Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Dear Mr. Soon-To-Be President-Elect…
It's probably too early to congratulate you since they're still counting ballots in the last few states that'll likely put you over the top. But since the odds now seem in your favor, I thought this would be a good time to share a few ideas about ...
The U.S. Elections and the Rest of Us
Welp, here we are. It’s finally November 3. As a non-American, I’m always amazed by the power of American politics to draw in the rest of the world. It isn’t that the rest of us feel involved, exactly. And it isn’t only due to the fact that ...
Worrying About Huawei in Africa Misses the Bigger Issue
Say what you want about the marginally effective U.S. campaign against Huawei, they do deserve some credit for keeping the issue of network security at the forefront of the wider discussion about next-generation mobile telecommunications. They're absolutely right to be worried ...
Chinese Farmers Are Now Selling More Online. Can “E-Commerce for Agriculture” Also Work in Africa?
By Anna Baisch and Jade Scarfe, Research Analysts at Development Reimagined In China, e-commerce is everywhere. Walk down any street in a busy city and you come across “Kuaidi” drivers delivering parcels or advertisements for online “Taobao” shops. But beyond China’s ...
The China Development Bank’s Debt Deferral in Zambia is a Good Start, But It’s Not Enough
The China Development Bank's (CDB) announcement yesterday that it will allow Zambia to push back an interest payment that was due last Sunday to next April was an unexpected development. After all, we haven't seen China's powerful policy banks publicly demonstrate ...
If Europe Wants to Remain Relevant in Africa, It Has to Show Up
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, declared this week that 2021 is going to be “the Africa year for the European Union!” Yes, this is the same Josep Borrell who back in March
Let’s Call It… China’s Won the Vaccine Diplomacy Contest
The White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows admitted this weekend what many of us have known for a long time: that the United States has all but given up in the fight against COVID-19. “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told CNN's ...
China’s Input Ensured the Elimination of Schistosomiasis from Zanzibar’s Pemba Island
The WHO and the Tanzanian government have heralded a Chinese project to combat schistosomiasis in Pemba island, Zanzibar, which ran from 2016 until this year. Its successful implementation of good practices like broad-based cooperation and its flexible project design to accommodate local specificities might have received more ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: In Forging Closer Ties With China, Iran Wants to Avoid Past Mistakes
As per usual, the articles published by the wider Mediterranean region’s media offer interesting insights into how China is perceived. Among the most valuable ones, we found commentaries published in Iran that further shed light on the local perception of the much-discussed new cooperation agreement between Beijing ...
Nigeria’s Dreams and Nightmares
Earlier this month, the Nigerian opposition politician Peter Obi delivered the 60th Founder’s Day lecture at the University of Nigeria. In his talk he took a swipe at the incumbent government’s handling of the current economic crisis, saying that instead of taking loans from China, Nigeria ...
U.S.-China Technology “Cold War”: Exploring Africa’s Options
In 2019, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, and Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba, visited several African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Ethiopia, where they met and interacted with African tech-Savvy youths. The two ‘Jacks’ represent two different paradigms of technology, ...
When It Comes to the G20’s DSSI, China’s Playing by a Different Set of Rules
There's an enormous disconnect between how the Chinese are approaching the debt crisis in poor countries and the expectations of the world's legacy donors. People like World Bank President David Malpass seem befuddled as to why China is not fully supporting ...