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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Legislative leaders from across Africa issued a joint appeal on Tuesday for creditor nations to cancel some of the continent's outstanding debts. The parliamentarians are meeting this week in Abuja for the first-ever gathering of the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments ...
Chinese Spox Angrily Responds to U.S. Assertion African Governments Put Sovereignty at Risk When Using Huawei
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian used especially pointed language during Monday's regular press briefing in Beijing to denounce U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's recent warning to Angola and other African governments not to use equipment made by Huawei. Sherman made ...
Ethiopia Launches Huawei-powered 5G Network in Addis Ababa
Ethio-Telecom Chief Executive Officer, Frehiwot Tamru (photo) hosted a glamorous launch party complete with some kind of robot to kick off the company's launch of its new Huawei-powered 5G mobile network in Addis Ababa. For now, only certain neighborhoods in the ...
Zambia Wants Debt Reduction As Part of Renegotiation: Hichilema
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is optimistic that Zambia’s debt renegotiation is now on track, following the recent announcement that China and France will head the creditors’ committee. The committee's first meeting will be next week. Speaking at a mining conference in Cape Town,
China and the Future of Environmental Governance in Ghana
Ghana's worsening economic crisis is prompting concerns it will further erode the country's already weak environmental governance system that Chinese actors have profited from in the mining, fishing, and timber sectors. Meantime, local communities across the country suffer amid declining fish ...
Chinese-Built Nairobi Expressway to Open to Cars Next Week, But First It Was Runners’ Turn to Use the New Road
Thousands of Kenyans filled the new Chinese-financed and built Nairobi Expressway on Sunday when they ran/walked along the new road as part of the Nairobi City Marathon. President Uhuru Kenyatta was on hand to start the race and told everyone that ...
Huawei Quietly Becomes a Dominant Player in Africa’s Burgeoning Mobile Money Sector
Quietly and largely out-of-sight, Chinese telecom giant Huawei is becoming one of the most important actors in Africa's mobile payment business. Many people don't realize that the popular Kenyan mobile payment service M-Pesa runs on Huawei Mobile that each year processes tens of billions of dollars in transactions ...
Chinese Vaccines Shipments Around the World Plunge 97% Last Month and We Now Know Why
For much of last year, China was seemingly unstoppable in its drive to ship vaccines to developing countries around the world. Hundreds of millions of doses went to Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and then suddenly, beginning last fall, shipments came to a grinding halt. ...
Huawei in North Africa: Lots of Good PR, Not a Lot of Tech Transfer
Huawei's success in Africa is undeniable. It's built large swathes of the continent's telecom network and is an indispensable player at almost every layer of the African technology stack. But when it comes to transferring skills and technology, the company's record ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: African officials Concerned about the Deteriorating Value of the Chinese Yuan
Finance officials in Africa and other emerging markets are becoming increasingly concerned about the deteriorating value of the Chinese yuan that's weighing down the value of their currencies. The RMB has fallen steeply over the past two weeks in response to the disruption of factory production, trade, and ...
The U.S. Congress Moves Forward With China Competition Bill That Includes a Number of Africa Provisions
The long-stalled "America COMPETES Act of 2022" is now revving back up as the Senate opened formal legislative talks on Wednesday on how to pay for large chunks of the $300 billion bill that aims to boost U.S. competitiveness with China. While ...
New U.S. Envoy to Ghana Comes With Considerable China and Energy Experience
The new U.S. ambassador-designate to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, is a veteran diplomat who comes to the job with a 36-year background in African affairs, energy policy and two early-career postings in China and Hong Kong. Prior to arriving in Accra last ...