Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
U.S. Bid to Challenge China’s Dominance of the Battery Metal Supply Chain in Africa Faces Two Key Hurdles
Widely perceived as a major and concrete U.S. move to counter China in the supply chain of critical minerals in Africa, the U.S.-DR Congo-Zambia MoU signed last December in Washington, D.C., will confront significant challenges, mainly for the DRC and Zambia. Both ...
Sovereign Sustainability: How China’s Overseas Development Finance Responds to Varying Environmental and Social Protections Around the World
By Rebecca Ray Do high standards for environmental and social protections deter Chinese overseas development finance? New data from the Boston University Global Development Policy Center shows that China’s borrowers have the policy space to ...
State Department Sends Top Official to Asia and the Middle East to Bolster Ties Amid Rising Competition With China
Victoria Nuland, the State Department's under secretary for political affairs and one of Washington's most senior diplomats, arrived in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Sunday -- the first stop on a three-nation, week-long tour that also includes Sri Lanka and Qatar. Unlike ...
A Chinese Giant’s Complicity in South Africa’s Corruption Disaster
Anyone who knows a South African will be amply aware that the country is currently undergoing economically ruinous rolling blackouts labeled ‘loadshedding.’ Even if you don’t know them, South Africans are liable to follow you down the street, foam-flecked and shouting about Eskom, the corruption-addled state power utility.
Lula Pitches South American Trade Pact With China in Bid to Save Mercosur
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for a South American regional trade agreement with China as part of a desperate bid to save the embattled Mercosur bloc. Lula proposed the idea during a speech on Wednesday in the Uruguayan capital of ...
Sri Lanka Hints at Lukewarm Response to China Exim Bank’s Debt Moratorium Offer
The China Exim Bank has reportedly agreed to grant Sri Lanka a two-year debt repayment moratorium, according to a letter sent by the Chinese policy bank to the Finance Ministry in Colombo. The letter, which has not been made public
Why Africa Shouldn’t Count on Janet Yellen for Debt Help
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Africa touting the Biden administration’s reenergized Africa policy. Her visit comes as several African countries are struggling with debt distress and Zambia and Ghana have officially defaulted. Debt’s prominence as a talking point is somewhat awkward, considering ...
China’s Overseas Development Finance Totaled $10.5 Billion in 2020-21, Lowest in Recent Years
By Rebecca Ray After providing a staggering amount of finance for overseas development projects in the wake of the global financial crisis, Chinese overseas development finance has been on a general downward trend for several years. New data shows the pandemic ...
India Supports Sri Lanka’s Debt Restructuring Process
Sri Lanka has reportedly secured India’s support for its debt restructuring process. According to Reuters, an Indian Finance Ministry official sent a message to the International Monetary Fund that it “strongly supports” the debt-ridden country’s economic recovery plan. Indian External Affairs
China’s Provinces as Global Actors: Evidence From China-Africa Relations
By Charlotte Lenz With the launch in the early 2000s of China’s ‘Going Global’ Strategy, Chinese provinces became one group of actors participating in China’s South-South relations. This has complicated our perception of China, which is often still seen as a ...
India’s External Affairs Minister Heads to Sri Lanka After China Sends Positive Signals on Debt Deal
The Sri Lankan government is now on the verge of closing a deal to secure a $2.9 billion emergency financial package from the International Monetary Fund following new assurances from its two largest bilateral creditors, India and China. Colombo got the desperately ...
Uganda Cancels Chinese Rail Deal After 8-Year Financing Lag
The government of Uganda announced that it canceled a 2015 contract with China Harbor Engineering Co. (CHEC) to build a rail line linking the capital of Kampala and the Kenyan border. This follows an eight-year lag as the contractor failed to get Chinese policy bank funding for the ...