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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China-IMF Spat Over Debt Relief Intensifies Following Fund Chief’s Call for Beijing to Change Its Ways
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China Confirms It Has a Balloon Floating Somewhere Over Latin America
China’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed Pentagon allegations that a second Chinese surveillance balloon is floating over Central and South America. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said the balloon is non-military and used for flight tests. She said it has limited self-steering capacity and was blown off course, entering South American airspace “by ...
China Updates 2022 Africa Trade Figures
Chinese customs authorities are slowly releasing new trade data for individual African countries following its January announcement that trade with the continent rose by 14.5% to $276.8 billion. Country data is similarly higher than in 2021. China's Trade with Key African Countries: ...
China’s High-Profile Envoy to the DR Congo to Leave This Week
Zhu Jing, China’s outgoing ambassador, is making the rounds of Kinshasa to say goodbye before leaving the country later this week. He is vacating his post as part of a routine rotation. Zhu was a prominent voice for China as the DRC became ...
Chinese Contractor Completes 105km Railway Upgrade in Namibia
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African Ambassadors Tour Xinjiang to See “Happy Life of Local Residents”
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China, World Bank Spar Over Who’s to Blame For Delays in Zambia Debt Relief
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Top State Department Official Says China’s Debt Relief Offer to Sri Lanka is “Not Enough”
Another senior U.S. diplomat has accused China of not doing enough to resolve Sri Lanka’s debt renegotiation, a sign that the island’s financial crisis is increasingly being framed geopolitically. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland said: "What China has offered ...
Why Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Hot Take on Chinese Debt in Africa Is So Problematic
In a recent interview, the U.S. ambassador to the UN (and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa) weighed in on China's role in African debt distress in terms that could be described as 'blinkered' at best ('disingenuous' is another possibility):
China Blocked Kenya From Getting Competitive Bids to Build Costly Railway, Supreme Court Told
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China Ramps Up Brazilian Corn Imports
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