Author: Eric Olander
Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Global South Project, an independent, non-partisan media initiative dedicated to exploring every facet of China’s engagement in Africa. Eric is a fluent Mandarin-speaker and a longtime China-watcher with more than 25 years of journalism experience at many of the world’s leading media companies, including CNN, the BBC, and FRANCE24, among others. He received his undergraduate degree in East African History from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a master’s degree in Chinese Public Affairs from the University of Hong Kong.
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Why China May Succeed in the Middle East Where So Many Others Have Failed
Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia last week and his participation in three summits with Arab leaders went precisely according to plan. The President was feted lavishly by the Saudi royal family while seeming to rise above the region's often toxic politics.
Xi-Mohamud Handshake Proves Opposing China on Xinjiang Isn’t a Diplomatic Death Sentence for Small Countries
Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was one of at least a dozen heads of state to do a brief meet-and-greet with Xi Jinping during the China-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The interaction was wholly unremarkable, but the ...
Contrasting U.S. and Chinese Diplomatic Styles on Full Display This Week
It's rare for the U.S. and China to host major regional summits less than a week apart. But with the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit set to get underway in Washington, D.C., just a few days after the China-Arab Summit concluded in Riyadh, ...
Media Frustrates White House Efforts to Avoid Making This Week’s Africa Summit About China
Senior African policy officials in the White House and State Department have been adamant that this week's African leaders summit is about Africa... not China. But the international news media doesn't appear to see it that way -- framing the story as the latest installment of the ...
Asia, Not Africa Most Likely Region For China to Set Up New Overseas Military Base, Says Rand Report
Four countries in Asia have been identified by researchers in the United States as the most likely places where China will set up a new military outpost. The findings by a trio of scholars at the U.S. government-supported
China Launches New Site Dedicated to Belt and Road News in Africa
China's state-run Xinhua news agency launched a new online portal that is ostensibly intended to serve as a hub for Belt and Road information in Africa. The new site appears to be little more than a repackaging of ...
Worrisome Demographic Trends in China and Africa
Africa is home to the world's youngest and fastest-growing population, creating what proponents call a "demographic dividend." Conversely, China is rapidly becoming one of the world's oldest countries thanks in part to decades of draconian family planning policies that limited most ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: United States to Increase Its Military Force Presence in Northern Australia
The United States announced it will increase its military force presence in northern Australia in response to "China's dangerous and coercive actions" in the Asia-Pacific region. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday the Pentagon will step up troop rotations that will also include the deployment of added ...
Xi Jinping Travels to Saudi Arabia For High-Profile Summits With Saudi and Arab Leaders
Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for a three-day visit that will include a trio of summits with Saudi Arabia's rulers and Arab leaders. Even though preparations in the Kingdom had been underway for weeks ...
$30 Billion of China-Saudi Deals to Be Signed During Xi’s Visit to the Kingdom
Chinese and Saudi Arabian officials will sign $29.62 billion worth of commercial deals this week during President Xi Jinping's three-day visit to the Kingdom. In all, some 20 agreements will be inked, according to a report published on Tuesday by the ...
China-Saudi Trade is Booming… And Not Just Because of Oil
The obvious reason for Xi Jinping's trip to Saudi Arabia is to foster closer ties with one of China's largest oil suppliers (Russia and Saudi Arabia have been battling for the top spot for much of the past year), but that alone would overlook the increasingly dynamic ...
Beware of the Simple Media Narratives Warns China Scholar About Xi Visit to the Mideast
Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Jonathan Fulton has some advice for journalists covering Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia: don't fall for the simple narrative that this trip is about some kind of Great Power Competition with the United States. Instead, Fulton ...