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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During the last major Global South debt crisis in the late 1980s, the United States pioneered an initiative that bundled together all of these countries' debts into a bond that would then be re-packaged and sold to investors. These so-called "Brady ...
Congress Needs to Fund AFRICOM to Combat Growing Chinese and Russian Influence in Africa, Says Commander
The commander for U.S. forces in Africa (AFRICOM), General Stephen Townsend, was back on Capitol Hill to testify before lawmakers about why it's critical they continue to support his operation. Not surprisingly, China emerged as a key theme in his opening statement just as it was back in mid-March ...
Transsion Financial Disclosure Provides Rare Insights Into Its Booming Mobile Phone Business in Africa
Shenzhen-based African mobile phone giant Transsion provided a rare glimpse into its financial performance in a disclosure document that went out to 244 Chinese institutional investors. Even though Transsion is a publicly-traded company on the Shanghai Star Exchange, it nonetheless behaves like a lot of Chinese firms by ...
China’s ASEAN Ambassador Warns U.S. About the Dangers of Encircling China the Way NATO Did With Russia
Chinese anxiety about being encircled by the United States and its allies goes back decades but is taking on a new urgency today amid the ongoing war in Eastern Europe. Almost immediately after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Chinese officials began to draw stark parallels between what it ...
China Donates Trucks, Non-Lethal Equipment to the Kenya’s Military
For the second time in a month, China is providing an East African military with a sizable donation of non-lethal equipment and support vehicles. On Monday, Kenya's Defense Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa took delivery of dozens of trucks and unspecified "engineering equipment" during ...
Zimbabwe’s Top Leaders Bestow Awards on Chinese Steel and Mining Companies
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa along with VP Constantine Chiwenga and Mining Minister Winston Chitanda awarded three Chinese steel and mining companies with the country's inaugural Mining Excellence Awards last week at a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Harare. The companies, Tsingshan Holdings ...
Illegal Fishing, Human Rights Abuses Rampant Aboard China’s Distant Fishing Trawlers in SE Asia and Africa, Says NGO
There are new allegations of widespread environmental abuses and human rights violations committed by crews aboard China's distant water fishing fleet operating in Southeast Asia and West Africa in particular. A new report by the UK-based NGO Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) that ...
A Full-on Freak Out is Underway About China’s New Security Pact With the Solomon Islands
A joint security agreement between the Solomon Islands and China is sparking considerable anxiety among government officials, security analysts, and scholars in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States who see it as a direct challenge to both countries' military interests in the Pacific.
Exploring China’s Increasingly Prominent Role in Africa’s Media Sector
China is now a major player in the African media market, particularly in anglophone countries across the continent where its government-produced digital, broadcast, and print services are all widely available. The Chinese have invested heavily in building a formidable media ecosystem ...
Hello World! China’s AU Mission is Now on Twitter
China's mission to the African Union opened a Twitter account on Monday, becoming the 53rd Chinese diplomatic entity in Africa that's now active on the microblogging platform. For some unknown reason, Chinese diplomats and missions in Africa are far more active on ...
Rising Debt and a Sinking Currency is a Bad Combination For Kenya
Kenya's embattled currency, the shilling, sank even further on Monday, dipping to an all-time low of 115 against the U.S. dollar, prompting renewed concerns that the country will soon face a dramatic economic reckoning. The problem is that every time the shilling ...
The Ukraine War and Great Power Politics in the Global South
While the war in Ukraine has done a lot to repair the West's once frayed alliance, it's also brought together a disparate group of countries throughout the Global South who have resisted condemning Russia for the invasion and Moscow's brutal assault ...