Author: Eric Olander
Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Global South Project (CAP), 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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Lourenço Says He Would Not Take a Another Resource-for-Infrastructure Deal With China
Over a twenty-year period beginning in 2002, Angola borrowed a staggering $45 billion from China, accounting for a third of all Chinese lending on the continent. The Angolan government still owes Chinese creditors an estimated $17 billion and restructured a large ...
“I Really Don’t Get It,” Says Top Currency Scholar in Response to Trump’s Threat to Retaliate Against a BRICS Currency
Donald Trump's threat to retaliate against BRICS countries if the bloc moves forward with a plan to introduce a new currency prompted a lot of head-scratching over the weekend among analysts, who said the president-elect's announcement was baffling. President-elect Trump was ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China Defense Minister Dong Jun Faces Corruption Investigation
Singapore's Senior Minister and former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong began a six-day visit to China on Monday that will include meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visit, Lee's first since stepping down as PM, is widely seen as an effort to stabilize heightened geopolitical tensions in ...
[WEEK IN REVIEW] China’s Role in Africa’s Energy Transition and Biden’s Angola Trip
The Sirexe “Salon International des Ressources Extractives et Energetiques” conference took place this week in the Ivory Coast and brought together ministers, policymakers and corporate leaders from across the continent to discuss Africa's energy transition. ...
China, Indonesia and the Great Power Competition for Transition Minerals
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not a fan of the Biden administration's climate legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), describing it as a "green scam." Trump has promised to repeal it, which will undoubtedly be welcome news in Indonesia. ...
Two Projects in Asia and Africa Highlight the New Realities of Chinese Development Finance
Two very interesting stories this week highlight the complexity of China's development finance initiatives in Asia and Africa. In Cambodia, people close to the massive $1.7 billion Funan Techo canal project hint that Chinese financing isn't as secure as Prime Minister Hun Manet made it sound when ...
Mexico Not a Backdoor for Chinese Products, President Sheinbaum Says
Chinese products are not entering the United States and Canada through Mexico, the president of the Latin American nation said on Friday, and the government will make that clear in upcoming trade meetings. "In the meetings we have with Canada and ...
Mounting Concerns in Cambodia Chinese Funding for Controversial Canal May Fall Through
When construction of Cambodia's $1.7 billion Funan Techo canal got underway in August, Prime Minister Hun Manet confidently assured everyone that Chinese funding for the project would come through. Now, though, there are mounting concerns the Prime Minister's assurances may have been ...
China’s Future Role in Zimbabwe Power Plant Uncertain Amid Debt Crisis
Zimbabwe's business community is sounding the alarm over the prospect that one of the country's largest sources of electricity could be shuttered due to its failure to repay debts to Chinese creditors. Zimbabwe power authorities have reportedly fallen behind in servicing ...
New Geopolitical Landscape Explains Why Xi Made Unannounced Stopover in Morocco
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived back in Beijing on Saturday after a week-long trip to South America to attend a pair of summits in Brazil and Peru. On his way home, Xi made an unscheduled stopover in Morocco on Thursday, where he was greeted at the airport ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China Seeks to Restore Direct Flights India
Australia, Japan, and the U.S. on Sunday committed to closer military cooperation in training their forces as the countries deepened their ties in a bid to counter China’s military strength. Australia’s Minister of Defense Richard Marles hosted his counterparts for the trilateral ministers’ meeting- the first to be ...
Xi Took Center Stage at G20 While African Union Kept a Low Profile
This week's G20 summit wrapped up much the same way previous G20 gatherings have in recent years, with a weak final communiqué and lots of discord among the group's members. But this year's summit in Rio de Janeiro was nonetheless notable ...