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Xi Arrives in Saudi Arabia

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Saudi Arabia. His time there will be taken up by bilateral meetings and regional summits with leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa. So far, the press coverage has mostly ...

Xi’s Saudi Trip Could Set the Scene for Long-Term Changes: Expert

While Chinese government spokespeople have called President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia ‘epoch-making,’ they’ve been a lot vaguer about the agenda for his meetings.  However, Tang Tianbo, a researcher at the Middle East Institute of the ...

For the Western Press, Xi’s Saudi Visit is All About the United States

The China-Middle East expert Jonathan Fulton complained on Twitter this week that many editors at major Western news outlets seem to have pre-decided their framing of Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Rather than focusing on what the two countries want and where they’re coming ...

Washington and Beijing have Very Different Takes On Next Week’s U.S.-Africa Summit

Preparations are ramping up for next week’s U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit. 13-15 December will see leaders from 49 countries, as well as numerous businesspeople, civil society envoys, and journalists descending on Washington DC to attend the first such event since the Obama era.

Western Calls to De-Risk African Projects Echo China’s Approach

One of the underlying factors driving Chinese business in Africa is the role of state insurers like Sinosure in reducing the risk taken on by Chinese companies.  So it’s interesting to see that Western actors are slowly moving in ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...