Day: November 19, 2025
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China-Africa and the Cost of Unused Talent
When it comes to the China-Africa story, most people first think about infrastructure. Those who follow it more closely might think of diplomacy. But China-Africa relations is also a story about hundreds, maybe even thousands, of African students trained in China through scholarships and bilateral partnerships.
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China Says Cambodia, Thailand Ready to De-escalate After Wang Yi Calls
China says Cambodia and Thailand are prepared to de-escalate and move toward a cease-fire after separate phone calls with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Thailand has said any truce depends on Cambodian action, and Phnom Penh has yet to publicly confirm ...
China’s Outsized Role in West Africa’s Illegal Resource Trade
Every year, illegal mining, fishing, and logging drain billions of dollars from West Africa's economies as the problem persists largely unchecked, with Chinese actors playing an outsized role. Fueled by chronic corruption among local regulators across the region and seemingly insatiable demand ...
China, Ukraine Diplomats Discuss Russia Invasion in Beijing Talks
A senior Ukrainian diplomat held talks with a Chinese official in Beijing on Thursday, both sides said, including on resolving the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine triggered by Russia's invasion. The visit represented a rare meeting between officials from Kyiv and ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China Moves to Build an Advanced Copper Supply Chain
Reuters reports that Chinese scientists have completed the country’s first extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, used to produce the advanced semiconductors used to power artificial intelligence applications. The prototype was reportedly reverse-engineered by scientists who used to work at the Dutch chip leader ASML. They reportedly plan to start ...
China Pulls Ahead of U.S. in Global Research Output
China is publishing more scientific papers than the United States, and the distance between them is getting wider, quicker than many people in the field thought it would. The shift is no longer something that only shows up in ...
Indonesian Finance Minister Will Join Rail Debt Talks with China
Indonesia’s finance minister, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, will join a top-level delegation preparing to fly to China for debt-renegotiation talks on the Jakarta–Bandung high-speed rail project. Purbaya is joining the talks while Jakarta debates whether to commit any public funds ...
Landmark Report Tracks China’s Global Lending
The conversation about China’s rise as a global lender has been held back by two large trends. First, the data is hard to get and mind-numbingly vast. Second, studies tracking this data have so far tended to focus on the Global South in isolation, rather than putting ...
New Data: How Chinese Economic Shifts will Impact Africa
As China navigates a domestic economic downturn and a whipped-up global geoeconomic scene, its trade with Africa keeps changing. A new report by the Rhodium Group in collaboration with the Atlantic Council projects how Chinese economic growth trends will affect ...
Chinese versus U.S. Foreign Direct Investment in Africa
Deborah Brautigam, a prominent expert on Chinese global financing flows, responded to recent discussions about comparisons in Chinese and U.S. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa. It was sparked by a BBC report, which used 2023 data from the China-Africa Research Initiative, a platform pioneered by Brautigam, to ...
Chinese Mining Companies Need Deeper Dialogue With Overseas Communities
By Chen Yu Minerals like nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper are foundational to the global clean-energy transition. Solar panels, wind turbines, EVs, and battery storage cannot be built without them. Yet extracting, processing, and transporting these “transition minerals” can be resource-intensive, ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: From Pixii to Yango: Africa’s Next Wave of Electric Vehicle Innovation
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service. Changes in electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and trade dynamics worldwide are unlocking business innovation. African countries, which largely lag ...
China’s Power Paradox: Record Renewables, Continued Coal
By Sara Hussein Call it the China power paradox: while Beijing leads the world in renewable energy expansion, its coal projects are booming too. As the top emitter of greenhouse gases, China will largely determine ...
Chinese Demand Boosts Brazilian Coffee Exports and Challenges Small Producers
Since 2018, São Paulo–based businesswoman Carla Guindani has been eyeing the Chinese market. That year, she was invited by ApexBrasil, a Brazilian government agency dedicated to promoting exports, to exhibit family farming products at the Shanghai International Food Exhibition. At the time, Guindani was head of a ...
The Grand Dream: China’s Stakes in Nicaragua’s Canal
As China and the United States vie for influence and access in Latin America, the Panama Canal has reemerged as a strategic chokepoint. Washington is moving to limit Beijing’s access while China scrambles for other options. Sensing an opening, Managua has revived its long-dormant dream of a ...
Chinese Copper Miner and Processor Faces Multiple Environmental Lawsuits From Zambian Communities
Lawyers representing communities and civil society groups in Zambia have opened settlement talks with Sino-Metals, a Chinese-owned copper mining and processing company, over one of the country’s worst toxic spills, raising the possibility of an out-of-court resolution in multiple cases that could reshape corporate accountability in Africa. ...
Africa-Asia Relations Beyond China
Africa was especially hard hit by Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, which ended years of duty-free access to the U.S. and triggered a rush to find new markets. China's announcement that it will remove all tariffs on African imports undoubtedly provides ...
An Unreliable Friend: Arab Perspectives on China After the Twelve-Day War
Francesco Scala and Leonardo Bruni This edition of the ChinaMed Observer builds upon our ongoing research analyzing local, regional, and Chinese perspectives on China’s role in the Middle East in the aftermath of the “Twelve-Day War” between Israel and Iran. Whereas ...
Recapping the Fundamentals: Key Lessons on Chinese Financing for Power Projects
The financing may be Chinese, the builders Chinese too, but the consequences are overwhelmingly those of the host state. Decisions, often made in boardrooms thousands of kilometers away, can shape the development trajectory of African countries for decades. That is why understanding how Chinese infrastructure projects are ...
China Warns Papua New Guinea Over Australian Defense Deal
China cautioned Papua New Guinea against "undermining" its interests and sovereignty in signing a mutual defense pact with Australia widely seen as a counter to Beijing's growing influence in the Pacific. Australia and Papua New Guinea this week agreed on the ...
Q&A: Reading China’s Military Parade and Southeast Asia’s Optics Right
In Asia’s high-context politics, the stage often speaks as loudly as the words. Welcoming ceremonies, traditional dances, marathon speeches, China's military parade, and photo ops are never just pomp. They are signals to multiple audiences. At home, they convey respect and access.
Future-Gazing China’s Global Governance Initiative
By Lukas Fiala At China’s SCO summit earlier this month, Xi launched yet another one of his signature foreign policy-oriented projects: the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). Adding an umbrella framing to the existing alphabet soup of GSI, GDI, GCI and ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: African Exporters Lobby U.S., While Eyeing Chinese Alternatives
Reuters reports that African exporters have embarked on a final effort to save the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade pact that gives the continent duty-free access to the U.S. market. The act will expire at the end of the month. Delegations from five African manufacturing ...
It’s the U.S. or China, U.S. Senator Tells Colombian Leaders
Colombian-born conservative Republican U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno delivered a blunt message to Colombian leaders this week when he told them they would have to choose to align with either the U.S. or China. “It’s a binary choice,” Moreno said in a ...
As Washington Relations Strain, India Explores a Fragile Thaw With China
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet on Tuesday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in New Delhi. This is a somewhat unusual meeting as it's not customary for an Indian Prime Minister to meet privately with a ...
China’s Top Diplomat Hails ‘Positive Trend’ in Relations With India
Relations between China and India are on a "positive trend" towards cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, according to a readout of the meeting published Tuesday. The world's two most populous nations are intense ...
BHP Books Rise in Profit on Back of Chinese Copper Demand
Australian mining giant BHP on Tuesday reported a bump in yearly profits, as China's appetite for copper helped to counter slumping prices for iron ore and coal. Chief executive Mike Henry trumpeted a strong year "marked by record production", with annual ...
Tariffs Expose Cracks in U.S.–India Biotech Alliance, Chinese Analysts Say
For decades, the U.S. and India have appeared aligned in biotechnology. But Chinese commentators and policy analysts alike now point to a paradox: Trump’s new tariff plan, designed to push Indian drugmakers into relocating production to U.S. soil, adds fresh uncertainty and risk to what was supposed ...
Chinese AI Firms Turn to the Middle East Amid Domestic Funding Crunch
A recent feature in Economic Observer, a business news outlet, shows how Chinese AI companies, squeezed by fierce competition and a shrinking capital pool at home, are pivoting toward the Middle East, where deep-pocketed sovereign funds and ambitious digital transformation agendas are opening new doors.
China Begins Massive Dam Project in Tibet, Prompting Indian Objections
China started building a mega-dam Saturday on a river running through Tibet and India, with Premier Li Qiang attending the commencement ceremony, state media said. Beijing approved the project in December on the river -- known as Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet ...
Caught in the Crossfire: Vietnam and the Chinese Transshipment Dilemma
By Le Hong Hiep On 2 July 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new U.S.–Vietnam trade deal, declaring that “Vietnam will pay the United States a 20% tariff on any and all goods sent into our territory, and ...
Singapore Facing ‘Serious’ Cyberattack by Espionage Group With Alleged China Ties
Singapore announced it was battling a "serious" cyberattack against its critical infrastructure, attributing the hack to an espionage group that experts have linked to China. The attack, a kind of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), poses a serious danger to the city-state, ...
Pew Survey: Global South More Concerned About U.S. Than China
A new Pew Research Center survey reveals a surprising shift: in many Global South middle-income countries, people are more concerned about U.S. influence than China’s.
China Floats Ideas for “Multipolar” Currency System to Balance U.S. Dollar
China announced several new initiatives aimed at increasing global trade in the yuan and to hedge against the dominance of the U.S. dollar. Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, proposed a future where the global financial system would rely on several currencies.
WEEK IN REVIEW: Russia, China Plan Joint Military Drills 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly said on Wednesday that Russia is planning joint military exercises with China in 2025. No details about the date and nature of the exercises were released. China and Russia last held joint exercises in September 2024 off Russia’s eastern coast. (REUTERS) ...
Malaysia Verifying Report of Chinese Firm Bypassing U.S. Tech Curbs
Malaysia's government is verifying media reports that a Chinese company may be circumventing U.S. export curbs on high-end AI chips by using servers housing Nvidia chips based in the Southeast Asian country. The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese engineers had ...
China Eases Transit Rules for Indonesians. Jakarta Should Push for More.
China’s recent inclusion of Indonesia in its 240-hour visa-free transit program is a notable, if not entirely surprising, development. While Indonesia is now among the 55 countries benefiting from this arrangement, the move signals a step forward in the broader relationship between the two nations. For ...
China Fears Israel-Iran Conflict May Get ‘Out of Control’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday his country was concerned that the conflict between Israel and Iran "may get out of control", warning that the region could slide into an "abyss." Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on Wednesday, the ...
New Zealand Halts Aid to Cook Islands Over China Deals
New Zealand's government halted aid to close partner the Cook Islands on Thursday because of a row over agreements the Pacific island nation struck with China. New Zealand "paused" the payments and would not resume them until the Cook Islands took ...
Bolivia Risks Debt Default Without New Funding, Says President
Bolivia, battling an economic crisis that has plunged it into social unrest, risks defaulting on its loan payments if it does not obtain new foreign financing, President Luis Arce told AFP on Wednesday. "We are trying not to default. We have ...
Taiwan Accuses China of Playing “Little Tricks” in South Africa
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung accused China of playing "little tricks" in South Africa as part of a campaign to force Taipei to move its representative office from the capital Pretoria to the commercial hub in Johannesburg. Lin's comments on Friday followed ...
Hong Kong Tycoon’s Panama Port Deal Sparks Chinese Immigration Marketing Frenzy
As China moves to block a high-profile international deal, the controversy has unexpectedly fueled a new wave of immigration marketing. On March 4, 2025, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing announced the $22.8 billion sale of his Panama Canal ports and 43 ...
U.S. “Chip Dumping” in Middle East Is Paying China’s Way, Chinese Analysts Say
Recent U.S. decisions to authorize large-scale exports of advanced AI chips—such as over one million Nvidia units to the UAE and 18,000 high-end chips to Saudi Arabia—have drawn sharp criticism from Chinese analysts. Rather than focusing on the impact on China, ...
Chinese Netizen Mocks India’s Attempt to Emulate Beijing’s Tariff Standoff with U.S.
A day after China and the United States reached a breakthrough tariff agreement—cutting U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, and China’s tariffs on American goods from 125% to 10%—India’s surprise trade move made headlines. Last week, India ...
China-India Ties Show Signs of Renewed Strain Following Kashmir Conflict
More than a year of progress in repairing frayed diplomatic ties between India and China appears to be in jeopardy following the brief conflict that erupted in recent weeks between India and Pakistan. The fighting between the two South Asian rivals flared ...
Pakistan FM to Visit China on Heels of Conflict With India Over Kashmir
Pakistan's Foreign Minister will make a three-day official visit to China, his office announced on Sunday, just over a week after Islamabad reached a ceasefire with India to end their most serious conflict in decades. Ishaq Dar, who also holds the ...
Japanese Warships Dock at Cambodia’s Chinese-Renovated Naval Base
Two Japanese warships made a port call at Cambodia's Chinese-renovated naval base on Saturday, the Japanese embassy said, the first vessels to dock at the site that has raised concerns in Washington. The United States has stated that the Ream Naval ...
China Calls for End of Gaza Bombings
The Chinese Foreign Ministry called for steps to avoid further casualties as Israeli bombings resumed in Gaza. The death toll from the current round of bombing has risen past 400. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Negotiations will continue only under fire" and that "this is just ...
Toy Trouble: Vietnam Pulls Dolls Over South China Sea Map
By Lam Nguyen Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children's dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing's claims in the flashpoint waterway.
China, Russia Eager to Fill Void as Trump Axes U.S.-Funded Media
By Shaun Tandon As President Donald Trump moves to axe Voice of America and other US-funded media, China and Russia are eager to fill the void. The targeting of VOA, Radio Free Europe, and Radio ...
China’s Hunan Province Unveils New Measures to Bolster Trade Ties With Africa
Authorities in China's central Hunan province introduced a series of new policy and financing measures specifically aimed at boosting trade ties with countries in Africa. The province's finance and commerce ministries jointly unveiled an 11-point plan last week that is intended to ...
USAID’s Closure Threatens to Derail U.S. Involvement in the Lobito Corridor
U.S. participation in the Lobito Corridor project that aims to challenge China's dominance of African critical resource supply chains is now in jeopardy due to the Trump administration's decision this month to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). ...
China Slams Vietnam’s Construction on Disputed South China Sea Reef Amid Escalating Tensions
Fresh sparks are flying again over the South China Sea. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed Vietnam’s construction work on the Barque Canada Reef, a small islet in the contested Spratly Islands that Vietnam has occupied since the 1980s. ...
Debate: Is China a Helpful or Horrible Trade Partner for Global South Countries?
At last week's Munich Security Conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi touted his country's 5% economic growth last year as a "benefit to the world" thanks to all of the trade it does with countries around the world. ...
China Pledges Trustworthy Ties with Latin America as Trump Wields Tough Demands
China is boldly staking its claim as a trustworthy and reliable friend to Latin America. “China will always be Latin America's 'trustworthy' friend and partner,” declared Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to his Bolivian counterpart, signaling Beijing’s intent to deepen ...
U.S. Aid Freeze Creates New Opening for China in the South Pacific
Donald Trump's foreign aid freeze has halted vital projects in the South Pacific, aid workers, and analysts say, risking lives and hurting U.S. efforts to woo the region. Disaster-prone, isolated, and threatened by rising seas, tropical Pacific island states are some ...
Vietnam Parliament Approves $8 Billion Rail Link to China
By Alice Philipson and Lam Nguyen Vietnam's parliament on Wednesday approved plans for an $8 billion rail link from its largest northern port city to the border with China, boosting links between the two communist-ruled countries and making trade easier.
Philippine Coast Guard Slams ‘Dangerous’ China Helicopter Manoeuvres
By Jam Sta Rosa The Philippine Coast Guard condemned "dangerous" maneuvers by a Chinese Navy helicopter on Tuesday that it said flew within three meters of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal.
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 Pulls Ahead of U.S. in Global Research Output
China is publishing more scientific papers than the United States, and the distance between them is getting wider, quicker than many people in the field thought it would. The shift is no longer something that only shows up in ...
Indonesian Finance Minister Will Join Rail Debt Talks with China
Indonesia’s finance minister, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, will join a top-level delegation preparing to fly to China for debt-renegotiation talks on the Jakarta–Bandung high-speed rail project. Purbaya is joining the talks while Jakarta debates whether to commit any public funds ...
Landmark Report Tracks China’s Global Lending
The conversation about China’s rise as a global lender has been held back by two large trends. First, the data is hard to get and mind-numbingly vast. Second, studies tracking this data have so far tended to focus on the Global South in isolation, rather than putting ...
New Data: How Chinese Economic Shifts will Impact Africa
As China navigates a domestic economic downturn and a whipped-up global geoeconomic scene, its trade with Africa keeps changing. A new report by the Rhodium Group in collaboration with the Atlantic Council projects how Chinese economic growth trends will affect ...
Chinese versus U.S. Foreign Direct Investment in Africa
Deborah Brautigam, a prominent expert on Chinese global financing flows, responded to recent discussions about comparisons in Chinese and U.S. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa. It was sparked by a BBC report, which used 2023 data from the China-Africa Research Initiative, a platform pioneered by Brautigam, to ...
Chinese Mining Companies Need Deeper Dialogue With Overseas Communities
By Chen Yu Minerals like nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper are foundational to the global clean-energy transition. Solar panels, wind turbines, EVs, and battery storage cannot be built without them. Yet extracting, processing, and transporting these “transition minerals” can be resource-intensive, ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: From Pixii to Yango: Africa’s Next Wave of Electric Vehicle Innovation
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service. Changes in electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and trade dynamics worldwide are unlocking business innovation. African countries, which largely lag ...