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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. ...

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 ...

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 ...