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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Students from 36 different African countries gathered in Beijing on Sunday to take part in the first-ever African students' forum organized by the China-Africa Institute with the support of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, one of the country's leading public policy think tanks. ...
African Countries At Risk From China’s Economic Deceleration
The South African rand has long served as a sort of early warning system for investors to gauge the impact of Chinese economic news. And yesterday, the alarms sounded as the value of the South African currency fell 1.1% in response to worse-than-expected third-quarter data ...
Sicomines Wanted a Dialogue With Congolese Labor Advocates… And They Sure Got an Earful
The management at the embattled Sino-Congolese mining company Sicomines reached out to local labor activists for a dialogue about the working conditions at the Chinese-run joint venture. They got an earful last week, particularly from labor advocate Don ...
China’s Largest EV Battery Manufacturer Wants to Move Beyond Cobalt
While Chinese companies are investing billions of dollars to build new cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a broader effort to control the global electric vehicle battery market, they're also moving fast to develop new batteries that, in the future, won't rely ...
Biden Met With an African Leader Last Week, Didn’t Mention China by Name
U.S. President Joe Biden appears to be taking the advice of advisors and scholars, who've told him repeatedly over the past eight months to avoid talking about China when discussing Africa. During a brief visit to the White House by Kenyan ...
China Could Factor Into the U.S. Debate Over Duty-Free Trade with Ethiopia
A lively debate is underway in the United States now over whether Trade Representative Katherine Tai should remove Ethiopia's duty-free access to the U.S. market as part of the African Growth and Opportunity Act or AGOA. The White House is threatening ...
Beijing Responds to Media Reports that the U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe is Paying $1,000 For Journalists to Write Anti-China Stories
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded last week to unsubstantiated news reports that the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe hired an agency to train local journalists to write stories critical of China. Zhao told reporters at the regular press briefing in ...
The Chinese Embassy in Mogadishu Seethes Over Taiwan’s Presence in Somaliland
Although China has not said much of Taiwan's trade office in the self-declared state of Somaliland since it opened last year, it's nonetheless evident that Taipei's official presence in the Horn of Africa gives them heartburn, particularly among diplomats at the embassy in Mogadishu. ...
Burundi Takes Delivery of Its First Shipment of Chinese COVID Vaccines
Once a holdout on the COVID-19 vaccination front, Burundi is now accepting vaccine donations from countries around the world, including China. A batch of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm arrived last week in the economic hub of Bujumbura. The shipment, $3 million ...
Tshisekedi Appears to Be Looking for an Exit to His Prolonged Standoff With Chinese Mining Companies
On Friday DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi hinted during a meeting of the Council of Ministers (the DRC's cabinet) that he wants to bring an end to the ongoing dispute with Chinese mining companies over unfair contracts. The President
Week in Review: Xi Opens COP15, Zambia Takes Action Against a Chinese Mine & SA Busts Chinese Abalone Ring
The UN's biodiversity convention, known as COP15, opened on Tuesday in the southern Chinese city of Kunming. President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address and announced that China will commit $230 million to help developing countries protect endangered plant and animal wildlife. Even as China is currently bingeing ...
Lightning Round: Africa-France Summit, FOCAC & UK Port Deal
An often contentious leaderless summit took place last in Montepellier where African youth activists did not hold back in telling French President Emmanuel Macron what they thought needed to be done to improve ties between the two regions. Eric & Cobus ...