Author: C. Geraud Neema
C. Géraud Neema Byamungu is an analyst and observer of China-Africa relations who graduated from Renmin University of China and has a master’s degree in International Development from the International University of Japan. In addition to his role at CGSP, Géraud is also a non-resident scholar in the Africa program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Previously, he worked as a project manager for a small Congolese mining company in DRC and later as a consultant on good governance and policy advocacy for the “Centre d’Etudes pour l’Action Social.”
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How the U.S. Aims to Seize Control of Critical Congolese Minerals and Curb Chinese Expansion
By signing the strategic partnership agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United States achieved two key objectives in its critical minerals strategy: first, securing preferential access to copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, and other minerals considered strategic; and second, establishing a regulatory framework ...
A receptionist works at her station at the headquarters of Chinese digital payments platform Alipay in the Pudong district in Shanghai on November 12, 2025. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)
Competition among Chinese companies in Central Asia is not limited to the electric vehicle sector or the renewable energy industry. It is equally intense in the field of digital payments, where tech giants Alipay and WeChat Pay together handle more than ninety percent of mobile transactions in China. With their ...
China Moves from Infrastructure to Legal Influence in Africa
Prosecutors and representatives from twelve African countries — Ethiopia, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — gathered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, on October 29, 2025, for the second China-Africa Prosecutorial Cooperation Forum. The meeting’s theme, ...
China, Zambia and Tanzania Seal $1.4 Billion Deal to Modernize Tazara Railway
More than a year after a memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing, China, Zambia and Tanzania have finalized an agreement to rehabilitate and modernize the Tazara railway. Built by China in the 1970s, the strategic line links Zambia to Tanzania and runs to the port of ...
Congo Uses Cobalt Export Limits to Force Processing Deals With Chinese Miners
The Democratic Republic of Congo appears determined to leverage its negotiating power with Chinese and other mining companies to secure major concessions on local cobalt processing. That was the signal sent by Congolese Mines Minister Louis Watum, who said — according ...
China’s Biggest Cobalt Miner Faces a Harsh New Reality in DR Congo
The world’s leading exporter of cobalt, China’s CMOC Group, may turn out to be the biggest loser under the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s new export quota policy, which is set to replace the existing moratorium on cobalt shipments beginning in mid-October.
Stop Calling the Lobito Corridor a U.S. Gambit Against China
There’s a lazy but geopolitically irresistible allure in branding Angola’s Lobito Corridor as a U.S. bid to blunt China’s influence in Africa and the region’s mineral supply chains. I get why the framing sticks: it’s neat, dramatic, and easy to sell. ...
African Countries Should Stop Being Questioned About Their Diplomatic Engagements
No nation should have to defend its right to choose its own diplomatic partners. Yet, in recent years, African countries have increasingly been called to account whenever those partners happen to be China or Russia. When President William Ruto of Kenya ...
A Display of Power, Not Partnership, in Washington
This is a is a long overdue column that I intended to write back in March after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa left Washington after that now infamous joint press conference in the Oval Office where he was ambushed by U.S. President Donald Trump for challenging the ...
Will China’s Trade Strategy in Africa Succeed Where Europe’s Didn’t?
At a recent ministerial meeting in the central Chinese city of Changsha, Beijing announced an ambitious new phase of its engagement with Africa: the possibility of eliminating customs duties on exports from all 53 African countries (except for Eswatini, which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan). While many ...
China’s New Mediation Body Courts the Global South on Dispute Resolution
A couple of weeks ago in Hong Kong, China quietly inaugurated the International Organization for Mediation (IoM), marking what may become a significant shift in global dispute resolution. Thirty-two countries from Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe attended the launch, underscoring Beijing’s ambition to build a ...
Canadian, Chinese Companies at Odds Over Impact of Seismic Activity on Congo Copper Mine
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Kamoa-Kakula copper mine, co-owned by China's Zijin Mining and Canada's Ivanhoe Mines, is at the center of a dispute following seismic activity that has temporarily halted underground operations. Zijin Mining reported multiple instances of roof falls ...
China’s CMOC Group and Glencore Differ Over DR Congo’s Cobalt Export Ban
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s leading producer of cobalt, has imposed a four-month ban on cobalt exports in an effort to curb market oversupply and stabilize falling prices. But the move has ignited a conflict between two of the country’s largest mining companies: China’s CMOC ...
With Chinese Backing, Cameroon Opens Second Phase of Kribi Deep-Sea Port
Cameroon opened the second phase of its Kribi deep-sea port earlier this month, marking a major step in the country’s efforts to strengthen its logistics infrastructure and expand its role in regional trade. The government completed the $650 million ...