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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The Case For Better African Governance in Managing Chinese Development Projects
There's been mounting criticism of Chinese development projects in Africa by both political and civil society actors in response to rising debt levels, environmental degradation, and the maltreatment of local workers by Chinese managers. While many put the burden of responsibility ...
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It's still relatively rare that Chinese ambassadors in Africa do interviews with the international media and even it's more notable that a relatively new envoy makes himself available to publications like the Paris-based magazine and website Jeune Afrique (JA). Hu Bin, ...
In What Could be An Ominous Sign For Other Developing Countries, Vietnam Reports Severe Supply Shortages From China
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SolarTaxi: The Hot Ghanaian Start-Up Powered by Low-Cost Chinese Tech
Tech entrepreneur Jorge Appiah wants to revolutionize how people and goods get around Ghana by making transportation cheaper and, more important, cleaner. The CEO and Founder of SolarTaxi, a start-up launched in 2019 focused on electric-powered mobility solutions for both businesses and consumers, is ...
WHO’s Call for Some Recipients of Chinese Vaccines to Get Booster Shots Will Further Complicate Africa’s Battle Against COVID
A World Health Organization panel of experts is recommending individuals 60 years and older who received injections of Chinese-made vaccines from either Sinopharm or Sinovac to get a booster shot. The new guidance from ...
Low-Income Country Debt Now Closing In on a Trillion Dollars, Activists Blame G20 States For Ignoring the Problem
Borrowing among the world's poorest countries jumped 12% last year pushing up the total amount owed to a record $860 billion, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the World Bank. Not surprisingly, World Bank economists ...
Chinese-Owned African Pay-TV Giant StarTimes Launches New Propaganda Show
The Beijing-based African pay-TV operator StarTimes launched a new program on Monday that appears aimed at bolstering official Chinese government messaging on the continent in the run-up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that will take place soon in Dakar, Senegal.
Why Zambia is An Outlier Among African Countries That Owe Money to China
Zambia owes at least 18 Chinese creditors $6.6 billion, nearly twice as much as previously stated, according to a new report published by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University. And that figure may be even higher as it ...
Forget Cobalt, China Wants More of the Lithium Market To Power Electric Vehicles
The Chinese copper and gold mining giant Zijin Mining Group Co. took investors by surprise last week when it bought the Canadian company Neo Lithium Corp.'s South American lithium mining assets for $770 million. The deal highlights the growing importance that Chinese mining companies and electric vehicle battery ...
Chongqing: The Former Rustbelt City at the Heart of the World Economy
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China Targets the U.S. Over Vaccine Shipments to Developing Countries
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian took aim at the United States on Monday for what he claimed was Washington's inability to meet its vaccine distribution promises to countries in the Global South. The United States has pledged $4 ...