Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
China Faces a Critical Test in Kenya
Kenya's difficulties in servicing its debts for the newly-built, Chinese-financed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is nearing a breaking point. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the railway failed to meet passenger and cargo volume targets and now the economic downturn brought on by the ...
Letter to the Editor: Contrasting Japanese vs. Chinese Investment in Africa
Dear Eric, As the Representative in Africa for JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), I would like to comment regarding your column on September 24th, "What It Takes To Compete Against the Chinese in Africa," where you mentioned that ...
Fresh or Frozen: Should Kenya and China Renegotiate Their 2019 “Avocado Deal”?
Whether it is ordering a vegetarian wrap or having a healthy fruit and veggie smoothie, the most sought after ingredient I crave for is avocado! Today, be it Beijing or Shanghai, restaurant chains and smoothie bars, are now catering to their customers' healthy tastes, delivering on this ...
What It Takes To Compete Against the Chinese in Africa
Remember all those exciting Africa summits that took place last year? The Russians and Turks each had one, as did the Europeans, and the Japanese. At one point it seemed kind ...
China and the Burgeoning African Debt Crisis
Over the last week we've reached two critical milestones that put the worsening African debt crisis into sharp focus: First, the good news. Angola appears to have reached an agreement with some of its major creditors at the International Monetary Fund ...
Glimpses of Future China-Africa Engagement
For a while, I've been wondering about Chinese peacekeeping in Africa. Specifically, I was wondering where it went as a topic of discussion. A few years ago, every second China-Africa seminar seemed to focus on peacekeeping. Then attention moved to debt, and I assumed that Beijing was ...
While China’s International Relations Cool Elsewhere, They’re Warming Up in Africa
Perceptions of China around the world are growing increasingly negative. Not surprisingly, public opinion in the U.S. has plummeted and although Europe seems more divided on the issue, it's safe to say that the likes of Macron, Johnson, and Merkel are hesitant at best about deepening their ...
Combatting Malaria in the Comoros Islands: How China Almost Got it Right
China’s ground-breaking anti-malarial intervention in the Comoros, where malaria is the number one cause of death across all populations, has resulted in the East African island nation being named by the World Health Organisation as “one of six African countries on course to eliminate malaria by 2020”. ...
The Trains Are Finally Rolling in Nigeria
Say what you want about the Chinese but there's no denying they are damned good at getting stuff done. The sight of a big beautiful new train on freshly laid tracks in Lagos yesterday was something to ...
Subsidies and the False Promise of Fair Trade
Towards the end of our discussion last week with Walter Ruigu, managing director of the Beijing-based trading and logistics company CAMAL Group, on the China in Africa Podcast, he shared a fascinating insight that reveals why African commodity producers are condemned to remain at ...
The Long Journey to EurAfrica
Recently I've been trying to give my brain a break from marinading in China-Africa issues by reading the biologist Merlin Sheldrake's mind-bending new book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. He points out that scientists in ...
Developing Countries Have Had Enough of the U.S.-China Feud
The prevailing narrative among large swathes of the conservative media in the United States is that Washington and Beijing are now engaged in a new "Cold War." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in fact, suggests that the current confrontation with China is actually even ...