Day: February 28, 2023
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Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipeline Control Station Destroyed in Latest Attack Affecting Chinese Interests
Myanmar’s military government said several of the country’s armed insurgent groups destroyed a control station of the Myanmar-China oil and natural gas pipeline in a state bordering China. The attack happened in the northern Shan State, which borders China’s Yunnan Province. The ...
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Chinese Foreign Minister to Lead UN Security Council Meeting on Gaza
Wang Yi, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, will chair a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting in New York on the ongoing crisis in Gaza. China, the current UNSC president, called the meeting scheduled for November 29. It comes as the two sides are ...
Philippines Defense Secretary: No Point In Talking About Territorial Claims If China Doesn’t Respect International Rules
The Philippines' defense secretary struck a pessimistic tone about territorial discussions with China, saying they were futile unless Beijing was willing to be more sincere and respect a rules-based order. “If there are going to be bilateral discussions, it must be based on ...
iPhone Maker Foxconn to Invest $1.5 Billion in India as It Looks Beyond China
As it looks to build beyond China, Foxconn Technology will invest more than $1.5 billion in an Indian construction project to fulfill “operational needs,” the Apple supplier said Monday. Foxconn, based in Taiwan, has significant operations in mainland China. Foxconn’s factories ...
Angolan President to Visit Washington This Week For Lobito Corridor Talks
Angola’s President João Lourenço will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday during an official visit to Washington. According to a White House statement, they will focus on the next steps in a joint logistics corridor linking the Angolan port ...
Discourse Check: How China Frames Its Involvement in DRC Mining
Western opposition to Chinese involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining sector is sharpening, with measures proposed to ban supplies of cobalt from Chinese companies. This opposition partly reflects concerns about Chinese control of a strategic resource, but it is also ...
Explaining Indonesia’s Different Responses To Palestine, Xinjiang, and Myanmar’s Rohingya
On November 16, 2023, an overcrowded wooden boat carrying around 250 Rohingyas attempted to land in the Indonesian province of Aceh. They were unwelcome, and locals turned the boat away. The Rohingyas are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar. Thousands are forced to risk ...
Q&A: Chinese, and Nigerian Researchers Collaborate on Super Sub-Saharan Africa Electricity System
China's strategic investments through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) showcase its aspiration to play a role in the global energy infrastructure.
Philippine Fishing Fleets Urged to Maintain Presence at Disputed Shoal as Tensions Build
The Philippine coastguard called on its country’s fishing fleets to keep operating around the Scarborough Shoal (known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Dao in China) despite the large Chinese presence in the disputed South China Sea area. Coastguard ...
$1.3 Billion Chinese Investment in Zambian Copper Sector as EU Readies Competing Deal
The Chinese mining giant China Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Company (CNMC) announced a plan to invest $1.3 billion in Zambia across a range of sectors. The agreement, announced by CNMC chairperson Xi Zhengping, includes a $400 million investment in the Chambishi copper mine, run by its subsidiary Non-Ferrous Corporation ...
Climate Graph of the Day: After a Rapid Increase, China’s Oil Demand May Have Peaked
After decades of ever-growing oil use, China's oil demand may have peaked this year, according to Chinese oil executives cited by FT. This has significant implications for countries from Angola to Russia to Brazil, which depend on selling oil to China.
A Debt Deal for Sri Lanka Without China?
Some members of Sri Lanka’s creditor committee are reportedly promoting an agreement to restructure the bankrupt country’s debt without China. According to a report by Bloomberg, the United States, Japan and India are pushing for a deal with Sri Lanka ...
Revealed: The Issues Complicating a Key Belt and Road Project in Pakistan
China is apparently balking at proposals from Pakistan to expand cooperation in their shared China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), revealing growing problems in the key Belt and Road Initiative project. These were revealed by a comparison between the draft proposals submitted by Pakistan to ...
Kenyan Farmers Watch as Chinese Garlic Slowly Claims Market
Significant imports from China are meant to meet the shortfall since Kenyan farmers produce only 2,000 metric tonnes which only meets 50 to 60% of local needs. The rest is supplemented by imports from Rwanda and Tanzania.
China’s Wuling Electrifies Indonesia’s EV Market, but Can the Spark Last?
Chinese electric vehicle maker Wuling is reaping what it sowed almost eight years ago in Indonesia — the largest and most lucrative auto market in Southeast Asia. After injecting a billion U.S. dollar investment over that period, Wuling has now sold over 10,000 Air EVs and ...
Modi Comes Under Intense Criticism Back Home After “Brief Conversation” With Xi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came under withering criticism this weekend from his political rivals and the media back home for the way he handled a short, "informal" exchange with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of last week's BRICS summit in Johannesburg -- their first ...
Xi-Modi Talks in Joburg Sparks New Optimism About Improving Ties With India
Reactions in China to last week's brief conversation between President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were far more upbeat than those in India. To be sure, there was nowhere near as much commentary about the meeting in the ...
Modi Subtly Blames China for the Global South Debt Crisis
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-surfaced longstanding suspicions that China is fueling the Global South debt crisis by engaging in predatory lending. In an interview with India Today published on Friday, the Prime Minister insinuated that unnamed "forces" are ensnaring ...
China’s “Aggressive Behavior” in the South China Sea Must be Checked, Says U.S. Navy’s Top Pacific Commander
The United States Navy is ratcheting up the pressure on China over recent confrontations between the Chinese Coast Guard and Philippines maritime forces in the South China Sea. "You've got to push back," warned the U.S. Navy's top commander in the ...
Chinese EV Makers Are Rushing to Set Up Operations in Thailand
Two of China's largest automakers, Changan and Geely, both announced new plans to set up manufacturing and sales operations in Thailand for their new line of electric vehicles. Geely's EV unit AION announced plans to build a $170 million factory in ...
Saudi Arabia Eying China to Build Nuclear Power Program as Part of an Effort to Pressure U.S.
The U.S. wants Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia wants to build a civilian nuclear power program but the U.S. doesn't want Riyadh to enrich its own uranium for fear it could be used to build weapons -- so Saudi Arabia turns to China ...
China and the Politics of Global Climate Diplomacy
The failure of G20 countries last month to agree on a plan to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 highlights a key problem in the ongoing debate over how to respond to climate change: the institutions that are designed to help ...
Rwanda’s New Chinese-Funded, Built Hydropower Plant Progresses Amid Mounting Concerns Over Drought
A Chinese state-owned engineering and construction company successfully completed river closure last week marking the start of the main building phase of the $214 million Nyabarongo II Multipurpose Project in Rwanda. In the country’s quest for more renewable energy to ...
What a Railway in Kenya Reveals About How China Builds Things in Africa
The Kenyan government's controversial decision to end certain subsidies and raise taxes sparked days of violent protests in Nairobi. While the move sparked a massive backlash, President William Ruto nonetheless clearly felt he had no other choice if he wanted to ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Algeria Formally Applied to Join BRICS Bloc and Pledged $1.5 Billion to New Development Bank
Algeria formally applied to join the BRICS bloc and pledged $1.5 billion to become a shareholder in the group's New Development Bank. The offer came at the end of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's five-day visit to China on Friday, when he also met with Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei in Shenzhen.
Reflecting On China-Cambodia’s Dara Sakor Project, 15 Years In
It was 2008 when the Cambodian government appointed the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG), a subsidiary of Wanlong Group based in Tianjin, to build a $3.8 billion mega project in Dara Sakor. UDG was equipped with a 99-year lease and was ...
Southeast Asia Inches Closer to China to Survive Harsh Heat Waves
Extreme high temperatures — a ‘once-in-200-years heat wave’ — have been hitting many Asian countries in recent weeks, including those in Southeast Asia. Experts said that it is only the beginning of an era that will see more frequent heat waves and other erratic weather.
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Visit to China Widely Seen as a Message for Joe Biden
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday he will travel to Beijing next month to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Prime Minister's office batted away arguments in the Israeli media that the visit is intended to pique the White House ...
Netanyahu Visit to China is Strategic Mistake, Says Former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief
One of Israel's most decorated former generals, Amos Yadlin, warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his planned visit to China is a strategic mistake that risks damaging the Jewish state's far more important ties with the United States. Yadlin, who is ...
Netanyahu May be Going to China to Boost His Political Standing at Home, Says Israeli Scholar
The political calculations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made in agreeing to accept President Xi Jinping's invitation to visit may be far more nuanced than the prevailing narratives in the Israeli and U.S. media, which largely frame it around annoying Joe Biden.
Lots of Handshakes, Smiles and an Aircraft Carrier Framed Vietnam PM’s Visit to China
Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính wrapped up a jam-packed three-day visit to China on Tuesday with a meeting with President Xi Jinping while a giant U.S. aircraft carrier was docked back home near the central city of Da Nang. Vietnam's ...
China’s Groundhog Day in Sudan
After decades of diplomatic, economic, and security engagement in Africa, the ongoing fighting in Sudan may well remind Beijing of the 1990s classic in which TV weatherman Bill Murray covers the annual Groundhog Day in a small town in Pennsylvania, only to be forced to relive the ...
Understanding China’s Role in the Developing World Debt Crisis (Part 2)
The widely debunked Chinese debt trap narrative re-surfaced again in Washington, D.C. when the top U.S. military commander for Africa General Michael Langley testified before Congress -- highlighting the urgent need for better information about Chinese lending practices in developing countries. ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: United Nations Confirms India’s Population Will Surpass China’s This Week
The United Nations confirmed that India’s population will surpass that of China by the end of this week, hitting 1,425,775,850 people. This follows an earlier report from a different UN agency that predicted that India will become the world’s most populous country by the middle of this year. (BBC) ...
China’s Lending to Latin America and the Caribbean Begins Again with Smaller, Targeted Support
By Rebecca Ray and Margaret Myers Chinese development lending to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has begun to rebound, according to the latest update of the Chinese Loans to Latin America and the Caribbean Database, maintained by the Boston University ...
Chinese Central Bank Official Explains Why Beijing Is so Worried About Debt Restructuring
A senior official with the People's Bank of China, the country's central, provided new insights as to why Beijing is demanding that multilateral development banks (MDBs) also take losses on their loans to developing countries -- a key sticking point that has brought debt restructuring processes in several ...
China Should Not Compromise With Western Creditors in Zambian Debt Relief, Says Prominent Scholar
Zambia’s debt renegotiation is being delayed by barriers within China’s banking system and by Western pressure. So says Professor Tang Xiaoyang, a prominent expert on Chinese overseas development finance and the director of the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University, in an interesting interview with the ...
New Report: China Is Now the Major Lender of Last Resort for Developing Countries
China has spent $240 billion in rescue payments to 22 economically distressed Belt and Road economies between 2008 and 2021. A new report published by AidData, the research center at the College of William and Mary, and co-authored with researchers at the ...
Chinese Scholars See U.S. Veep’s Africa Tour in the Context of Great Power Competition
One stop into her week-long, three-nation African tour, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to mention the "C" word. But China is very much on the minds of her traveling press corps that seems to take every opportunity ...
China Sticks to Its Position That Its Not to Blame for Delays in Zambia’s Debt Restructuring Process
Any hope China would soften its hardline position on debt restructuring following last weekend's talks among G20 finance ministers was dashed on Monday when Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning restated Beijing's longstanding demand that multilateral creditors also take losses on their loans to developing countries. ...
IMF Head Flatly Rejects China’s Call for Multilateral Development Banks to Take Losses on Loans: “Not Possible”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva flatly rejected China's demand for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to accept losses or "haircuts" for loans to the world's poorest countries. "Not possible" she bluntly declared in an interview with Bloomberg following this weekend's ...
Germany’s Ambassador to Ghana Explains Why He Thinks China is Hesitating to Set Up a Creditor Committee
The German government is advocating on behalf of Ghana for China to stop stalling in the creation of a new Creditor Committee that will restructure Accra's debts. Last week, Ghana officially became the second African country in the post-pandemic era to default ...
With an Eye on China and Russia, Macron (Again) Tries to Reboot France’s Strategy in Africa
France needs to approach Africa with ‘profound humility’ to make up for its colonial past. This is the message from French President Emmanuel Macron, who is embarking on an African tour in part aimed at rejuvenating Paris’s engagement with a continent where its image remains shaped by its colonial ...
Top Chinese Communist Party Official Visits Ruling Party Leaders in Kenya, Tanzania
In-person party-to-party exchanges between Communist Party of China (CPC) officials and African counterparts are ramping up again. Li Mingxiang, the Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, recently visited Kenya and Tanzania. The visit was ostensibly aimed at ...
Kenya’s Ambassador to China Leaves Unexpectedly
Kenya's outgoing ambassador to China, Mary Muthoni, is leaving her post after only ten months on the job, far less than her predecessor, who spent three years in Beijing. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi did not explain what prompted ...
In Crafting Special Economic Zones, Ethiopia and Vietnam Learned from China and Taiwan
By Keyi Tang The Taliban administration recently announced plans to convert former US military bases into special economic zones (SEZs) with the aim of promoting economic self-sufficiency through increased trade and investment. The Taliban are not ...
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 ...
China Sticks to Its Position That Its Not to Blame for Delays in Zambia’s Debt Restructuring Process
Any hope China would soften its hardline position on debt restructuring following last weekend's talks among G20 finance ministers was dashed on Monday when Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning restated Beijing's longstanding demand that multilateral creditors also take losses on their loans to developing countries. ...
IMF Head Flatly Rejects China’s Call for Multilateral Development Banks to Take Losses on Loans: “Not Possible”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva flatly rejected China's demand for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to accept losses or "haircuts" for loans to the world's poorest countries. "Not possible" she bluntly declared in an interview with Bloomberg following this weekend's ...
Germany’s Ambassador to Ghana Explains Why He Thinks China is Hesitating to Set Up a Creditor Committee
The German government is advocating on behalf of Ghana for China to stop stalling in the creation of a new Creditor Committee that will restructure Accra's debts. Last week, Ghana officially became the second African country in the post-pandemic era to default ...
With an Eye on China and Russia, Macron (Again) Tries to Reboot France’s Strategy in Africa
France needs to approach Africa with ‘profound humility’ to make up for its colonial past. This is the message from French President Emmanuel Macron, who is embarking on an African tour in part aimed at rejuvenating Paris’s engagement with a continent where its image remains shaped by its colonial ...
Top Chinese Communist Party Official Visits Ruling Party Leaders in Kenya, Tanzania
In-person party-to-party exchanges between Communist Party of China (CPC) officials and African counterparts are ramping up again. Li Mingxiang, the Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, recently visited Kenya and Tanzania. The visit was ostensibly aimed at ...
Kenya’s Ambassador to China Leaves Unexpectedly
Kenya's outgoing ambassador to China, Mary Muthoni, is leaving her post after only ten months on the job, far less than her predecessor, who spent three years in Beijing. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi did not explain what prompted ...
In Crafting Special Economic Zones, Ethiopia and Vietnam Learned from China and Taiwan
By Keyi Tang The Taliban administration recently announced plans to convert former US military bases into special economic zones (SEZs) with the aim of promoting economic self-sufficiency through increased trade and investment. The Taliban are not ...