Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
No One’s Really Sure What to Make of China’s FOCAC Financial Pledge
One of the key takeaways from the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) conference that took place in Dakar last month is that, unlike previous FOCACs, there's very little consensus over whether the event signaled that China's backing away from Africa or deepening its commitment to the ...
The Different Readings of FOCAC
One of the intriguing results of last week’s FOCAC meeting has been a narrative pushed by key English-language publications that it represents a reduction in Chinese engagement with the continent. Bloomberg set the tone in its initial report which counted the sums mentioned in President Xi Jinping’s speech and ...
The Uganda Airport Story and FOCAC Spark More “Bad Takes” in Both Chinese and African Media
The editors at Nigeria's Punch newspaper are apparently still unaware that the story about Uganda's Entebbe International Airport being seized by China as part of a debt default is not true. If they knew that the rumor had been conclusively debunked, ...
Bad China Takes: Debt, Scrambles, and Bases
The Wall Street Journal is the latest U.S. news outlet to publish unconfirmed Pentagon claims that China seeks to build a second military outpost in Africa, this time on the Atlantic coast. Monday's article was almost identical to an AP story published ...
A New Era of China-Africa Relations
By Chris Alden, Hugo Jones, and Lukas Fiala, China Foresight LSE IDEAS As the haze lifts from Dakar, international observers are trying to understand what the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) means for the future of Africa-China relations as well as China’s ...
Wang Yi Gives Boost to Abiy With Official Visit to Ethiopia
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a bold diplomatic statement with a previously unannounced visit to Ethiopia. The trip was seemingly intended to send a strong message of support to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and, at the same time, rebuke mounting Western pressure against Addis Ababa.
FOCAC’s Powerful Optics Present a Challenge to China’s Rivals
FOCAC is for me what the Winter Olympics is for a curling fan – the one moment every few years when the world briefly shares one’s obsession. So it was interesting (and revealing) how relatively muted the coverage of the triennial meeting has been this time around. ...
Why China will Probably Sidestep Calls for Sahel Involvement
The Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) kicked off in Dakar, Senegal with huge expectations. As usual, there was a lot of talk about trade, investment, and other perennial Africa-China discussion points. More surprising was the call from Senegalese Foreign Minister ...
Why Policymakers in the U.S. and Europe Should Feel Nervous After Xi’s FOCAC Speech
It's unlikely that many people in either Washington or Brussels paid that much attention to Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote address on Monday at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference. Except for news agencies like Reuters and Bloomberg, no major U.S. newspaper, news site, or television network ...
Bad Journalism and a Poor Understanding of International Contractual Law Triggers Uproar in Uganda Over Chinese Loans
Officials from both the Chinese and Ugandan governments took to Twitter over the weekend to furiously denounce a report published late last week in the Daily Monitor newspaper, which erroneously claimed that China will seize the Entebbe International Airport as a result of defaulting on ...
FOCAC 8: Building Africa-China Relations That Are More Profitable for Africa
This column was written by CORA, the Collective for the Renewal of Africa, based in Dakar. CORA brings together over 100 researchers and scientists, writers, and artists from across Africa and the diaspora. The Africa-China Summit currently taking place in Dakar will close ...
Why FOCAC Matters Beyond Africa and China
By Lukas Fiala, China Foresight LSE IDEAS Final preparations are being made in Dakar, Senegal, ahead of this year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) ministerial summit on the 29th and 30th of November. Next Monday, delegations of almost every African country will meet Chinese counterparts in the West ...