analysis

Brazil’s BRICS Balancing Act Faces a New Test in Rio

The 17th BRICS Summit kicks off this weekend in Rio de Janeiro, but preserving the group’s original mantra of non-alignment is proving to be a challenge for Brazil, the summit’s host. Since returning to power, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva ...

In China, Ecuador’s Noboa Looks for Breathing Room and Bargains

With a tightening fiscal clock and the weight of geopolitical balancing on his shoulders, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa touched down in China last week with more than just a forum appearance on his agenda. His trip to the 2025 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin doubled as a ...

How China is Challenging Russia’s Nuclear Dominance in Central Asia Through Kazakhstan

Having reshaped Central Asia’s oil and gas infrastructure and challenged Russia’s long-standing dominance of the region’s traditional energy sector, China is now setting its sights on nuclear power as the next frontier.  This next step is not just about energy diversification. ...

Indonesia and China’s Battery Alliance Must Be Built on Sustainability

In a bold display of ambition and diplomacy, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto stood beside Chinese executives last week to break ground on what is touted as Asia’s largest integrated electric vehicle (EV) battery ecosystem. Backed by $5.9 billion in ...

A Peer-to-Peer Pivot in China’s Overseas Development Finance

By Rebecca Ray In 2024, China extended $6.1 billion in 20 commitments in public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) loans, according to a new update to the China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy ...

Analysts Doubt Congo’s Cobalt Export Restrictions Will Do Much to Boost Prices in the Long Term

The Democratic Republic of the Congo extended a four-month export ban on cobalt exports in a bid to further constrain supply and boost prices of the critical metal that's used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. The government hopes that by keeping additional ...

As U.S. Focus Wavers, Xi Courts the Global South

Chinese President Xi Jinping held separate bilateral meetings with the leaders of Ecuador and Senegal on Friday in what appears to be a concerted effort by Beijing to maintain strong ties with Global South countries, even as major power diplomacy increasingly dominates Beijing's foreign policy agenda.

Startup in Malawi Bets on Chinese Tech to Power an EV Shift

For years, Malawi, the world’s fourth-poorest country, has suffered from chronic fuel shortages. However, in a sunbaked workshop on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe, a team of local electric vehicle (EV) technicians is working to overcome this anomaly. Huddled around ...

The Art of (Watching) War: China’s Fading MENA Moment

By Felix Brender 王哲謙 Amid escalating conflicts across the Middle East since 2023, Beijing has been increasingly silent. Long eager to position itself as benevolent and neutral, China has offered little more than carefully worded statements while the region spirals. It ...

China-Led Study Proposes Global Energy Network

A globally connected network of solar and wind energy could provide three times the global energy demand by 2050 at a lower cost than independent national power systems. This is the finding of a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from ...

How Paraguay’s Veto Power Could Reshape China’s Trade Future in South America

Amid a flurry of headline-grabbing geopolitical developments, one story has flown largely under the radar: several recent signals from within Paraguay suggest a potential shift in the country’s long-standing diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. While it might seem like just another chapter in the long-running contest between Beijing ...

Moving Beyond Infrastructure: Key Outcomes from the Second China-Central Asia Summit

Amid intensifying geopolitical turbulence across China's periphery—from the Israel-Iran conflict in the Middle East, to India-Pakistan tensions in South Asia, and the protracted Russia-Ukraine war in Eastern Europe—Beijing's neighborhood diplomacy has become an imperative for safeguarding regional stability.  In this shifting ...
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