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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World Bank Overtakes China as Kenya’s Creditor of Choice
There's been a major shift in Kenya's borrowing patterns over the past three years marked by a sharp increase in loans from the World Bank while lending from China has slowed considerably, according to new Treasury data. ...
China’s Relatively Small Share of Kenya’s Total Public Debt
Kenya's total public debt now stands at $72.2 billion with $6.92 billion or just 9% owed to Chinese creditors, according to new figures from the Treasury in Nairobi. When measured against Kenya's total external, China's share ...
New Research Aims to Debunk Misperceptions About Chinese Investment in Ethiopia
One of the common misperceptions about Chinese investment in Africa is there's no difference between state-owned and private companies. In many instances, they're referred to simply as "Chinese" companies without understanding that there are actually substantial differences among the various corporate actors that are now active in ...
Cobalt Prices in China Surge Due to Supply Chain Problems in the DRC and South Africa
Cobalt prices jumped to a three-year high in Chinse trading this month due to mounting concerns over shipment delays in the DR Congo-to-South Africa supply chain. Shipments from the DR Congo account for 90% of China's sourcing for the metal that's ...
Surprise Surprise… Europe-Africa Summit Gets Poor Reviews in China
Last week's Europe-Africa summit largely passed unnoticed in China due largely to the fact that it coincided with the final days of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the extensive coverage related to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Now, though, some analysis ...
Chinese Phone Brands Competing at the High End of the Market in Kenya
One week after the Shenzhen-based African mobile phone giant Transsion announced that its TECNO and Infinix brands would both have 5G devices available in Kenya before the end of the year, Chinese rival Oppo launched its 5G smartphone with the debut of V23 5G.
Congo-born Chinese Siblings Raise $7.5 Million to Build Crypto-Powered Super App of Africa
The Congo-based cryptocurrency & blockchain (aka web3) start-up raised $7.5 million in seed funding. The company was founded by James Zhang and his sister, also born in the Congo, who saw the opportunity for blockchain-enabled applications in the gaming and education sectors that are becoming increasingly popular ...
Egypt is Now the Main Hub for Chinese Vaccine Diplomacy in Africa and the Middle East
While Europeans and Americans are now ramping up their efforts to develop COVID-19 manufacturing facilities in Africa, a Chinese joint venture in Egypt is already well underway where it's becoming a vital hub in Beijing's vaccine diplomacy in both Africa and the Middle East. ...
G20 Again Pays Lip Service to Developing World Debt Relief But Still Refuses to Do Anything To Resolve the Crisis
Finance ministers and central bank heads from the world's twenty largest countries wrapped up their latest get-together in Jakarta on Friday without any meaningful progress on the burgeoning debt crisis in developing countries. Instead, everyone seemingly blamed everyone else ...
Washington’s Top Diplomat for Africa Presumably Asked the Equatorial Guineans to Put the Kibosh on a Future Chinese Military Base
U.S. government officials regularly criticize China for embracing African dictators in pursuit of Beijing's strategic interests, so it was a tad ironic to see photos and videos late last week of a high-level American delegation led by Washington's top diplomat Molly Phee so warmly received in an ...
The Optics of the High-Level U.S. Delegation Visit to Equatorial Guinea Are Bad, Really Really Bad
When U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee met with Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo last week at the Presidential Palace in Malabo to try and put a stop to the building of a Chinese military base in the West African country, she ...
Column Appears in Pro-China Newspaper in South Africa to Make the Case for Huawei
The Editor in Chief of the South African edition of the U.S. tech-business magazine Fast Company, Wesley Diphoko, rallied to the defense of Chinese networking giant Huawei in a column published in the pro-Chinese news outlet Independent Online. ...