Analysis

We start this issue of the ChinaMed Observer with the debate in Iranian media over the signing of the Iran-China 25-year Cooperation Program. In this regard, Abolfazl Olamayifar, Director of the China Desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the pages of the economic newspaper Donya-ye ...

For years, U.S. officials have been trying to persuade African governments to abandon their reliance on Chinese-made telecom networking equipment from the likes of Huawei and ZTE. Finally, this weekend, they got their first win. Well, kind of, ...

I was recently out shopping in Hangzhou to buy a bottle of wine as a birthday gift for a friend. Now, I’m no wine connoisseur, so admittedly I struggled to pick one. But while scanning the shelves, I spotted a bottle from South Africa. It struck me ...

In an oft-cited 2019 working paper titled “China’s Overseas Lending,” we read that China has become the world’s “largest official creditor, easily surpassing the IMF or the World Bank…” Is this true in Africa (All references to Africa in this article refer to all of Africa, ...

The day-long Summit on the Financing of African Economies wrapped up in Paris on Tuesday and left a lot of people scratching their heads wondering what exactly was the purpose of the gathering. Unlike Monday's event that focused on Sudanese debt ...

The deal between the government of Sierra Leone and Chinese entities to build an industrial fishing harbor on 100 hectares of beach and rainforest reads like a textbook example of why China remains so unpopular among many African communities, even as its relationship with African governments goes ...

One by one, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday greeted a stream of Africa's most powerful leaders to the Elysée Palace in Paris with a mix of COVID-friendly fist bumps, elbow jabs, and awkward shoulder pats. The heads of state along with top officials from ...

Kenya is a middle-income country with a $100 billion economy and it still can't afford to pay for its own $35 million foreign ministry building? Really? They spent $6 billion on a railroad and the government can't figure out a way ...

As the co-chair for the upcoming 2021 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Senegal is in a unique position to negotiate a better relationship with China as well as support other African countries to do so as well. At Development Reimagined, an ...

The editorial board of Financial Times published an op-ed yesterday announcing a new commodities supercycle. They argued that the global pivot towards climate-friendlier technologies like electric vehicles is pushing demand for metals like cobalt, lithium and palladium (used in catalytic converters.) In addition, the Biden administration’s new commitments ...

I still remember the day I arrived in the quiet city of Natitingou, North-West Benin, after the 7000-mile journey from my hometown in China. I was to be a translator in a Chinese medical team deployed to the local hospital. Over the 13 months ...

The top commander for U.S. forces in Africa (AFRICOM), General Stephen Townsend, thought it would be a good idea to re-surface the old trope that China is looking to build a new military outpost in Africa, this time on the West Coast.