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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Vietnam’s Communist Party Leader Arrives in Beijing, Kicking Off a Busy Week of Chinese Diplomacy
Vietnam's Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong arrived in Beijing on Sunday, kicking off what will be a very busy week of international diplomacy in the Chinese capital. Trong's three-day visit is generating a lot more attention given that he will be the first international ...
Reports: Xi Expected to Travel to Saudi Arabia for December Summits
Chinese President Xi Jinping will reportedly travel to Saudi Arabia in December to attend a trio of Sino-Arab summits taking place in the Kingdom. The latest rumors about President Xi's purported trip surfaced late last week following the fourth round of talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his ...
China-based Development Bank to Ramp Up Lending by $10 Billion a Year
While China's two major policy banks have pulled hard on the reins to curtail development financing in the Global South, the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is going in the opposite direction. AIIB's President Jin Liqun told the Financial Times that the ...
Two New Huawei-Powered 5G Networks Launch in Africa
Chinese telecom giant Huawei may be encountering severe headwinds in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia but not so in Africa, where the company launched two new 5G networks in just the past week: SOUTH AFRICA: Partially state-owned ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: A Military Stand-off Between a Chinese-Run Mining Company and the DRC’s State-Owned Mining Giant Gécamines Heading to Arbitration
A military stand-off between a Chinese-run mining company and the DRC's state-owned mining giant Gécamines is heading to arbitration. Congolese army forces took control of two of the Australian-based, Chinese-controlled company MMG's mines in Haute Katanga. After the company's appeals to Congolese authorities went unanswered, MMG is now ...
Vietnamese Communist Party Leader Will be Xi Jinping’s First International Visitor during His Third Term
The General Secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, will embark on a four-day visit to Beijing this week, culminating on Sunday with a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. There's considerable symbolism to this visit, given that Nguyen ...
It Worked For Nickel, So Why Not Tin? Indonesia Wants to Move Up the Value Chain by Blocking Exports of Raw Commodities
The Indonesian government plans to add tin bars to the growing list of commodities that it will ban for export as part of an ambitious effort to have more of these resources processed domestically. A similar ban that was ...
China’s Dream of Direct Access to the Indian Ocean is Finally Becoming a Reality in Myanmar
China has long regarded its dependence on transiting goods through the narrow Malacca Straits on the Malay peninsula as among its most serious national security vulnerabilities. In the event of a conflict with the United States, the U.S. Navy could easily block the strait and ...
These Charts Explain Why China is Cutting Back on Spending For BRI Projects
There's been a lot of discussion in recent months about the sharp curtailment of Chinese spending for Belt and Road projects. New data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance might provide some insight as to why. ...
Why Kenya Will Struggle to Repay the Chinese Loans for its Standard Gauge Railway
Newly-elected Kenyan President William Ruto's fulfillment of a campaign promise that reversed his predecessor's mandate that cargo from the Port of Mombasa has to be transported via the Standard Gauge Railway instead of trucks may have been smart politically, but it will likely cripple the ...
Here We Go Again… More Blackface on Chinese Television
The Hong Kong-based television network TVB is facing criticism following this week's broadcast of its popular drama series Come Home Love: Lo and Behold, which featured actors wearing blackface. The offending scene had a number of young Hong ...
The U.S.-China Battle For Ideas in the Global South
Both the United States and China have restructured their respective foreign policy establishments in recent years to be better poised to confront each other. In the just concluded 20th Party Congress in Beijing, Chinese President ...