Day: April 19, 2023
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The Incredible Shrinking Africa-China Relationship
After 2022’s COVID lockdowns, this year saw a return of China to the international stage. With it came prominent Africa-China events, notably the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue on the sidelines of the BRICS summit and the prominent presence of some African leaders at the Belt and Road Forum in ...
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Philippines’ Threat of New South China Sea Structure Inflames Beijing
China is lashing out at signals that the Philippines may be set to build a structure in what Beijing considers the most sensitive part of the South China Sea between the two countries. The developments are a potentially dangerous new step in what ...
Growing Chorus of Philippine Voices Calls for Calm in South China Sea
While China-Philippines tensions in the South China Sea are at their worst in recent memory, and both sides have dug in their heels, there have been sprouts of a Filipino contingency calling for Manila to rethink the costs of a potential conflict.
Ship Attacks Shift Attention to China’s Overland Routes
Attacks by Houthi rebel groups on commercial ships in the Red Sea are forcing the world’s largest shipping companies to reroute their shipments. About 10% of the world’s trade passes through the Red Sea, but the route accounts for 40% of ...
China Could Fund Kenyan Rail Through Public-Private Partnership: Kenyan President
Kenyan President William Ruto renewed his calls for China to fund the third stretch of the country’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Speaking at a roundtable event in Nairobi during the weekend, Ruto said the project is currently being discussed in Beijing and could move forward as a public-private partnership. ...
Belt and Road Forum Concludes as Geopolitical Clouds Gather
The Belt and Road Forum has wrapped up with an eye-watering list of new initiatives and events, and commitments. Some of these are strikingly vague and/or abstract and working out exactly what they entail will take a while. What is notable ...
China Furious Over U.S. Veto of UN Action on Israel-Hamas War
China's normally soft-spoken ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, expressed "shock and disappointment" that the United States used its veto power on the Security Council to block a resolution that called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas. ...
China’s Foremost Mideast Scholar Explains Beijing’s Response to the Israel-Hamas War
China was much slower than the other major powers to respond to the October 7 terrorist attack by the Islamic militant group Hamas against civilian populations in southern Israel. The following week, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi laid out Beijing's ...
Kevin Gallagher’s Key Takeaways From the Belt & Road Forum
Boston University Global Development Policy Center Director Kevin Gallagher was one of only a handful of U.S. stakeholders invited to participate in the Belt and Road Forum that just wrapped up in Beijing. Kevin joined CGSP Editor-in-Chief Eric Olander for a ...
Xi Meets with Kenyan, UN, Nigerian Leaders
Chinese President Xi Jinping had another flurry of high-level meetings on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum on Wednesday. During his meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto, Xi pledged further support for investment in Kenya, as well as cooperation in ...
Wang Yi to Challenges Western BRI-Rivals: Bring it On
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference following the closing ceremony of this week’s Belt and Road Forum that summed up the sprawling event as an example of a confident China’s openness to working with the world (and especially the Global South) to boost mutual development.
Vietnam Sentences Trafficking Ringleaders That Sold Brides in China
A court in Vietnam sentenced six women to up to 30 years in jail for running a trafficking ring that sold women and girls to China as wives — a problem that has plagued Southeast Asia for years. China’s gender imbalance ...
Vietnam’s “Multi-Alignment” Strategy: Friend to All, Ally to None
Most developing countries around the world have stated repeatedly and emphatically that they do not want to be drawn into a new Cold War between the United States and China -- few, though, have moved with as much determination as Vietnam to ensure that never happens.
Mapping the Emerging Africa-China Landscape
Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published a new policy brief tracking trends in Chinese financing to Africa. It notes the sharp decline in the size and number of loans compared to the 2010s. This point has been made before and ...
What Does Chinese Lending to Africa Look Like Now?
China has been one of the most important development lenders to Africa over the last quarter of a century. This has transformed the African development landscape in helpful and problematic ways. It is also changing very rapidly. A new report from ...
Chinese Loans to Africa by Region, 2000-2022
From 2000-2022, countries in Southern Africa and East Africa historically borrowed the most from China primarily due to large-scale loans in Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya. In 2021 and 2022, the regional composition is distinct from previous years; lending ...
Smaller and Greener? New Data Reveals a Shift in Chinese Loans to Africa
By Victoria Yvonne Bien-Aimé, Lucas Engel and Oyintarelado Moses A combination of economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy shift to a greener high-quality Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has translated into a substantial decline in large-scale Chinese loan ...
The Emerging Talking Points Restructuring the Africa-China Relationship
The last few weeks have been punctuated by both an alphabet soup of big summits (BRICS, ASEAN, G20) and much discussion of the optics of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s presence or absence from them. Amid the fray, a significant shift in Africa-China ...
G77 Gathering Reinforces the Talking Points of China’s Global South Diplomacy
China sent its most senior official in recent years to the G77 gathering in Havana on Friday. The presence of Li Xi, the CPC's seventh-ranking member and the head of the corruption watchdog, arguably signaled a continuance of China's recent focus on Global South diplomacy.
Coups in the Sahel: Where China, U.S., and EU Should Work Together
Niger's coup leaders have been unfazed by military threats and economic blockade of food and medicine by neighboring countries and have not returned to their barracks. The unfolding coup is the latest event in ongoing chaos across the Sahel. Sudan fights a civil war, jihadism menaces the ...
How to Talk About China in the Global South: Key Lessons From the Digital Asia Hub 2023 Conference
Academics from dozens of top universities around the globe gathered last week in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for the 20th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC). Hailing from Peking University, Nanyang Technological University, Warwick University, and more, the researchers presented their latest research on the Chinese Internet’s flows and ...
Security, Energy Top Agenda in Algerian President’s Talks With Xi
“China is our most important friend," declared Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in his opening remarks during talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Abdelmadjid met with Xi on Tuesday during a high-profile five-day visit that is being closely watched by ...
China Turns to Ex-President Duterte to Try and Salvage Ties With the Philippines
Chinese President Xi Jinping turned to an old friend this week in an effort to repair badly-damaged ties with the Philippines. Xi met with former president Rodrigo Duterte at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Monday in what appeared to ...
How China’s CMOC Came Out Ahead in $2 Billion Settlement to End Congo Mining Feud
Chinese mining giant CMOC announced that it has settled a years-long dispute with the DR Congo's state-run mining company Gécamines that both sides hope will conclude a bitter feud between the two firms over royalty payments from the massive Tenke Fungurume mine (TFM), one of the world's ...
China’s New Ambassador to the DRC Tours Mining Sites in the Copper/Cobalt Belt
China's new envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhao Bin, traveled to the southern Lualaba province last week for his first tour of a Chinese mining facility. Zhao led an embassy delegation to visit the Lualaba Copper Smelting Co., Ltd, ...
Nigerian Trader Sparks Online Controversy When He Shows How Much He Bought for Just $63
Nigerian TikTok users couldn't believe what they were seeing when a China-based importer who goes by the TikTok handle @timi_perfection posted a video that laid out everything he bought for just 50,000 nairas (about $63.) Dozens of comments expressed doubt over how much ...
Could China-Indonesia Climate Cooperation Resurrect the Pan-Asianism Dream?
"If Liong-Barongsai from China works together with Nandi Cows from India, with Sphinxes from Egypt, with Peacocks from Burma, with White Elephants from Siam, with Hydra Snakes from Vietnam, with Tigers from the Philippines and with Bulls from Indonesia, then surely the international imperialism and colonialism will ...
Introducing ChatCGSP (beta)
Regular listeners of our podcast may have heard me discuss some of my anxieties about artificial intelligence and the threat that tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard pose to small independent news organizations like ours. In April, when U.S. Secretary of ...
Kenya’s High Court Rules Contract for Chinese-Financed Railway Can Remain Secret
Kenya's highest court ruled the government does not have to reveal the contract for the controversial Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Friday's ruling overturned a 2020 Appeals Court ruling that claimed the government had indeed flouted procurement disclosure laws when it refused to publish ...
Little Consensus Over Veracity of Ex-Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Comms Director’s Accusation of CPC Influence
Bob Pickard, the former head of communications at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing, is now back home in Vancouver after he accused the Communist Party of China (CPC) of secretly interfering in the bank's operations. Pickard made the accusation in ...
WSJ: Shanghai-Based New Development Bank “Fighting For Its Very Survival”
The Chinese-initiated New Development Bank (aka "BRICS Bank") is reportedly facing a severe liquidity crisis as Wall Street has backed away from supporting a bank that's 20% owned by Russia, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. That's made ...
Ecuador’s New Free Trade Pact With China Provokes Lots of Excitement and Even More Questions
By Chris Alden and Alvaro Mendez The ongoing political crisis in Ecuador, which saw President Guillermo Lasso dissolve the National Assembly and trigger an election, came against the backdrop of the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China. This ...
South-South Cooperation in Economically Perilous Times
For 70+ years, development economists have been touting the idea that if lesser developed countries trade and invest collaboratively, it would serve as a pathway out of poverty. But today, the notion of so-called South-South cooperation is facing unprecedented challenges as ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to Visit Australia in July
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Australia in July in the latest indication that tensions between the two countries are easing. In another sign of détente, Beijing is lifting many of the economic sanctions that it imposed on Australian agricultural and mining products for the past 2-3 ...
China’s CMOC Reaches Breakthrough Contract Settlement Deal With DRC Over the TFM Cobalt Mine
The Chinese mining giant CMOC announced on Wednesday that it finalized a deal with the DR Congo's state-run mining company Gécamines over royalty payments for the massive Tenke Fungurume (TFM) copper and cobalt mine. CMOC said in a statement published on ...
China’s Offer to Mediate Israel-Palestinian Conflict Lacks Credibility, Say Analysts
This week's offer by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to facilitate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was quickly dismissed as unrealistic by prominent scholars and analysts who closely follow the issue. Qin spoke separately with the foreign ministers ...
What the Israelis Really Want From China (Hint: It Has Nothing to do With the Palestinians)
There's no indication in the Israeli national security community of a strong desire to call on China to help mediate the country's long-running dispute with the Palestinians. After all, Israel is one of the U.S.'s closest allies and China has been ...
Iran-China Trade Topped $15 Billion Last Year: Report
Two-way trade between China and Iran increased by 7% last year to $15.8 billion, according to new data by Chinese customs authorities. Iranian exports to China accounted for $6.35 billion, while imports from China totaled $9.4 billion.
Gabon President’s Trip to Beijing Highlights Two Important Trends in Chinese Diplomacy
The arrival of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba in Beijing this week may seem at odds with the dozens of other leaders from much larger, far more powerful countries who've traveled to China this year to meet with President Xi Jinping. ...
Chinese Embassy in Nigeria Refutes Times (UK) Story That Claimed “Beijing is Indirectly Funding Terrorism”
The Chinese embassy in Abuja denounced a report published last weekend in The Times (UK) newspaper that alleged Chinese companies are bribing militants for access to mineral reserves in northern Nigeria. The embassy said the report by the paper's West Africa correspondent ...
South African, Chinese Communist Party Officials Meet in Beijing
The head of South Africa's Communist Party, Solly Afrika Mapaila, met the director of the CPC's international liaison department, Liu Jianchao, on Tuesday in Beijing. From the gist of the read-out of the meeting, it does not appear that the meeting ...
In the U.S.-China Duel, the Philippines Has Chosen a Side, Says Xiamen University Southeast Asia Scholar
When Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was elected president of the Philippines last year, there was a lot of hope in Beijing that he would reset ties with China after six turbulent years of Rodrigo Duterte's unpredictable foreign policy. Now, less than a ...
India Supports Sri Lanka’s Debt Restructuring Process
Sri Lanka has reportedly secured India’s support for its debt restructuring process. According to Reuters, an Indian Finance Ministry official sent a message to the International Monetary Fund that it “strongly supports” the debt-ridden country’s economic recovery plan. Indian External Affairs
Dalai Lama Invite Complicates China-Sri Lanka Cooperation
Sri Lanka’s desperate attempts to get China’s support for its debt restructuring could be blown up from the inside. This follows an invitation from senior Buddhist clerics to the Dalai Lama to visit the bankrupt island state. The Chinese embassy was predictably ...
Is the DRC Making Progress in Reshaping Its Controversial Chinese Deals? Maybe.
The Democratic Republic of Congo could be closer to overhauling two controversial Chinese deals. Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi told Reuters the government is in active talks with Sicomines, a joint venture between the DRC’s state mining company Gécamines, and Sinohydro and China Railway Group, who were supposed to ...
Chinese Expert: Global North’s Sudden Concern about Global South Reflects Power Shift
As China’s decades-long focus on South-South cooperation results in strong relationships throughout the developing world, Global North powers like the United States and Japan are suddenly discovering their concern for the Global South in order to shore up their own fading influence.
China’s Provinces as Global Actors: Evidence From China-Africa Relations
By Charlotte Lenz With the launch in the early 2000s of China’s ‘Going Global’ Strategy, Chinese provinces became one group of actors participating in China’s South-South relations. This has complicated our perception of China, which is often still seen as a ...
Why More Young Chinese Professionals Are Looking For Work in Africa
Near record high levels of youth unemployment in China is prompting more young graduates to look abroad for work, particularly in Africa. Recruiters say they can't find enough people to work in both private companies and Chinese state-owned enterprises as translators, ...
File image of an artisanal miner carrying raw ore at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe/File Photo
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Ange Kasongo The U.S. has made progress in its push to prise Congo's strategic minerals from China's orbit, but conflict, contested licences and compliance demands are still slowing Washington's advance into a region its rival dominates, diplomats and ...
China’s CMOC Reaches Breakthrough Contract Settlement Deal With DRC Over the TFM Cobalt Mine
The Chinese mining giant CMOC announced on Wednesday that it finalized a deal with the DR Congo's state-run mining company Gécamines over royalty payments for the massive Tenke Fungurume (TFM) copper and cobalt mine. CMOC said in a statement published on ...
China’s Offer to Mediate Israel-Palestinian Conflict Lacks Credibility, Say Analysts
This week's offer by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to facilitate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was quickly dismissed as unrealistic by prominent scholars and analysts who closely follow the issue. Qin spoke separately with the foreign ministers ...
What the Israelis Really Want From China (Hint: It Has Nothing to do With the Palestinians)
There's no indication in the Israeli national security community of a strong desire to call on China to help mediate the country's long-running dispute with the Palestinians. After all, Israel is one of the U.S.'s closest allies and China has been ...
Iran-China Trade Topped $15 Billion Last Year: Report
Two-way trade between China and Iran increased by 7% last year to $15.8 billion, according to new data by Chinese customs authorities. Iranian exports to China accounted for $6.35 billion, while imports from China totaled $9.4 billion.
Gabon President’s Trip to Beijing Highlights Two Important Trends in Chinese Diplomacy
The arrival of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba in Beijing this week may seem at odds with the dozens of other leaders from much larger, far more powerful countries who've traveled to China this year to meet with President Xi Jinping. ...
Chinese Embassy in Nigeria Refutes Times (UK) Story That Claimed “Beijing is Indirectly Funding Terrorism”
The Chinese embassy in Abuja denounced a report published last weekend in The Times (UK) newspaper that alleged Chinese companies are bribing militants for access to mineral reserves in northern Nigeria. The embassy said the report by the paper's West Africa correspondent ...
South African, Chinese Communist Party Officials Meet in Beijing
The head of South Africa's Communist Party, Solly Afrika Mapaila, met the director of the CPC's international liaison department, Liu Jianchao, on Tuesday in Beijing. From the gist of the read-out of the meeting, it does not appear that the meeting ...
In the U.S.-China Duel, the Philippines Has Chosen a Side, Says Xiamen University Southeast Asia Scholar
When Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was elected president of the Philippines last year, there was a lot of hope in Beijing that he would reset ties with China after six turbulent years of Rodrigo Duterte's unpredictable foreign policy. Now, less than a ...