Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
China, Africa and the War in Ukraine
With the Russian military now moving on Ukraine, the consequences of Europe's latest war are being felt around the world. Asian markets fell sharply today while oil prices shot up, crossing the $100 mark for the first time in seven years. ...
China Names Veteran Diplomat Xue Bing to Newly Created Role of Special Envoy For the Horn of Africa
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that senior diplomat Xue Bing, most recently the ambassador to the South Pacific island state of Papua New Guinea (PNG), will be China's first Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa. Xue's appointment ...
Ummm… Errr…. Sorry, Apple Can’t Produce iPhones in Africa
The suggestion by a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm that "there is no reason why Apple cannot produce iPhones in Africa instead of China" is the latest evidence of just how delusional the discourse in the U.S. capital is today.
Banks, Not Tanks: Regaining the Spirit of Nixon’s 1972 Visit to China
By Kevin P. Gallagher and Cecilia Han Springer 50 years ago, from February 21-28, 1972, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon visited Beijing, beginning the process of normalizing diplomatic relations between the US and China. In the Shanghai Communiqué issued during that historic ...
If the EU Really Wants to Challenge China in Africa, It’s Going to Have to Do Better
European leaders were all smiles on Friday at the end of a two-day summit in Brussels with their African counterparts which they hope will reset strained ties. The highlight of the summit was the announcement of a hugely ambitious $170 billion ...
How ‘Small State Opportunism’ Shapes China’s Pursuit of Overseas Military Bases
By Chris Alden and Lukas Fiala, China Foresight, LSE IDEAS When Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh publicly confirmed China’s intentions of building a military base near the Doraleh port in 2015, Beijing’s move was met with deep suspicion across ...
The Global Gateway’s Real Challenge
With the EU-AU summit kicking off later this week in Brussels, I’ve been fielding questions from several journalists. They all kick off with one question: will the EU’s Global Gateway supplant the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa? In answering with a ...
Phasing Down Coal in the Global South
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Cecilia Han Springer Although Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last year that China will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center’s China’s Global Power (CGP) Database shows 60 coal ...
Africa’s Shifting Infrastructure Landscape
In the current heated discussion about the fluctuations and debt implications of Chinese infrastructure funding to Africa, one sometimes forgets exactly how transformative Chinese financing has been on the continent. It’s no secret that over the last fifteen years or so China has been the main funder ...
Building the Infrastructure African Residents Deserve
Over a recent holiday season, I made a trip to the western region of Sichuan province in China. It is at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains, with a ground elevation of 4,000-4,500 meters, slightly above Kilimanjaro’s Shira Mountains (3800 meters). That ...
You’ve Heard of the Brady Plan, But What About the “Shanghai Plan” to Restructure Developing World Debt?
This week's revelation from the AfDB that Africa's total public debt now stands at $546 billion, more than all of the revenue collected in 2021 by governments across the continent, is the latest indication that the debt issue is blooming into a full-blown crisis ...
The Boston University Global Development Policy Center: Bringing Evidence-Based Research to China’s Overseas Development Policy
The Boston University Global Development Policy Center is pleased to partner with The China Global South Project to provide a weekly column on the latest research and analysis of our Global China Initiative (GCI). You may be most familiar with our five open-source interactive databases tracking China’s overseas ...