Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
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.
analysis
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 ...
Indonesia’s Infrastructure Minister Beijing Visit: Key Takeaways
Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY), Indonesia’s coordinating minister for infrastructure, traveled to Beijing in late August to meet President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials. The visit, carried out on behalf of President Prabowo Subianto, was focused on sustaining Indonesia–China dialogue on strategic infrastructure. ...
China Launches Coordinated Media Campaign to Promote New Global Governance Initiative in Africa
The Chinese government launched what appears to be a coordinated media campaign across Africa to promote Beijing's new Global Governance Initiative (GGI), which President Xi Jinping announced at the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. Over the past week, a mix of ...
China-Central Asia Weekly News: Building Skills and Local Capacity
This is a free preview of the upcoming China-Central Asia Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in 2026. China's engagement with Central Asia is entering a new phase that extends far beyond the traditional Belt and ...
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the new Global Governance Initiative during a keynote address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit 2025 in Tianjin on September 1, 2025. (Photo by SUO TAKEKUMA / POOL / AFP)
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 BRI, the GGI is ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: Spiro-Church Charging Push, Ethiopia’s EV Future, and Europe’s ICE Lobby
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Innovations in Africa’s electric vehicle (EV) market continue with partnerships that are as unique as the solutions they ...
China’s Battery Breakthroughs May Leave Some Developing Countries Behind
Chinese researchers and firms are accelerating the race towards the next generation of battery technologies, and this will undoubtedly reshape the fortunes of countries heavily reliant on cobalt and nickel exports. Today, most electric vehicles utilize lithium-ion batteries that are made ...
Nigeria Moves to Build Solar Manufacturing Industry, But Reliance on China is Inevitable
Nigeria imported Chinese solar panels last year with a combined capacity of 1,721 megawatts (MW)- enough to power roughly half a million homes. The country now ranks as Africa’s second-largest importer, trailing only South Africa and ahead of Morocco and ...
Localizing Cautiously: BYD’s Strategic Approach to Kazakhstan’s EV Market
Kazakhstan has long courted electric vehicle makers to localize passenger car production, hoping to follow in Uzbekistan’s footsteps. Yet the real breakthrough may come from a different direction. Chinese electric vehicle manufacturing giant BYD’s plan to start with buses—rather than cars—marks a subtle but ...
Tianjin Summit in Review: The Winner Takes It All (But Not Much)
By Felix Brender 王哲謙 “We should continue to unequivocally oppose hegemonism and power politics, practice true multilateralism,” Xi declared in Tianjin last week. Yet for many of the leaders in the room, multilateralism appears to chiefly mean “more of me” ...
Ethiopians Dream of an Electric Car Future
By Dylan Gamba Kemeriya Mehammed Abduraheman set her sights on an electric car four months ago, joining more than 100,000 Ethiopians who have made the green switch. While electric vehicle (EV) sales in Africa accounted ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: Kenya’s Quiet EV Rise, Rwanda’s Flying Taxi, and China’s Car Boom in Nigeria
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Across Africa, the electric vehicle (EV) market is as diverse as its geography and tariff jurisdictions; ...
Pacific Islands Leaders Hold Summit Clouded by China Tensions
By Ben Strang Pacific Islands leaders hold an influential summit in the Solomons on Wednesday, with nations split over China's growing role in the region and alleged meddling in the meeting. Alongside its 18 member ...
Critical Minerals Weekly Digest: Critical Minerals on the Frontlines: Geopolitics, Investment, and Community Power
This is a free preview of the upcoming Critical Minerals Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Introduction This week, the critical minerals landscape was largely shaped ...
China is the ‘Elephant in the Room’ at Fraught Pacific Islands Summit
By Ben Strang Pacific Islands leaders are meeting in the Solomons this week for an influential summit clouded by differences over China's mounting influence in the region that risks scuppering regional cooperation. Alongside its 18 ...
The Evolving Role of China in Argentina’s Energy Transition
By Javier Lewkowicz Over the past decade, Chinese companies have played a fundamental role in the expansion of Argentina’s clean energy infrastructure, both through financing and direct participation in large projects. However, recent geopolitical and economic ...
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 ...