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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U.S.-China Technology Competition in Africa
African telecom operators have resolutely opposed U.S. calls to stop using Chinese networking hardware. In fact, Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese tech firms in recent years have significantly expanded their presence beyond networking to mobile money, data centers, and even new ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Beijing Considering Hosting a Third Belt & Road Forum Next Year
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is considering hosting a third Belt & Road forum next year, the first time a major BRI event would be convened in China since the beginning of the pandemic. The key question is whether China will relax its strict COVID travel restrictions ...
Billion Dollar Infrastructure Fund Reveals China’s New Development Finance Priorities and Tactics
The Chinese government is leveraging private capital to bolster its infrastructure development finance agenda in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. The China Exim Bank, one of China's two main policy banks, announced this week that it teamed ...
Thailand’s Chinese-financed High Speed Railway Gets Boost After Xi Visit to Bangkok
The long-delayed 609-kilometer China-Thailand high-speed standard gauge railway is once again a top priority for both sides following Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Thailand last week, where the project topped the agenda in bilateral talks. With a price tag of ...
Vietnam is an Increasingly Popular Destination for World Leaders Looking to Broaden Their Asia Strategies Beyond China
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the latest head of state to visit Vietnam as more countries look to expand their Asia engagement strategies beyond China. President Museveni arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday for a three-day state visit that will include talks with his Vietnamese counterpart ...
China-Africa Trade Forum Opens in Zhejiang Province
400 participants from 47 different African countries are participating in this week's China-Africa trade and economic relations forum now underway in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. The event highlights the increasingly prominent role that Chinese provinces are playing in the ...
The Indian Pundit Who Created the Discredited Chinese “Debt Trap” Meme is Still Convinced He’s Right
The creator of the widely-debunked Chinese "debt trap" meme is at it again with a new litany of breathless warnings about the risks developing countries take on when they borrow money from China. Indian pundit ...
Chinese EV Battery Maker Unveils Multibillion Dollar IPO, Will Use Proceeds to Develop Next-Gen Cobalt-free Batteries
One of China's hottest electric vehicle battery makers announced plans to go public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's NASDAQ-like STAR market in a bid to raise $2 billion to build next-generation EV power packs. SVOLT ...
A Look Back on a Week of Intense Chinese Diplomacy in Southeast Asia
Chinese President returned home from a week of intense diplomacy in Indonesia and Thailand where he attended a pair of summits and held more than a dozen bilaterals with other international leaders. Both the G20 ...
Why the Fate of the New COP27 “Loss and Damage” Climate Fund Depends on China
Negotiators from 200 countries at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt worked overtime this weekend to finalize a controversial funding proposal that would facilitate wealthy countries to compensate developing states for "loss and damages" wrought by climate change. While the new proposal is being ...
Xi Seeks to Contrast China’s Approach in Asia Against the U.S.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a week-long diplomatic sprint in Southeast Asia this weekend with the conclusion of the APEC summit in Bangkok. Prior to his return to China on Saturday, President Xi restated his ambition to "foster an open, fair and non-discriminatory trade and investment environment" in ...
Few Noticed One of the Most Important Sideline Meetings at APEC
Chinese President Xi Jinping held dozens of quick sideline bilateral meetings with various international leaders over the past several weeks but few were as important as the one with Chile's Gabriel Boric at the APEC summit in Bangkok on Friday. President ...