Day: September 5, 2025

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China’s Overseas Bullet Train: Malaysians Still Top Foreign Riders

China’s first overseas high-speed rail in Indonesia, the Whoosh bullet train, is carrying a steady flow of foreign passengers, and Malaysians continue to account for the largest share, the operator said. In less than two years since its inauguration in ...

Crude Deals or Clever Design? Unpacking China’s Resource-Backed Finance in Africa

It is not every day that a highway is paid for with barrels of oil. Yet in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, that is exactly how some of the region’s largest infrastructure projects are being financed. Instead of tapping their treasuries or issuing sovereign bonds, governments are ...

Chinese Firms Pay Price of Jihadist Strikes Against Mali Junta

Jihadists allied to Al-Qaeda have launched a blitz of raids on Malian industrial sites run by foreign firms, especially Chinese, as a tactic to undermine the ruling junta. While present across wider west Africa, the powerful Group for the Support of ...

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 ...

Kenya Caught Uncomfortably Between the U.S. and China

The Kenyan government is under mounting pressure from the United States over its close ties with China. Influential lawmakers in Washington are furious over comments made by President William Ruto during a visit to Beijing earlier this year, where he said ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

How to Lure Chinese Financing Back to the Global South: Report

Global South countries face increasing financing pressure, endangering their ability to keep developing while also implementing measures to deal with a growing climate crisis. The disruption of global trade is coupled with a larger megatrend: flows of international capital to the developing world have turned negative. This means that countries are now routinely paying more to service loans than they receive in disbursements.

The vast majority of Global South borrowers ...

Malaysia Opens First EV Plant with Backing from China’s Geely

Malaysia’s Proton launched its first electric vehicle assembly plant on Thursday with backing from China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The country aims to position itself as a regional hub for EV production. The facility is located in the Automotive High-Tech ...

China Backs Malaysia’s BRICS Bid, Laos Reiterates Interest

China has pledged full support for Malaysia’s full membership into BRICS, while Laos has reaffirmed its interest in joining. The moves underline Southeast Asia’s growing engagement with the bloc, which has expanded its membership in recent years. ...