Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Markets Optimistic Hichilema Will Resolve Zambia’s Debt Crisis
Global financial markets are telegraphing their relief that Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema decisively won last week's presidential vote and that he'll now have the necessary mandate to bring an end to the country's worsening debt crisis. Both Zambia's kwacha and ...
The Impossibility of Learning from Afghanistan
The story of China in the Global South has always carried a frisson in the West. A large part of that feeling has to do with China’s size, the way it simply doesn’t fit into any of the categories the West uses to classify and understand the ...
China, Africa, and the U.S. Fiasco in Afghanistan
We all woke up to a different world today with the shocking images of Monday's bungled U.S. evacuation from Kabul still overflowing our social media feeds and this nagging feeling that something big, really big happened that we still don't fully understand.
Zambia’s New President Has a Unique Opportunity To Reset Ties With China
Hakainde Hichilema's decisive election victory to become the eighth president of Zambia in the post-colonial era is a gust of good news that Africa and the world at large badly needed. His win is an endorsement of democracy in a region where we've seen so many other ...
Zambians Go to the Polls in a Tight Presidential Election with No China-Bashing, For Once
Ballots are now being counted in Zambia's general election that took place on Thursday. Presidential incumbent Edgar Lungu faces opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in a contest that has been too close to call for weeks. While Zambia's beleaguered economy and surging debt ...
Kenya’s Dream to Build a Modern Railway Is Turning Into an Economic Nightmare
Many Kenyans were excited about plans to build a modern railway across the country linking the port city of Mombasa and Malaba town on the Kenya-Uganda border. It was touted as a game-changer; the key to unlocking not just Kenya’s economic takeoff, but that of the entire ...
Chinese Diplomats in Africa Are Increasingly Using Their Twitter Accounts to Amplify Anti-U.S. Propaganda
Ambassador Chen Xiaodong in Pretoria is among China's most senior and high-profile diplomats in Africa. Like many of his peers across the continent, he's turning to Twitter to relay anti-U.S. propaganda produced by Chinese state media. On Tuesday, ...
Time is Running Out to Jump Out of the Fire
The new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s massive new report makes for scary reading. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres called it a ‘code red for humanity’ and that’s probably understating the level of danger. It’s increasingly clear that staving off global disaster ...
China’s Evolving Military Diplomacy in the Global South
By Lukas Fiala, LSE IDEAS China Foresight August 1st marked the 94th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). While CGTN celebrated the occasion with a blockbuster-esque video, showcasing the PLA’s growing military strength and operational know-how, China’s ambassador to ...
The West’s Ignorance About What China’s Doing in Africa is a Feature Not a Bug
Those of us who concentrate on Africa-China relations have long warned that the current framing of the relationship as a zero-sum arena in a new cold war strips African states of agency. The problem isn’t only that it flattens the complex ...
Josep Borrell’s Misguided Views on Chinese Vaccines in Africa
European Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell is really unhappy with how the bloc's member states have hoarded vaccines for themselves at the expense of developing countries in Africa and Latin America. On Friday he criticized the EU's contributions to those regions as "insufficient."
Stop the Blame Game: The Complex Picture of China and Coal Finance
By Hugo Jones and Lukas Fiala Apocalyptic images reach us from China this week. The immense flooding in Henan province has come with tragic human cost, a typhoon has edged onto China’s eastern coast, and Shanghai is facing torrential rains and winds. These events have already stirred discussions ...