Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Antony Blinken Revealed He Doesn’t Really Know Much About What China’s Doing in Africa
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed yesterday that when it comes to understanding the dynamics of China's engagement in Africa, he really doesn't know very much. When a young person floated him a softball question about how the U.S. plans ...
Quad Queries
I’ve wondered in the past whether ‘the Quad’ – the alliance among the United States, Japan, Australia and India dedicated as a counterweight to China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region – has taken on such prominence simply because the word is so fun to say. Quad quad ...
If You Aren’t Terrified About What’s Happening in India, You Should Be
Watching the calamity unfold in India from here in Vietnam feels like staring at a category 5 typhoon that's barreling straight at you. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. With 350,000 infections a day, which is probably just a fraction ...
Q&A: China Likely to See the Cut in UK Aid Spending as Both an Opportunity and a Loss
The British government's decision to slash its overseas aid budget from $21.3 billion in 2020 to $13.8 billion this year is prompting heightened anxiety within the U.S. and European development communities that the move will provide a new opening for China to expand its influence in Africa ...
Q&A: How the Chinese Private Sector Can Help Develop Pharmaceutical Production Capacity in Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief the highly unsustainable fact that African countries together import over 70% of all pharmaceutical and medical products. Yet, 34 out of 55 African countries have some level of pharmaceutical production, with countries offering an array of incentives ...
What We’ve Lost in the Fire
This weekend was a rough one for South Africa. On Sunday, the country watched as fires around Table Mountain slowly started creeping downhill, towards the beautiful campus of the University of Cape Town (UCT). Soon it was confirmed that the university’s African Studies library, which housed a ...
The Impact of India’s Surging COVID-19 Infection Rate Will be Felt Throughout the Developing World
A massive surge of COVID-19 infections in India threatens to make worse what was already a difficult situation for developing countries in Africa and around the world in their efforts to contain the pandemic. A record 274,000 infections were reported yesterday, a figure that ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: Everyone’s Calculating the Impact of the China-Iran Deal
Unsurprisingly, among the noteworthy events that took place this month, the media of the wider Mediterranean region focused on the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Middle East in late March. Although there are concerns over the impact on the region from the rising ...
Can Ugandan Coffee Be the Next “Coffee Success” Story in China?
Like many Ugandans, coffee has always been a huge part of my life. My earliest memories are of helping my parents tend their small coffee garden in the rural village of Kishabya, Sheema district in south-western Uganda. Hilly with rich fertile soils and a tropical rainy season, ...
The Tesla-fication of Vaccines
175 former heads of state, Nobel Prize winners and other illustrious eminences added their support to the call for the U.S. government to mandate a relaxing of intellectual property laws to allow countries in the Global South to mass-produce vaccines without fear of being sued. One of ...
Africa and the Suga-Biden Summit
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga left Tokyo today for a crucial summit on Friday with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. This is going to be an important get-together, not only because it's the first time that Biden will host a visiting leader as president ...
Even After Learning Chinese Vaccines Aren’t as Effective, Developing Countries are Committed to Using Them. Here’s Why.
The low-efficacy rates of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines emerged as one of the main reasons cited by Beijing's critics in the U.S. and Europe as to why developing countries should think twice about procuring too many doses of Sinopharm or Sinovac jabs.