A new report led by the U.S.-based research center AidData is drawing global attention this week. It shows that from 2008 to 2021, China spent $240 billion in bailouts and liquidity support to 22 Global South countries.
Even though the report focuses squarely on economics, it also feels like a key piece of a geopolitical puzzle: how China’s Global South relationships work. As I’m writing this, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is ...
Day: June 14, 2022
Malawi Foreign Minister: “We Are Disgusted, Disrespected and Deeply Pained”
Following a BBC Africa investigation, Malawian ministers condemned the practice of using young children to produce highly exploitative videos that are then sold on Chinese social media platforms. "We are feeling disgusted, disrespected, and deeply pained,"
Chinese Embassy in Malawi Responds to Video Controversy With Disingenuous Statement
The Chinese embassy in Malawi's response to the escalating controversy over the exploitative videos uncovered in a new BBC Africa documentary did little to appease critics. The brief statement, published only on its official Twitter account, broadly condemned racism ...
Chinese Social Media is Oddly Quiet About the Racism Accusations Uncovered in the BBC Documentary
Over the weekend, in the run-up to Monday's broadcast of the BBC documentary, some of the staff at the network were bracing for what they expected would be a forceful response from China's online supporters -- both Chinese and foreign. They ...
BBC Doc Becomes New Weapon For China’s Critics in the U.S.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, one of China's fiercest critics in Washington, D.C., leveraged the revelations uncovered in the BBC documentary to launch a broadside against the Chinese Communist Party. It's important to note that while Rubio implicates the ...
China, Saudi Arabia Meet to Discuss Expanding Military Ties
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe met with top defense officials from Saudi Arabia over the weekend to discuss closer security and military relations between the two countries. The timing of Saturday's meeting is significant. It occurred just one month before U.S. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Lending Data Offers Clue to China’s Global South Influence
What is China’s Real Role in Sri Lanka’s Debt Crisis?
Few debt crises have triggered as much disinformation as Sri Lanka’s. The country is currently grappling with a complex debt restructuring process amid its worst economic crisis since independence. The role of Chinese debt has drawn much attention and many false narratives - ...
Possible U.S.-China Cooperation in Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka is currently scrambling for support amid its worst economic crisis since independence. But the crisis could provide a rare opportunity for cooperation between China and the United States. Qi Zhenhong, China’s ambassador to the South Asian island state, met with his ...
Why China Won’t Fill a Development Finance Gap for Gas
By Cecilia Springer and Rishikesh Ram Bhandary At the end of May, Group of Seven (G7) countries committed to end public finance for overseas fossil fuel activities, going beyond their earlier commitment from last year to end such finance for overseas coal ...