling to find new sources of vaccines now that the supply of jabs they had been counting on from the global Covax alliance has all but come to a halt due to the unfolding disaster in India.