Day: February 4, 2022
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WEEK IN REVIEW: Canada To Become Newest Member of the U.S.-Led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)
Canada will become the newest member of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a loose group of Asia-Pacific countries ostensibly aimed at countering China. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said the move is part of a new Canadian initiative to "deepen engagement with the U.S.” in the Asia-Pacific region. ...
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All Portuguese-speaking Countries Move Up in Chinese Infrastructure Development Index
All eight of the world's Portuguese-speaking edged higher in a key Chinese infrastructure development index that assesses the investment climate in 71 countries around the world. Brazil, Angola, and Portugal were the highest ranked Lusophone states in the 2022 "One Belt, ...
Sicomines’ Expat Staff in the DRC Mark China’s National Day With a Patriotic Song Competition
230 expatriate staff members from the Congolese joint venture mining giant Sicomines gathered over the weekend in the Congolese mining city of Kolwezi to celebrate the Chinese National Day holiday with a patriotic song competition. 15 contestants, most dressed in their work uniforms, belted out their renditions ...
What Does Kenya’s SGR Tell Us About the Future of Chinese Railway Development in the Global South
The Chinese-financed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya is one of the flagship projects of the Belt and Road Initiative. But the SGR like other Chinese-sponsored railway projects elsewhere in the Global South also serves as a prime example of the ...
China to the Rescue? China’s Liquidity Finance Should Be Welcomed but Not Gambled With
By Kevin P. Gallagher China is being criticized for stepping up its policy to provide liquidity financing in the form of loans and currency swaps for countries in distress for the wrong reasons. Providing such liquidity shows that China is ...
We Need to Talk About Africa’s Whole Debt Problem – Not Just the Chinese Part
This week I participated in a seminar hosted by the South African Institute for International Affairs comparing the on-the-ground experiences of Chinese-led infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia and Africa (watch the event here). Researchers from opposite ends of the globe revealed ...
At 29 years old I travelled to Africa, After a Year I Decided to Go Back Home
Chinese vloggers in Africa have a mixed track record. On the one hand, some vloggers contribute to dissolving Chinese misconceptions towards Africa/Africans by illuminating what daily life is like in many African countries. On the other hand, some other vloggers exploit Africans through misogynistic beauty contests and ...
On Pelosi’s Visit, China’s Messaging Machine is Targeting the Global South
China mobilized its entire global messaging machine to protest U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recently concluded visit to Taiwan. Angry reactions have shown up in newspapers across the Global South, from Brazil to Congo to Oman and beyond. While the Global ...
Taiwan Firestorm Makes Clear Why the Global South Avoids China’s “Red Lines”
In a week of strident warnings from Beijing, one stood out. China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that: "Those who play with fire will perish by it, and those who offend China ...
How a Major Shift in Chinese Lending is Backfiring Across the Global South
Chinese lending is increasingly shifting from boosting development to helping indebted countries keep the lights on. This is now adding to debt distress across the developing world. AidData, a research group at the College of William and Mary focusing on Chinese lending, ...
Chinese Reactions to Zambia’s Debt Deal
Zambia’s debt restructuring, in which China played a key role, is raising concern among ordinary Chinese, judging by WeChat conversations. Recent grassroots discussions on WeChat communities of Chinese in Africa quoted unnamed sources worrying that the deal could “set a costly precedent elsewhere,” which ...
Tanzania and Zambia to Revive TAZARA Rail Line
The leaders of Tanzania and Zambia have agreed to find the money to refurbish the Chinese-built TAZARA rail line. The line, built at great financial and human cost by China in the early 1970s, is an icon of early Africa-China cooperation. It’s unknown if Chinese companies or lenders ...
No, Nigeria Didn’t Ship 7,000 Human Penises to China
Nigerian social media is aflame with a rumor that a container of human penises was sent to China from the West African country. The rumor originated last year. It caused consternation in the Nigerian parliament before it was revealed to be based ...
Global South Media Reactions to Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan
Congo: On August 2, Jean-Claude Gakosso, the foreign minister of the Republic of Congo, said that adhering to the one China principle is the consistent policy of the Democratic People's Republic of Congo, the general consensus of the Congolese government and all Congolese people, and there is ...
China’s Role in Ghana’s Ballooning Economic Crisis
Ghana's main opposition leader John Mahama issued a dire warning on Monday that the country risks becoming the next African country to default on its debt unless "drastic" measures are taken to stabilize the economy. Mahama, who himself is a former President and ...
Don’t Shoot Your Employees and Don’t Pay Bribes Are Among the Chinese Embassy in Namibia’s Recommendations on How Expatriates Should Behave Better
The Chinese embassy in Namibia really wants its overseas compatriots who live and work in the country to improve their behavior. And to help them, the embassy this week published on its WeChat page a rather illuminating list of eight examples of recent transgressions committed by Chinese nationals in ...
Damning Report Documents How Small-Scale Chinese Cobalt Miners in the DR Congo Use Child Labor
The popular Congolese news site Actualites.CD published an in-depth report by Lumbubashi-based journalist Anto Mulanga that details the widespread use of child labor in small-scale mines in the southeastern cobalt mining belt. While the report is not exclusively focused on how independent small-scale ...
Sorry South Africa, China’s Not Going to Finance a New Joburg-Durban High-Speed Railway
Chen Xiaodong, China’s ambassador to South Africa, recently caused a small flurry of press coverage by seeming to imply that China could be moving towards funding a high-speed rail link between SA’s economic heartland, Gauteng, and Durban, its most important harbor. ...
U.S. Increasing Pressure on African Countries to Choose Sides on Ukraine
The United States and its allies are increasing pressure on African countries to choose sides in the conflict in Ukraine. U.S. officials are engaging with African journalists in order to sway public discussion about the conflict, while diplomatic pressure continues behind the scenes, notably during Secretary of ...
Anti-Russia Sanctions Could Boost Chinese Weapons Sales to Africa
Western pressure on African countries to stop trading with Russia could make China a more important supplier of weapons to the continent. Russia is Africa’s largest arms supplier, but now major arms buyers like Nigeria could turn to China as curbs on Moscow tighten. ...
Will the Ukraine Conflict Lead to a Russia-China-Africa Bloc?
The global blockade of Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine could unite it with China and Africa in a ‘non-democratic bloc’ that could encircle Europe. This was the conclusion of a new report by the French corporate and investment bank Natixis, which has drawn derision online. ...
It Was ASEAN’s Turn For China’s Fast-paced “Speed Dating” Diplomacy
Right after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi returned from his annual trip to Africa in early January he decamped from Beijing to set up shop temporarily in the small eastern city of Tunxi, 400km outside of Shanghai. By ...
New Transport Corridor Gives China Direct Access to the Indian Ocean for the First Time
A new overland transport corridor has made history by linking China directly to the Indian Ocean for the first time. Built jointly by Chinese provinces and Singapore, the transport corridor links the Chinese manufacturing hub of Chongqing with Vientiane, ...
Angolan Logistics Management Tender Will Increase Chinese Influence
The Angolan government is currently deciding which of two China-linked consortiums will manage a transport link that could significantly speed up shipments of strategic minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The corridor includes the Chinese-built 1,344 km Benguela rail line ...
Brazil’s Central Bank Quadruples Yuan Holdings, Raising Chinese Hopes for Greater RMB Acceptance
Brazil’s Central Bank increased its reserves of Chinese renminbi (RMB) fourfold last year. It is the latest indication that the RMB is set to become much more influential in the global financial landscape. A survey last week indicated ...
Experts React to China’s New Green BRI Guidelines
The Chinese government is trying to make the Belt and Road Initiative greener, with a new set of guidelines for overseas projects released last week by the powerful National Development and Reform Commission. But how will these new guidelines affect Chinese infrastructure projects around the ...
China’s Australia Tensions a Win for South African Wines
South Africa doubled its exports of wine to China last year, following the souring of relations between Beijing and its biggest wine seller, Australia. While we’ve seen sporadic reports of how Western Cape wine farmers are leaning into their ...
Can Beijing Get Away With Hedging in Ukraine?
By Lukas Fiala Horrific images and stories of violence and destruction have reached us from Ukraine this week as Russia’s invasion is rapidly turning into a massive humanitarian crisis. While all eyes are rightfully on Ukrainians’ brave resistance, the human suffering ...
China Exim Bank’s Controversial Loan to Expand Uganda’s Entebbe Airport
New research from AidData at the College of William & Mary in the United States provides the first insight into the loan contract between China Exim Bank and the Ugandan government for the expansion of the Entebbe International Airport. ...
The BRI Challenges Our Assumptions of How the World Fits Together
A fascinating new report emerged from the Green Financing and Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai this week, tracking trends in China’s Belt and Road investment. The big news is that while global BRI spending (both foreign direct investment and loans) has remained stable at roughly ...
The Future of Chinese Infrastructure Finance in Africa
Nigerian Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi acknowledged this week that he will no longer rely on China to fund two major railways and will have now have to look elsewhere for the money. The minister's comments shouldn't come as a big ...
Wang Yi’s Visit and Africa-China Alignment
It has become customary that the Chinese Foreign Minister’s first overseas trip of the new year is to Africa. Just as customary is the annual bout of chin-stroking and speculation among Africa-China watchers about the choice of destinations. This year, the ...
China’s Has Huge Ambitions for International Railway Development, Just Not So Much in Africa Anymore
It used to be that, when a Chinese Foreign Minister made the annual first overseas trip of the year to Africa, as Wang Yi is about to this week, financing railway development would be a top talking point at every stop. ...
East Africa’s New Year’s Resolution: Borrow More Money
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are starting 2022 with an eye on borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to fund new infrastructure development and to help close the finance gap created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Kenyan ...
Unlike Many Other African Currencies, the Zambian Kwacha Had a Great 2021, Buoyed by Hope for a Debt Deal
While currencies like the Kenyan shilling and the Nigerian naira lost value in 2021, the Zambian kwacha enters the new year with some serious momentum. The kwacha surged 27% last year, mostly on the hope that President Hakainde Hichilema will turn around the economy ...
Why This Photo May Indicate That China’s Mining Contracts Problem in the DR Congo Has Been Resolved
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi's office published a photo of a Christmas Eve meeting with Sun Ruiwen, president of China Molybdenum (aka "China Moly.") The company controls the massive Tenke Fungurume cobalt and copper mine (TFM) in Lualaba province. Sun reportedly reassured President ...
Ghana Approves Homegrown Smart Cities Solution That Will Use Both Chinese and U.S. Tech
Ghana's National Communications Authority (photo) granted local internet services provider Celltel approval to build the $300 million Ghana Smart Cities Project that will provide national wireless internet coverage. The company said it plans to use a mix of Chinese and U.S. ...
Chinese Vaccines Still Slowly Trickling to Africa, No Uptick in Deliveries Since Xi Speech
Only been five weeks have elapsed since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would distribute one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa, so it's still a bit early to check for evidence that this new initiative is up and running. ...
Former Ambassador’s Column in Le Monde Highlights the Negative View of “Chinafrique” Among Political & Media Elites in France
Generally speaking, the widely-held narrative among media and political elites in France about the Chinese in Africa is very similar to that in the United States where the Chinese presence on the continent is viewed in decidedly negative terms.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet prepares to launch from the U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran February 28, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS
By Heejin Kim and Nidhi Verma Asian governments and refiners rushed to assess oil stockpiles as well as alternative shipping routes and supplies as the Iran conflictdisrupted shipping in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, with oil prices ...
The BRI Challenges Our Assumptions of How the World Fits Together
A fascinating new report emerged from the Green Financing and Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai this week, tracking trends in China’s Belt and Road investment. The big news is that while global BRI spending (both foreign direct investment and loans) has remained stable at roughly ...
The Future of Chinese Infrastructure Finance in Africa
Nigerian Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi acknowledged this week that he will no longer rely on China to fund two major railways and will have now have to look elsewhere for the money. The minister's comments shouldn't come as a big ...