Author: Cobus van Staden
Dr. Cobus van Staden is an accomplished scholar, journalist, and think tank analyst with more than 20 years of experience in Africa and Asia. Previously, he was the senior China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in Johannesburg. Cobus completed his Ph.D. in Japanese studies and media studies at the University of Nagoya in Japan in 2008. He focused on comparisons of Chinese and Japanese public diplomacy in Africa during postdoctoral positions at the University of Stellenbosch and the SARCHI Chair on African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the University of Johannesburg before joining the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2013. His academic research focused on media coverage of the China-Africa and Japan-Africa relationships, as well as the use of media in public diplomacy in the Global South.
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Preview of New U.S.-China Popularity Polling in Africa
The influential African polling outfit Afrobarometer has released a glimpse of new polling results among African populations of their perceptions of external powers. Afrobarometer surveys have noted consistently high (and similar) approval rates of both China and the United States in Africa. However, now that popularity seems ...
How Far Ahead Is China in the Battery Race? Pretty Far.
China is sprinting ahead in the global race for critical minerals used to make batteries for electric cars, leaving Western competitors scrambling to catch up. Chinese companies’ early investment into the extraction of lithium and cobalt in Africa was key to this success, according to a detailed new report by ...
China Boosted Pandemic-Era Debt Relief: Report
China’s role in debt renegotiation processes has become very controversial, with U.S. officials like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen singling Beijing out as a “barrier” to resolving debt distress. However, a new report by a team of prominent Africa-China researchers argues that China conducted ...
Lending Data Offers Clue to China’s Global South Influence
A new report led by the U.S.-based research center AidData is drawing global attention this week. It shows that from 2008 to 2021, China spent $240 billion in bailouts and liquidity support to 22 Global South countries. Even though the report focuses ...
China Should Not Compromise With Western Creditors in Zambian Debt Relief, Says Prominent Scholar
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New Report: China Is Now the Major Lender of Last Resort for Developing Countries
China has spent $240 billion in rescue payments to 22 economically distressed Belt and Road economies between 2008 and 2021. A new report published by AidData, the research center at the College of William and Mary, and co-authored with researchers at the ...
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
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China Tries to Maintain Mideast Diplomatic Momentum With Summit Planned for Later This Year
China will host a summit between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council later this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The summit with the six-country bloc (made up of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait) will further solidify the normalization of diplomatic ...
State Department Spox: U.S. Not Being Supplanted by China in Mideast as “Some Allege”
The U.S. State Department dismissed suggestions that China’s brokering of a diplomatic thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia reflects a diminishment of the United States’s influence in the Middle East. Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that: “In any way you look at it, America is deeply engaged with the ...
Israel Not Happy About the China-Brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia Deal
Few countries are as directly affected by the Saudi-Iran deal as Israel. The announcement seemed to have caught the Netanyahu government off guard and occasioned intense discussion, with incumbent and opposition politicians blaming each other for appearing “weak” and lessening Israel’s clout in the region. ...
Unpacking Israeli Reactions to Iran-Saudi Deal
As Israel’s famously feisty commentariat lays into the China-brokered Iran-Saudi thaw, the country’s reactions will likely have broader impacts. Israel’s own role in the region’s security landscape is at play, but its close relationship with the United States will also influence how Washington deals with the broader ...
India To Discourage Foreign Trade Settlement in Chinese Yuan – Sources
India has asked banks and traders to avoid using Chinese yuan to pay for Russian imports, three government officials involved in policy making and two banking sources said, because of long-running political differences with its neighbor. India, which has emerged as ...