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: August 2, 2022
Metals Dispute Reveals Gulf Between U.S. Companies and Leaders on China
Amid the tensions and sniping surrounding the U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan, it’s revealing how the country’s corporations and officials seem to be pulling in different directions on China. U.S. officials frame China as Voldemort’s less charming cousin. ...
First Ford, Now Tesla Signs Major EV Battery Deals With Chinese Suppliers
The United States government's long-held goal to weaken China's dominance in the strategically important electric vehicle battery sector suffered another setback on Monday when Tesla announced two multi-year deals to source batteries from two of China's largest suppliers. Tesla signed agreements ...
Nigerian Automotive Magnate Diana Chen Wants to Assemble Cars in the DR Congo
Diana Chen, head of the Nigeria-based automotive group CIG Motors Limited, together with the DR Congo's Minister for Trade Julien Paluku announced a new deal to assemble cars in Kinshasa's Maluku Special Economic Zone. CIG will reportedly build the new ...
The Zhou-Kenyatta Road Show in Kenya
China's ambassador to Kenya, Zhou Pingjian, has spent a lot of time with President Uhuru Kenyatta recently, commissioning one new infrastructure project after another. On Monday, the pair led a ceremony for the grand opening ...
China’s Outspoken Former Ambassador to South Africa Trashes U.S. Policy in Africa Ahead of Blinken Visit
Even though the United States government seems to have gone out of its way to avoid any mention of China related to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's upcoming visit to Africa, Chinese media is nonetheless preemptively going on the attack.
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Lending Data Offers Clue to China’s Global South Influence
China’s Increasingly Close Ties With Syria Are Making Israel Very Nervous
China's outgoing ambassador to Syria, Feng Biao, held what appeared to be a rather friendly meeting with President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday providing yet another indication of the increasingly close ties between the two countries -- a trend that's making observers across the border in ...
China’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Issues Angry Denunciation of the West and Argues Beijing Should Be Kingdom’s Preferred Partner
Any time a senior U.S. official like the President or the Secretary of State travels to a region where the Chinese have a strong interest, one can expect the publication of a scathing denunciation of the "West" (typically they're mostly referring to the U.S.) accompanied by a ...
What the Redwood Business is Like in Africa – Risky But Worth It
Although the world is aware of the Chinese private sector’s growing influence in African markets, there is rarely any information on Chinese people’s experience being an entrepreneur on the continent. The Congo Online WeChat Account (微信公众号 刚果在线) - a WeChat channel ...
The Stereotypes Are Untrue – Africans Are Not Lazy, Greedy, or Deceitful
Mainstream Chinese perceptions of Africa and Africans are largely very rudimentary, even crude in some instances. In fact, many of the caricatures that are now widely seen in Chinese media are reminiscent of the blatant racism that was prevalent in 20th-century Western movies and television shows that ...
My Work Experience in Africa
There’s a lot of international media coverage of Chinese mining operations in Africa, but we rarely read about Chinese mining employees’ experiences in the African countries where they spend years living and working. An interesting article was recently published on the ...