Analysis

The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino, on Tuesday added to the growing alarm in Washington DC defense circles about the global reach of China’s military.  Speaking in front of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Aquilino said China is building capacity ...

By Rebecca Ray This Sunday, May 22, marks International Day for Biological Diversity, and this year the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has chosen a theme of “building a shared future for all life.” China’s role ...

Two civil society activists in Kenya, Khelef Khalifa and Wanjiru Gikonyo, have won a massive victory in their longshot campaign to force the government to release its contracts with Chinese creditors for the multi-billion dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). The Attorney General and two ...

Over the last few months, you may have seen a few changes around these pages. While our focus has always been (and will always be) on Africa, you probably spotted the odd Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern, or Latin American story cropping up.

Nobody would blame Africans for not focusing on this week’s summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN.) After all, the continent is dealing with a few prior priorities: creeping debt distress in key states largely ignored by the international community, ...

Legislative leaders from across Africa issued a joint appeal on Tuesday for creditor nations to cancel some of the continent's outstanding debts.  The parliamentarians are meeting this week in Abuja for the first-ever gathering of the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments ...

For much of last year, China was seemingly unstoppable in its drive to ship vaccines to developing countries around the world. Hundreds of millions of doses went to Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and then suddenly, beginning last fall, shipments came to a grinding halt. ...

One of China’s signature contributions to the diversification of the emerging world system is the use of regional forum diplomacy to promote the creation of Chinese-instigated regional organizations.  Starting with the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, the Chinese government has built a network of ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every country and its citizens, though it has not impacted them equally, particularly those in the African continent. Makhtar Sop Diop, a Senegalese economist, and politician who has been serving as the Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation since 2021 wrote ...

Chen Xiaodong, China’s ambassador to South Africa, recently caused a small flurry of press coverage by seeming to imply that China could be moving towards funding a high-speed rail link between SA’s economic heartland, Gauteng, and Durban, its most important harbor.  ...

By Oyintarelado (Tarela) Moses Chinese lenders participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) conduct business within a broader ecosystem of financing for development. This complex web of actors work in a coordinated credit space, comprising development finance institutions, commercial ...

China recently convened an online seminar 22 French-speaking African countries to discuss democracy. The online meeting, on “The Exploration and Practice of Democracy in Chinese and African Legislative Bodies” drew in members of China’s National People’s Assembly, and about 90 African representatives.