Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
China’s Global Power Looks Different When Its Partners Are in Crisis
By Felix Brender 王哲謙 On January 3, 2026, U.S. forces executed a dramatic operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, abruptly removing the central figure of a regime that had been one of Beijing’s most emblematic strategic partners in Latin ...
analysis
What to Watch After China’s Strategic Setback at the Panama Canal
On Thursday last week, Panama’s Supreme Court delivered a ruling that was felt in some of the highest offices in both Beijing and Washington. The court declared that the concession granting control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports to Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based ...
China’s Push for Low-Carbon Metals Is Forcing a Reckoning in Indonesia’s Nickel Boom
By Muyi Yang and Dody Setiawan At the G20 Summit in late 2025, China unveiled the International Economic and Trade Cooperation Initiative on Green Mining and Minerals. While broader geopolitical headlines overshadowed this news, it carries crucial implications.
China’s Technology Push Finds New Ground in Indonesia’s Health and Connectivity Gaps
One of the important developments in China-Indonesia relations last month is the strengthening of cooperation in the digital health and technology sectors. These are crucial sectors where Indonesia has struggled to translate policy goals into nationwide coverage. Telkomsat, one of Indonesia's ...
As China Builds the Grid, Laos’s Power Ambitions Enter a New Phase
2026 marks a strategic turning point for Laos in its ambition to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia”, with two mega power transmission projects advancing this year. On the first day of January 2026, the 230 kV Thavieng-Mahaxay transmission line ...
A man walks past a stencil supporting ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in Caracas on January 17, 2026. (Photo by Ronaldo SCHEMIDT / AFP)
By Felix Brender 王哲謙 On January 3, 2026, U.S. forces executed a dramatic operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, abruptly removing the central figure of a regime that had been one of Beijing’s most emblematic strategic partners in Latin America. This was not, ...
Q&A: Can the U.S. Displace China From South America?
In a global scenario marked by strategic competition between the world's two largest powers, Latin America's role has ceased to be peripheral and has become a critical terrain of influence. As Washington watches with growing concern Beijing's advance on vital infrastructure—from ...
Q&A: The “Guanxi”: An Anthropological Look at the Chinese Businessman in Peru
The recent scandal dubbed “ Chifagate ” and the revelations about the so-called “ Dragon Club ” have once again put the relationship between Peruvian political power and Asian investments under scrutiny. However, beyond the anecdote of a dinner at a chifa or ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: More Speed, Less Policymaking Will Power African Countries’ Electric Vehicle Dreams
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service. This week, we continue looking at the alternatives African countries have for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing. Across the continent, employment ...
After a Panama Port Decision, Washington Faces Hard Choices on China and the Canal
U.S. government officials celebrated last week's decision by the Supreme Court in Panama to nullify the contract for a Hong Kong-based company to operate ports along the country's two coasts, leading into the canal zone. A lot of people erroneously thought ...
Implications of Panama Court Ruling to Quash CK Hutchison Port Concessions
By Clare Jim, Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch Panama's Supreme Court annulled last week CK Hutchison's contract to operate two Panama Canal ports at the heart of a $23-billion deal to sell the Hong Kong conglomerate's global port assets.
U.S. Defense Strategy Signals a Harder Line on China in Latin America
In January, the Trump Administration published its 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS). The document, which was released without fanfare, confirms that a strategic shift is well underway in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin American and Caribbean states are on the receiving end of that shift.
China and the Libyan Crisis: Maintaining a Foot in the Door in a Changing Region
By Bianca Pasquier and Leonardo Bruni, On November 12, 2025, the Chinese embassy in Tripoli officially reopened after more than a decade. However, the return of Chinese diplomatic staff to the Libyan capital passed largely unnoticed, attracting scant media interest ...
Sino-DRC Trade Slows Following Cobalt Ban: The 2025 China-Africa Trade Rundown
In 2025, trade between China and Africa reached $348 billion, a 17.7% increase from 2024. As in the previous year, this growth was largely driven by rising Chinese exports, which amounted to $225 billion, compared to $123 billion in imports from the African continent.
Confusing Developments in “Development”
This week I’m in Brussels, where I took part in a workshop on how the EU should shape its development strategy in response to China’s global influence. I have joked in the past that it feels like I’ve attended this same ...
China Emerges as Top Development Partner for Small Island States, ODI Survey Finds
As climate shocks intensify and aid from legacy donors comes under pressure, China is increasingly filling the development gap for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a group of climate-vulnerable economies spread across the Caribbean, Pacific, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea, according to a new report from ...
New Data Reveals China’s Complex Role in Africa’s Debt Portfolio
China was once Africa's largest bilateral creditor, but now, as many of those loans come due, it's become the continent's largest bilateral collector, according to a new report by the UK-based NGO ONE Data. The so-called "Great Reversal" that ONE Data identified highlights how ...
Scandal Tests Peru’s China Ties as U.S. Scrutiny Intensifies
By Marco Aquino A scandal surrounding undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman by Peru's acting president has shone an unflattering spotlight on the key copper exporter's ties to China at a moment of heightened U.S. scrutiny of Beijing's footprint in the region. ...