Day: October 13, 2021
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Zambia’s Bondholders Want More Info on IMF Deal, Renew Calls For All Creditors to be Treated the Same
Some of Zambia's bondholders are once again expressing impatience with the government's handling of its debt relief talks and they've gone public with their longstanding demands for greater transparency in the process and equal treatment for all creditors. "Inter-creditor equity should ...
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Incompetence, Inexperience to Blame For China’s Bad Loans in Global South, More Than Any “Plot to Enslave Poor Countries,” Argues Professor
The prominent expert on Chinese finance, Michael Pettis, is the latest scholar to challenge the popular narrative that China engages in predatory lending abroad. Instead, the Peking University professor attributes the surge of Chinese loans to less developed countries on "inexperience" and "bad lending practices."
Kenya Caught in a Potentially Dangerous Loan Repayment Cycle Due to Its SGR Debts to China
There's growing concern that the depreciating value of the Kenyan currency is tied to the country's mounting debt servicing costs to Chinese creditors. Back in July, the Kenyan Treasury began repaying the loans used to build the Standard Gauge Railway after the China Exim Bank refused the ...
China’s Ambassador to Uganda Tried (Again) to Settle the Entebbe Airport Seizure Controversy
The Chinese and Ugandan governments collaborated in what appears to be an effort to jointly refute last month's Daily Monitor story that falsely claimed the Entebbe Airport would be seized by China as part of a debt default. Ambassador Zhang Lizhong led ...
Two Years Late, Lagosians Want to Know Where’s Their New Chinese-Built Airport Terminal
Work on the new international terminal at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos is almost done. In fact, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) says it's 95% finished. Yet, the new facility is still not open and that has people in Nigeria's largest city asking what is going ...
Chinese Contractors Begin Work on One of the DR Congo’s Most Important Roadways
Chinese contractors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kicked off an upgrade of National Route 1 (RN1), arguably the country's most important highway. It begins in the capital Kinshasa in the far West and snakes 2,000+ kilometers to the southern hub of Lubumbashi. ...
Al Jazeera: UAE Providing Ethiopia Use of Chinese Made Wing-Loong II Drones
Recent gains by Ethiopian government troops in pushing back Tigrayan opposition forces may have been helped by the use of sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey, Iran, and China, according to satellite photos seen by Al Jazeera. The role of the ...
U.S., European News Outlets Fail to Question Pentagon Assertion China Wants to Build Atlantic Base in Africa
The Wall Street Journal's report from December 5th that relayed Pentagon concerns about China's purported ambition to build a navy base on Africa's Atlantic coast in Equatorial Guinea has now spread so far across the media landscape, even to usually discerning publications ...
Ebola Fighters is a Hit With Chinese Viewers
A big-budget drama about Chinese medical teams working in a fictitious West African country during the 2014 Ebola outbreak is a huge hit with viewers in China. The first two episodes of "Ebola Fighters" drew 16 million viewers and was the fourth most-popular drama ...
Don’t Worry Africa… China Isn’t Going to Seize Your Assets, But They’re Also Not Going to Forgive Your Debts
There is a sense of anxiety over Chinese debt in several African countries and beyond. From Zambia to Kenya, Uganda, and now even in the small Balkan country of Montenegro. Repeated assurances from China and borrowing countries that the debt situation is under ...
WHO’s Call for Some Recipients of Chinese Vaccines to Get Booster Shots Will Further Complicate Africa’s Battle Against COVID
A World Health Organization panel of experts is recommending individuals 60 years and older who received injections of Chinese-made vaccines from either Sinopharm or Sinovac to get a booster shot. The new guidance from ...
Low-Income Country Debt Now Closing In on a Trillion Dollars, Activists Blame G20 States For Ignoring the Problem
Borrowing among the world's poorest countries jumped 12% last year pushing up the total amount owed to a record $860 billion, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the World Bank. Not surprisingly, World Bank economists ...
Chinese-Owned African Pay-TV Giant StarTimes Launches New Propaganda Show
The Beijing-based African pay-TV operator StarTimes launched a new program on Monday that appears aimed at bolstering official Chinese government messaging on the continent in the run-up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that will take place soon in Dakar, Senegal.
How a Port Expansion in a Tiny, Self-Declared African Country Reverberates Around the World
One of the key discussions in the run-up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit is whether China is stepping away from funding large-scale infrastructure projects like roads and ports. So it was particularly interesting to see the announcement this week of ...
Why Zambia is An Outlier Among African Countries That Owe Money to China
Zambia owes at least 18 Chinese creditors $6.6 billion, nearly twice as much as previously stated, according to a new report published by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University. And that figure may be even higher as it ...
Pressure From the Government & IMF Mounting on Chinese Mining Companies in the DRC
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi is again turning up the pressure on Chinese mining companies with his drive to re-evaluate mining contracts that were negotiated under his predecessor's tenure. During a Council of Ministers meeting on Friday, ...
Hichilema Calls For Mining Policy Review But Stays Mum on the Chinese
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema (photo) called for a review of the country's mining policies on Friday in his first address to parliament since he assumed office last month. But for now, he's not proposing a Congolese-style review of foreign ...
One of Those “Only in Djibouti” Days
Djibouti's Chief of the General Staff of the Armies, Lieutenant General Zakaria Cheikh Ibrahim (photo), had a very busy day last Thursday hosting senior naval commanders from both China and the United States for a series of meetings that can only happen in the strategically located country on ...
China-DR Congo Trade Up 97% Compared to Last Year
TWEET TRANSLATION: China-DRC trade totaled $7.76 billion in the first seven months of the year, up 97% year-on-year, and the Congolese side recorded a trade surplus of $4.75 billion. During this period, Chinese companies invested $198 million in the DR Congo.
Hunan Province’s Trade With BRI Countries Jumps 20%
Hunan province is now among the key hubs in China for African trade and increasingly it appears to be positioning itself as a larger BRI trading center. Hunan trade with BRI countries is up 20% year-on-year to $16.5 billion in the January-August period.
Chinese Propaganda Recruits CCP Allies in Kenya’s Ruling Party To Denounce U.S. Claims on COVID Origin
The Chinese Communist Party is turning to its friends in Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party to denounce the U.S.-led accusation that the COVID-19 virus originally leaked from a lab in Wuhan China. Last week, CCTV featured an interview with Jubilee's Secretary-General Raphael Tuju who blasted
China’s Ambassador to Uganda Wants to Show a Different Side of Chinese Labor Relations in Africa
China's recently-arrived ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong, travelled to the central city of Kapeeka on Sunday to visit factories in the Liaoshen Industrial Park in what appears to be an effort, in part, to convey an alternative narrative to the one that's become popular ...
China and the High Stakes Showdown in the DR Congo
Chinese mining bosses for years played the game as everyone else in the DR Congo. Money pretty much solved every problem. Need a permit? Pay some money. Get in trouble with the law? Pay some money. Under-counting cobalt reserves? Pay some money.
China-Global South Update: Wang Yi Brings Millions in Aid and Vaccines on Four-Nation Asia Tour
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on a four-nation week-long tour of Southeast Asia on Friday to bolster ties in critical ASEAN states. He will visit Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore, and will end the trip in South Korea. On the first ...
Week in Review: Ore, Oil & Oranges
China's major oil suppliers in Africa and the Middle East are bracing for a downturn in prices after Beijing ordered the country's largest refiner, Sinopec, to scale back operations. Sinopec will reportedly reduce refining of road and aviation fuels by up to 10% in response to the slowdown ...
Zambians Go to the Polls in a Tight Presidential Election with No China-Bashing, For Once
Ballots are now being counted in Zambia's general election that took place on Thursday. Presidential incumbent Edgar Lungu faces opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in a contest that has been too close to call for weeks. While Zambia's beleaguered economy and surging debt ...
Assessing the Impact of Anti-China Sentiment in the Global South
In many countries in Africa, Asia, and throughout the Global South there's often a large discrepancy between perceptions of China in civil society and among governing elites. This phenomenon has been on full display recently in the Democratic Republic of the ...
Kenya’s Dream to Build a Modern Railway Is Turning Into an Economic Nightmare
Many Kenyans were excited about plans to build a modern railway across the country linking the port city of Mombasa and Malaba town on the Kenya-Uganda border. It was touted as a game-changer; the key to unlocking not just Kenya’s economic takeoff, but that of the entire ...
COVAX Gets a Shot in the Arm From Chinese Vaccine Makers With a Half a Billion Doses Promised Over the Next Year
The ailing COVAX global vaccine alliance will get some badly-needed support from China's two largest vaccine manufacturers. Both Sinovac and Sinopharm signed advance purchase agreements with COVAX on Monday that will include an immediate rush shipment of 110 million doses followed by an additional 400 ...
India, China Lead The Way in Delivering on Vaccine Promises For Non-COVAX Commitments
With the Delta variant spreading rapidly across much of the developing world with an acute shortage of vaccines, new attention is being focused on the promises that wealthy countries have made to provide jabs compared to what they've actually delivered. The data tracked by the analytics firm ...
Chinese Vaccine Deliveries Close in the Half-Billion Mark With 6% Going to Africa
China has shipped "more than 500 million doses and concentrates to over 100 countries and international organizations, one-sixth of the total global output," according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Zhao did not provide a breakdown of ...
How to Make Sense of the Raging Debate Over Chinese Vaccine Efficacy
Reuters, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and many other international news outlets have published a stream of stories over the past week that raise a lot of doubts over the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines in developing countries and whether or not they're strong enough to protect against ...
Chinese Ambassador and Egyptian PM Visit Local Factory That Will Produce Sinovac Vaccines
China's ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang was accompanied last week by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly for an onsite visit of the Egyptian pharmaceutical plant that will serve as a manufacturing hub for Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines. Already, the facility has produced a million doses that will be available for ...
Professor Li Anshan Explains Why is Africa Important to China
With the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that will take place online and in Senegal less than three months away (it will likely occur in September), there's growing speculation as to what will be on the agenda and what that will say about Beijing's evolving priorities ...
The Haval Jolion Highlights The Major Inroads Chinese Cars Are Making in the African Auto Market
The popular South African auto review site cars.co.za just couldn't be more effusive about Great Wall Motors' new Haval Jolion SUV. "Should you buy the Jolion," the online review asked rhetorically, "you’d be silly not to." But the ...
The Fire Next Door
So…How have you been? Since we last spoke, my country exploded. If you’re not up on South African news, the current government has finally managed to get a charge to stick to its predecessor – former president Jacob Zuma. This took ...
Q&A: Is China Really Delivering for Senegal In the Fight Against COVID-19?
As the co-chair for the upcoming 2021 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Senegal is in a unique position to negotiate a better relationship with China as well as support other African countries to do so as well. At Development Reimagined, an ...
Ethio Telecom Launches New Huawei-Powered Mobile Money Service
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed oversaw the launch this week of Ethio Telecom's new mobile money service "Tele- Birr" which will be powered by technology from Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei. Ethiopian officials have high expectations for Tele-Birr's future ...
Huawei Mobile Money is Quietly Becoming an Important Fintech Engine For Emerging Market Payment Platforms
Most of the discussion about Huawei in places like Africa or the Americas centers on the company's 5G technology that officials in the U.S., Europe, and some Asian countries believe presents a security threat. But the Shenzhen-based company isn't generating $137 billion in annual ...
Oppo is the Latest Chinese Phone Maker to Set Its Sights on the South African Market
China's largest mobile phone maker Oppo is targeting South Africa's youth market with a new mid-range device, the A74 5G. Oppo's announcement comes less than a week after another Chinese company, Transsion's Itel division, announced that it too is targeting a similar ...
Glencore’s CEO Warns Western Automakers About China’s Control of Congolese Cobalt
The CEO of the world's largest cobalt mining company issued a stern warning to U.S. and European automakers that they had better get their acts together to secure supplies of this precious metal or else risk becoming dependent on China for batteries to power their electric vehicles. ...
Chinese Automakers Are Making New Inroads Across Africa
Geely, China's largest independent automaker, launched its new Coolray SUV in Nigeria in what's become a big push by Chinese auto companies to expand their presence in Africa. The SUV category is especially popular, as evidenced by the strong performance in South ...
Veteran China Journalist Warns That China is Looking to Eventually Replace Australian Iron Ore With Suppliers in Brazil and Africa
There's been widespread speculation over the past year that China wants to develop new iron ore supply chains in Africa so it can stop buying from Australia in response to steadily worsening ties between the two countries. While there've been indications ...
Macky Sall Thanks His Friend Xi Jinping For Donating 300,000 Vaccines and Syringes
Senegalese President Macky Sall took to Twitter yesterday to express his gratitude to his "friend President Xi Jinping" for the donation of 300,000 COVID-19 vaccines and 300,000 syringes that landed in Dakar this week. The tweet provides the latest ...
Deals, Deals & More Deals. China’s Tech Giants Expand in Africa & the Middle East
2021 has been a busy year so far for China's technology giants as they look to expand their international operations and appear to have their sites set on expanding in both the African and Arabian markets. JD, Didi, iQiyi, and Tencent ...
Unpacking African Agency
Today the South African Institute of International Affairs is holding a webinar featuring new work focusing on African agency in the face of Chinese power. How much power African actors have to shape their engagement with China is one of the field’s most ...
Between the Cut in Chinese Lending and COVID, 2020 Was a Tough Year for East Africa’s Infrastructure Development
The financial crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic combined with a curtailment in Chinese lending contributed to a 35% drop in the number of infrastructure construction projects in East Africa, and a 47% plunge in the value of those projects, according to Deloitte's ...
CSIS’s Judd Devermont Has Two Recommendations For How the U.S. Should Meet the Challenge of China’s BRI in Africa
Judd Devermont is the Africa Program Director at the Center for Strategic Studies, one of Washington's most influential think tanks, and recently spoke with Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, Director of Research from the German Marshall Fund about how to "re-imagine U.S.-Africa policy."
Chinese Embassies, Ambassadors Stay Largely Quiet on the China CDC Director’s Vaccine Efficacy Controversy
China's normally bombastic diplomatic Twitter accounts in Africa were uncharacteristically silent on Monday with regards to the controversy that broke out over the weekend when Gao Fu, the director of the China CDC, acknowledged that Chinese vaccines are not as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. ...
Columnist: Ghana President Akufo-Addo’s “Beyond Aid” Campaign Apparently Doesn’t Include Donations From China
For years Ghana's president Nana Akufo-Addo has touted his "Ghana Beyond Aid" agenda. Back in 2017 during a visit with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Ghanaian leader said "we have to get away from this mindset of dependence." Well, GhanaWeb columnist Kwesi ...
Algeria Becomes First African Country to Register Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccines While Indonesia Becomes the First Country to Deploy China’s CoronaVac
A growing number of developing countries are beginning to mobilize their vaccination campaigns using jabs mostly from China and Russia. In Southeast Asia, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is currently on a week-long four-nation tour, the vaccine issue is the top story.
As Angola Gets Debt Relief From Its Creditors, Kenya Hopes For the Same From China
Yesterday marked the first major development we've seen on the debt story in Africa in quite some time. The fact that Angola was the beneficiary was significant, given its outsized position in China's loan portfolio on the continent. Angola alone makes ...
The Team at Boston University Provides a Fresh Reminder That the World’s Chinese Debt Problem is Concentrated in About 10 Countries
Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published a new infographic that reveals the unequal distribution of Chinese debt around the world. They found that 10 countries account for 60% of China's global development finance. This is especially true in Africa where Angola ...
With New Lockdowns in South Africa Threatening to Slow Cobalt Exports to China, Prices For the Strategically Important Metal Are Going Up
Investors are becoming increasingly worried that South Africa's recent decision to close 20 land ports will adversely impact the flow of cobalt from mines in the DR Congo to customers in China. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a series of new lockdown measures in an effort ...
China Evolves Its Language That Frames Its Engagement in Africa
The China Media Project (CMP), an independent research organization affiliated with the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, published an interesting analysis today on how Chinese propaganda is evolving the language (in Chinese) used to ...
China’s Vaccine Push in Developing Countries Suffers Setback After Brazillian Tests Reveal Sinovac’s Shot Only 50% Effective
China's ambitious global drive to provide developing countries with affordable COVID-19 vaccines suffered a major setback on Tuesday following new test results from Brazil that revealed Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine to be only 50% effective. The findings from 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 ...
WHO’s Call for Some Recipients of Chinese Vaccines to Get Booster Shots Will Further Complicate Africa’s Battle Against COVID
A World Health Organization panel of experts is recommending individuals 60 years and older who received injections of Chinese-made vaccines from either Sinopharm or Sinovac to get a booster shot. The new guidance from ...
Low-Income Country Debt Now Closing In on a Trillion Dollars, Activists Blame G20 States For Ignoring the Problem
Borrowing among the world's poorest countries jumped 12% last year pushing up the total amount owed to a record $860 billion, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the World Bank. Not surprisingly, World Bank economists ...
Chinese-Owned African Pay-TV Giant StarTimes Launches New Propaganda Show
The Beijing-based African pay-TV operator StarTimes launched a new program on Monday that appears aimed at bolstering official Chinese government messaging on the continent in the run-up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that will take place soon in Dakar, Senegal.
How a Port Expansion in a Tiny, Self-Declared African Country Reverberates Around the World
One of the key discussions in the run-up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit is whether China is stepping away from funding large-scale infrastructure projects like roads and ports. So it was particularly interesting to see the announcement this week of ...
Why Zambia is An Outlier Among African Countries That Owe Money to China
Zambia owes at least 18 Chinese creditors $6.6 billion, nearly twice as much as previously stated, according to a new report published by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University. And that figure may be even higher as it ...