Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Constructive Responses to Net Negative Transfers: What Next for China’s Financial Relationship With Low-Income Countries
By Rebecca Ray In the last few years, China’s net debt transfers (new disbursements minus repayments) to low-income countries have turned negative. This trend means that poor countries are now repaying China more each year for past years’ lending than they ...
analysis
An “Emotional Shift” in Israel? Rapprochement with Taipei during the Gaza War
By Amanda Chen On October 28, Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te (賴清德) made headlines when he publicly referred to Israel as a “valuable model” for Taiwan’s defence. He delivered the remark during a dinner in Taiwan organised by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ...
A Senior Xi Adviser Visits Indonesia, Bringing Beijing’s Long Game Into Focus
One of China’s highest-ranking political figures, and among President Xi Jinping’s closest ideological advisers, visited Jakarta last week, in a move that underscored Beijing’s deepening interest in its relationship with Indonesia. Wang Huning, one of China’s most influential political ...
What the U.S. Strategy Debate Gets Wrong About China
By Lukas Fiala Over the last week, all of us have pored over the latest U.S. National Security Strategy. As many have pointed out, one of the most striking developments is the shift towards recognising the Western Hemisphere as a primary ...
Myth and Misperception: Does Shared Communism Tie Vietnam to China?
In this edition of Myth and Misperception, I want to take a deep dive into one of the most contentious debates on Vietnam’s foreign policy: what role does ideology play in the country’s foreign policy? As a communist party-state, Vietnam officially adheres to Marxism-Leninism in every ...
Sri Lanka borrowed nearly $5 billion from China during the 2010s. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)
By Rebecca Ray In the last few years, China’s net debt transfers (new disbursements minus repayments) to low-income countries have turned negative. This trend means that poor countries are now repaying China more each year for past years’ lending than they are receiving in new ...
China’s Digital Payment Push Gains Ground in Uzbekistan
Competition among Chinese companies in Central Asia is not limited to the electric vehicle sector or the renewable energy industry. It is equally intense in the field of digital payments, where tech giants Alipay and WeChat Pay together handle more than ninety percent of mobile transactions ...
How the U.S. Aims to Seize Control of Critical Congolese Minerals and Curb Chinese Expansion
By signing the strategic partnership agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United States achieved two key objectives in its critical minerals strategy: first, securing preferential access to copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, and other minerals considered strategic; and second, establishing a regulatory framework ...
Chile’s Election Puts China’s Lithium Ambitions to the Test
The Lithium Triangle is one of the most important geostrategic sectors in the Latin American landscape. Spanning through Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, the Lithium Triangle is home to between 60 to 75% of the earth’s known lithium reserves and is the centerpiece of the global energy ...
As China Cracks Down on Ivory, Japan’s Open Market Becomes a Backdoor for Traffickers
At his store in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, Hajime Sasaki displays a disparate array of wares, from chopsticks to Buddha statues -- including many made of ivory. International trade in elephant ivory is illegal, but Japan hosts one of the world's ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: Kenya Builds EVs as China Floods Markets With Gasoline Vehicles
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service. Africa is emerging as a critical, increasingly complex space in global electric-vehicle strategy. No longer viewed solely as a source ...
Why China Is Watching Trump’s Venezuela Campaign Closely
By Tom Harper Donald Trump’s campaign against Venezuela escalated recently with the U.S. president announcing that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed.” This is a move that has preceded U.S. military interventions in the past, perhaps most notably in Iraq ...
To Build a Kenyan EV, an Engineer Turns to China… for Know-How, Not Cars
On the outskirts of Nairobi’s industrial zone, Engineer Tadesse Tessema, a soft-spoken power electronics graduate who built Ethiopia’s first car assembly plant nearly two decades ago, is once again trying to do something no one has done in East Africa: create a locally manufactured electric vehicle — ...
The Perception Problem: Why Central Asians Remain Skeptical of Chinese Investment
Over the past decade, China has poured billions into the Central Asian countries, financing infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture, and digital technologies, while presenting itself as a reliable development partner. Central Asian governments, eager for investment and diversification, have embraced China as a strategic ally in trade and ...
The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke
When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most ...
China-Central Asia Weekly News: New Seaport Development, BYD Battery Localization in Uzbekistan, and Healthcare Cooperation
This is a free preview of the upcoming Critical Minerals Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in 2026. Chinese engagement with Central Asia is advancing through a combination of transport infrastructure development, automotive industry expansion, and medical ...
In Congo’s Cobalt Belt, a Chinese Miner’s Waste Leaves Villages Poisoned and Furious
By Camille Lafont Carrying her sore-pocked daughter across her decaying field, Helene Mvubu says she is one of thousands to have fallen victim to the toxic waste defiling the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining capital. ...
China and LAC at Odds: Blue Diplomacy in the Era of IUU Fishing
In China’s engagement with the Global South, climate diplomacy is one area where Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries play a particularly decisive role. The Global South is set to be disproportionately affected by climate change, yet its governments must negotiate solutions with the world’s largest emitters—China ...