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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If the EU Really Wants to Challenge China in Africa, It’s Going to Have to Do Better
European leaders were all smiles on Friday at the end of a two-day summit in Brussels with their African counterparts which they hope will reset strained ties. The highlight of the summit was the announcement of a hugely ambitious $170 billion ...
Chinese Demand for Illegal Rosewood Leads to Deforestation in Cameroon
Cameroon is just one of a growing number of African countries that is facing a deforestation crisis due in part to the trade in illegal Rosewood. Large organized crime syndicates are felling vast numbers of these prized trees, smuggling them across ...
Africa-Europe Summit Begins Amid Hope, Skepticism and a Wary Eye on China
European and African leaders kicked off a two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday amid a sense that ties between these two continents have reached a critical inflection point. European leaders, notably French President Emmanuel Macron, the current rotating president of the ...
New U.S. Exim Bank Head Promises to Compete With China — Just Not Dollar For Dollar
Reta Jo Lewis, the new head of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM), said she's confident that the U.S. can effectively compete against China in the policy bank arena even though her institution spends just a tenth of what the Chinese do.
EV Battery Metals: Chinese Mining Companies Moving Quickly to Close More Lithium Deals in the DR Congo
The Chinese Mining Company Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies closed a $240 million investment with Australia's AVZ Minerals for rights to the Manono lithium mine in the southern DR Congo. The Chinese company now has a 24% stake in the mine that ...
Rampant Illegal Chinese Mining and Logging in Eastern DRC Drives Poverty and Empowers Ruling Elites, Says New Report
Illegal Chinese mining and timber companies are running rampant in the DRC's eastern province of South Kivu, fueling corruption that empowers ruling elites and impoverished local communities, according to a scathing new report by two researchers at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in ...
Minister and MPs Clash Over Chinese Contract to Upgrade Uganda’s Entebbe Airport
Ugandan opposition MPs renewed their criticism of the government's handling of a $200 million loan deal with the China Exim Bank to upgrade the Entebbe International Airport near Kampala. Works and Transport Minister Edward Katumba along with officials from ...
EU-Africa Summit Set to Begin Amid a Rapidly Changing Geopolitical Landscape
African leaders have been arriving in Brussels all week in advance of the two-day Europe-Africa summit that begins tomorrow. But the timing of this year's gathering comes as some in Europe are bracing for what could be the continent's largest war since WWII and an increasingly contentious ...
German Construction Companies Struggle to Find a Way to Compete Against Chinese Rivals in Africa
European leaders have made it very clear in recent weeks that they intend to compete vigorously against Chinese rivals for a larger slice of the African infrastructure construction market. While that may sound nice, in practice it's going to be difficult. ...
World Bank Becoming Increasingly Anxious About Risks From China’s Opaque Lending Practices to Global South Countries
The World Bank is becoming increasingly explicit about its concerns related to Chinese lending practices in low and middle-income countries, even though it doesn't call out the Chinese government by name. On two separate occasions on Tuesday, the Bank issued warnings ...