Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Grappling with African Success
This week saw the second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, held in Changsha, the capital of China’s Hunan province. As we’ve covered over the last few years, the city is rapidly emerging as a hub of Africa-China trade. It houses a new cocoa trading facility and is ...
Q&A: What Lessons Can the DRC Learn From Ghana’s Experience Combatting Illegal Chinese Mining Activities?
In the last few weeks, we have witnessed heightened campaigns against illegal mining activities associated with Chinese companies in the Congolese provinces of Ituri and South Kivu. Several Chinese miners were arrested in the far Eastern Ituri province where it is believed that an unknown number ...
Ethiopia, China and the Future of African Conflict
Ethiopia is giving us a glimpse of a set of dynamics that could come to shape African life in complicated ways. Last week, the Biden administration announced new sanctions aimed at reducing violence in the Tigray region, where conflict between the forces of President Abiy Ahmed and ...
It’s Time For a More Nuanced Discussion About China
Recently, I caught up by phone with a long-time Chinese friend. The conversation started off friendly enough but soon veered into a heated debate after he accused me of turning from pro-China to anti-China. I met my Chinese friend while I was working at the Chinese embassy’s ...
Our Haunted Moment
Today we’re featuring a fascinating conversation with the Congolese analyst Christian-Geraud Neema Byamungu about recent developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In case you haven’t been following this story, the last few weeks saw a flurry of
Our Haunted Moment
Today we’re featuring a fascinating conversation with the Congolese analyst Christian-Geraud Neema Byamungu about recent developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In case you haven’t been following this story, the last few ...
Chinese Stakeholders in the DR Congo Go On the Offensive in a Bid To Change the Narrative
Chinese mining interests in the DR Congo are now pushing back aggressively against the perception that they are unfairly exploit Congo's natural resources through unfair contracts, avoiding taxes, and not fulfilling corporate social responsibility commitments. The companies, many of which are ...
China’s Vaccine Diplomacy: Soft Power Lessons from Latin America
By Dr. Álvaro Mendez, Co-Director & Senior Associate Fellow, Global South Unit at LSE IDEAS In early 2021, Beijing launched a diplomatic campaign to promote China’s COVID-19 vaccines with the aim of winning friends and cutting deals in ...
Africa Should Negotiate Collectively with China at FOCAC. But That’s Not Going to Happen.
As the next Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) draws closer, the same sentiments and concerns over Africa’s relative position in the 20-year-old arrangement keep coming up. It is widely acknowledged that the continent generally gets the short end of the stick ...
Which Way is West?
One of the fun aspects of the China-Africa Project is that we don’t always agree. The work of pulling in different perspectives means that how we see reality is itself a negotiation, drawing on our different backgrounds. For example, one of the issues where Eric and I ...
China and the High Stakes Showdown in the DR Congo
Chinese mining bosses for years played the game as everyone else in the DR Congo. Money pretty much solved every problem. Need a permit? Pay some money. Get in trouble with the law? Pay some money. Under-counting cobalt reserves? Pay some money.
The Global Marketplace Versus the Global South
This week The Guardian carried two articles about China’s growing influence in the Pacific Island region. The first, under the headline “Pacific Plunder,” highlights how China imports more wood, fish, and minerals from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and elsewhere than any other major ...