Day: May 17, 2021
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Beijing and Taipei: The Latin American Geopolitical Connection
By Dr. Alvaro Mendez Some observers insist that the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) presence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is not geopolitically motivated. I acknowledge that Chinese foreign policy may be driven currently mostly by economic, diplomatic, and ...
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WEEK IN REVIEW: Kenya’s Monetary System Struggling Under the Weight of Chinese Debt Servicing Obligations
The demands of servicing debts, largely to China, are weighing heavily on Kenya's monetary system. The shilling dropped again in Monday trading and the central bank reported that foreign exchange reserves have plunged by $899 million over the last three months. Analysts say beyond the hundreds of millions ...
Chinese Involvement in the “Congo Hold-Up” Corruption Scandal
19 media outlets together with five NGOs in the U.S. and Europe pored through 3.5 million leaked documents from a Gabonese bank to produce Congo Hold-Up, a landmark report that detailed breathtaking corruption in the DR Congo during ...
China Reaffirms Commitment to Redistribute Its Share of the IMF’s New Special Drawing Rights
China's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, tweeted on Tuesday that Beijing remains committed to redistributing its share of the International Monetary Fund's recent issuance of $650 billion in new so-called "Special Drawing Rights" (effectively the currency of ...
Blinken Arrives in Kenya, Kicks Off Week-Long Africa Tour
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday to begin a three-nation, five-day Africa tour that will also take him to Nigeria and Senegal. While the worsening security situation in Ethiopia will top the ...
Howard French on the Stark Differences Between U.S. and Chinese Diplomacy in Africa
Author and journalist Howard French is promoting his new book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War. In a conversation this week with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs he commented on ...
Beijing Feels Egypt’s Administrative Capital Will Prove China’s Winning the Global South Infrastructure Game
Chinese media appears to be increasingly concerned about the emergence of new competitors to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly the U.S.-led Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, which is now gaining momentum. U.S. officials say around 50 projects have ...
This Year’s FOCAC Should Focus on Development Projects That Are Both Economically and Environmentally Sustainable
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 ...
FOCAC Isn’t the Only Regional China Conference Taking Place This Month
While a lot of attention is now focused on the final preparations ahead of this month's China-Africa ministerial conference in Senegal, another, equally important regional meeting kicked off in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on Tuesday. The 14th China-Latin America ...
U.S. Conservatives Are Becoming Increasingly Concerned About China’s Engagement in Latin America and They’re Using the Same Rhetoric They Did About Africa
U.S. fears of China "taking over" countries and entrapping them in "debt traps" all while "corrupting political elites" should sound very familiar to African stakeholders who've heard for years identical concerns expressed about China's engagement in their region -- only this time, U.S. conservatives are focused on ...
Congolese Superstar Cédric Bakambu Announces Departure From the Chinese Super League, Widely Expected to Sign Soon With FC Barcelona
Congolese forward and Chinese Super League star Cédric Bakambu spoke publicly for the first time on Monday about his pending departure from Beijing Guoan where he spent the past four years and became the league's top scorer. Bakambu is a free agent ...
As the World Forgets About the Debt Crisis, More African Countries Struggle to Stay Afloat Amid Rising Servicing Costs
Last year at this time, expectations ran high that Africa's largest creditors in Beijing, and among the Paris Club members were all motivated to restructure their outstanding loans to reduce the burden on some of the world's poorest countries. Well, it ...
Why Pragmatism, Not Ideology Drives Chinese Economic Engagement in Africa
In these contentious times, China is often accused of exporting its statist economic model to Africa and other developing regions as part of a broader ideological agenda to create a new Sinocentric international order. But Tsinghua University Professor Tang Xiaoyang argues
China’s Vaccine Diplomacy: Soft Power Lessons from Latin America
By Dr. Álvaro Mendez, Co-Director & Senior Associate Fellow, Global South Unit at LSE IDEAS In early 2021, Beijing launched a diplomatic campaign to promote China’s COVID-19 vaccines with the aim of winning friends and cutting deals in ...
Week in Review: Human Rights, Contracts and Finance
China is turning to governments in Tanzania, South Sudan, and other Global South countries to fend off international criticism over its human rights policies in Xinjiang. The treatment of Uyghur Muslims was the main focus this week at the UN Human Rights Council after
The Complicated, Confusing Nature of China’s Ties With Israel
China has deftly managed its relations in the Middle East across sensitive sectarian and geopolitical landscapes but now that Beijing is moving to become more engaged in the region, it risks falling into many of the same pitfalls that have bedeviled ...
China, Africa, and the U.S. Fiasco in Afghanistan
We all woke up to a different world today with the shocking images of Monday's bungled U.S. evacuation from Kabul still overflowing our social media feeds and this nagging feeling that something big, really big happened that we still don't fully understand.
TRANSLATION: Is It a Good Idea For Chinese Companies in Africa to Reply Primarily on Chinese Workers?
Few issues in the China-Africa relationship are as old or as contentious as that of labor. Accusations that Chinese companies prefer to hire their own unskilled laborers and then mistreat the local employees they do hire are among the widely believed perceptions about Chinese labor practices in ...
Report: The Belt and Road Is Becoming Greener as China Backs Away From Financing Coal Power Projects
China has a well-deserved reputation for being the financier of choice for coal-powered energy projects around the world. While many other development finance agencies have backed away in recent years from underwriting heavily polluting power plants, China seemingly went the other way.
Two Competing Views of the G7’s B3W vs. China’s BRI
It's been almost a week since the G7 announced its new U.S.-inspired Build Back Better World initiative that aims to channel private capital to build infrastructure in developing countries as part of a broader effort to stem China's influence in this arena.
Half a Million Sinopharm Jabs Now Going From China to Equatorial Guinea
Media in Equatorial Guinea have been closely following the shipment of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines from the airport in Beijing to the capital in Malabo where it's expected to arrive on Thursday. The Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua confirmed that this shipment ...
As Infections Rise in Countries Previously Vaccinated With Chinese Jabs, Doubts Persist About Vaccine Efficacy
The effectiveness of Chinese-made vaccines is emerging as an enduring narrative in the U.S. media due in part to resurgent infection rates in countries that have relied heavily on Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs. But a lot of this coverage lacks nuance ...
As Much as China Probably Wants to Shift Its Iron Ore Buys From Australia to Africa, It Won’t Happen Soon
There's been a lot of discussion over the past year about China's desire to eliminate its dependence on Australian iron ore in favour of supplies from countries like Guinea, Algeria, South Africa and Brazil among others. China has been steadily trying ...
China Just Gave Kenya Two Luxury Buses and a New Foreign Ministry HQ
Kenya's new Foreign Ministry building will be built and paid for by the Chinese government. Ambassador Zhou Pingjian made the announcement late last week during a visit with Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau at the current foreign ministry headquarters in Nairobi. ...
$25 Billion of Deals Signed During Annual Silk Road Forum in China
The Fifth annual Silk Road International Exposition ended on Saturday in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an where officials announced that $24.6 billion worth of investment deals were reportedly signed during the five-day event. In all, organizers say 72 ...
“I Have Had Enough!” DRC President Étienne Tshisekedi Hints He’s Ready to Take on Chinese Investors Over Unfair Contracts
DR Congo President Étienne Tshisekedi ventured to the heart of the country's cobalt mining territory to personally deliver a warning to foreign investors (read Chinese) that unfair mining contracts are going to be re-negotiated. On Thursday, the president traveled to the city of Kowlezi in the southern ...
As Chinese Vaccines Exports Continue to Slow, Local Production Around the World Steadily Increases
China is rapidly closing in on 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered domestically, at a stunning pace of 14 million per day. All those domestic vaccinations means that China has fewer jabs to export abroad. While international shipments have slowed considerably ...
CNN Ran a Story on Big Tech Expanding in Africa That Didn’t Mention a Single Chinese or European Company
CNN International broadcast a report over the weekend purportedly about "how big tech is expanding in Africa" yet the story only mentioned five major U.S. tech companies and not one from either Europe or Asia. This is somewhat odd given that ...
The Optics of China Paying For Kenya’s New Foreign Ministry Building Just Looks Awful
Kenya is a middle-income country with a $100 billion economy and it still can't afford to pay for its own $35 million foreign ministry building? Really? They spent $6 billion on a railroad and the government can't figure out a way ...
Chinese Jabs Land in Namibia as Beijing’s Global Vaccine Distribution Drive Shows No Signs of Slowing
Namibia kicked off its national vaccine campaign on Tuesday following the arrival of 100,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 jabs. The shipment came aboard an Air Zimbabwe flight that dropped off 344,000 doses in Harare before heading to Windhoek. Namibian Health Minister Kalumbi ...
Why Chile’s Growing Trade Dependence on China Provides a Cautionary Tale to Other Small Countries in the Global South
Chile, in recent years, has been very successful in attracting large amounts of Chinese investment in the country's copper and lithium mining sectors, agriculture, and more. So, successful in fact that it's sparked growing concern among lawmakers about the risks of Chinese ownership of key strategic sectors ...
How Smaller Countries Can Negotiate More Effectively With China
China's enormous size affords it tremendous advantages in its relations with smaller countries, particularly developing states in the global south. Beijing regularly leverages its huge economy, growing military power, and diplomatic muscle in international organizations to both cajole and even coerce ...
Our COVID Conundrum
We face a massive conundrum: while more and more global problems are coming our way, almost all our problem-solving power remains ensnared by the apparatus of the nation state. States are inherently insular, and self-obsessed. The mythos of an imagined community, ...
Africa’s Most Indebted Countries Caught in a Vice Between Creditors and Credit Ratings Agencies
Chad, Zambia, and Ethiopia are among a growing number of African countries seeking debt relief under the G20's common framework (CF) and while that might provide some temporary relief, one of the world's largest credit ratings agencies warned on Tuesday that it's going to come at a ...
Kenya to Finally Extend the SGR to the Ugandan Border… Without Any Chinese Financing
Kenya's parliament approved funds to extend the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha in the Rift Valley all the way to Malaba on the border with Uganda. Several years ago, this extension was known as "SGR Phase 3." President Uhuru Kenyatta's requests for the financing of this phase ...
Zimbabwe to Kick Off Vaccination Drive Using Newly-Arrived Chinese Jabs
The Zimbabwe government will begin a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Thursday using the first batch of Chinese-made Sinopharm jabs that arrived in Harare on Monday. Health workers, police, and military personnel will be first to receive injections. ...
Landry Signé: The U.S. Can Catch Up to China in Africa…But It Has to Move Fast
A robust discussion is underway in Washington, D.C.'s think tank and policymaking circles over what the Biden administration's future Africa policy should look like. Although there's been no formal announcement of any new initiative, there does seem to be an emerging consensus that the disproportionate focus on ...
Counterpoint: Why Some in Africa Remain Frustrated With the U.S. and Choose to Embrace China Instead
While U.S. stakeholders are working to figure out what they want to do in Africa, they would be advised to listen carefully to some of the widely-held frustrations about America's less-than-supportive attitudes towards the continent over the years, which bubbled to the surface during the Trump administration. ...
UAE PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Tweets in Chinese to Congratulate Xi Jinping on Mars Mission
It's rare for the head of a foreign state to tweet in Chinese, but today the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed congratulated China, and President Xi Jinping specifically, on the Tianwen-1 spacecraft joining the Emirates' own Hope Probe in its orbit around Mars. ...
The Future of Chinese-Financed Infrastructure in Kenya
The China Road and Bridge Corporation is building a massive new half-a-billion dollar expressway right through the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. But this project is very different than previous Chinese-financed infrastructure initiatives in Kenya, like the ailing Standard ...
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 ...
China Just Gave Kenya Two Luxury Buses and a New Foreign Ministry HQ
Kenya's new Foreign Ministry building will be built and paid for by the Chinese government. Ambassador Zhou Pingjian made the announcement late last week during a visit with Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau at the current foreign ministry headquarters in Nairobi. ...
$25 Billion of Deals Signed During Annual Silk Road Forum in China
The Fifth annual Silk Road International Exposition ended on Saturday in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an where officials announced that $24.6 billion worth of investment deals were reportedly signed during the five-day event. In all, organizers say 72 ...
“I Have Had Enough!” DRC President Étienne Tshisekedi Hints He’s Ready to Take on Chinese Investors Over Unfair Contracts
DR Congo President Étienne Tshisekedi ventured to the heart of the country's cobalt mining territory to personally deliver a warning to foreign investors (read Chinese) that unfair mining contracts are going to be re-negotiated. On Thursday, the president traveled to the city of Kowlezi in the southern ...
As Chinese Vaccines Exports Continue to Slow, Local Production Around the World Steadily Increases
China is rapidly closing in on 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered domestically, at a stunning pace of 14 million per day. All those domestic vaccinations means that China has fewer jabs to export abroad. While international shipments have slowed considerably ...
CNN Ran a Story on Big Tech Expanding in Africa That Didn’t Mention a Single Chinese or European Company
CNN International broadcast a report over the weekend purportedly about "how big tech is expanding in Africa" yet the story only mentioned five major U.S. tech companies and not one from either Europe or Asia. This is somewhat odd given that ...
The Optics of China Paying For Kenya’s New Foreign Ministry Building Just Looks Awful
Kenya is a middle-income country with a $100 billion economy and it still can't afford to pay for its own $35 million foreign ministry building? Really? They spent $6 billion on a railroad and the government can't figure out a way ...