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.
Related Posts
African Coal Exporters Benefitting From China’s Ongoing Electricity Crisis
China is scouring the globe for new sources of coal in an effort to stem the blackouts that have afflicted millions of residents and businesses in at least nine provinces over the past several weeks. While the ongoing crisis is now threatening China's post-pandemic ...
Even After China Bailed on Its Sengwa Coal Plant in Zimbabwe, RioZim Seems Unusually Confident It’ll Find Other Backers
Many presumed that the $3 billion Sengwa coal-fired power plant project in Zimbabwe was doomed after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China withdrew its support earlier this year as the project's largest financier. Not so, according to plant's owner RioZim that said in its half-year trading ...
Chinese Community in the DR Congo’s Mining Belt Report More Robberies and Break-In Attempts
Chinese residents and businesses in the southern Congolese mining city of Kolwezi report an increase in armed robberies and attempted break-ins. It's not clear from the accounts on the Lualaba Chinese Chamber of Commerce WeChat channel if the assailants ...
While the EU & U.S. Talk About Competing With China to Build Infrastructure in the Global South, Japan’s Experience in Vietnam Should Give Them Pause
Over the past month, the United States and Europe have doubled down on their commitment to challenging China's Belt and Road Initiative by launching new initiatives to build infrastructure in developing countries. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week
Africa Accounts For Just 1.7% of China’s Total Global Investment Stock, Says MOFCOM
Even amid the pandemic, Chinese investment overseas last year increased by 12.3% to $153.71 billion, according to a new report published last week by the Ministry of Commerce, National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. 2.8% of ...
Folashadé Soulé on the Key Priorities For West African Countries at This Year’s China-Africa Summit
For much of the past twenty years, since the first FOCAC summit in 2000, China's engagement strategy on the continent has focused predominantly on anglophone countries in southern and eastern Africa like Kenya, Zambia, and South Africa. Angola, of course, was an important exception. ...
Li Anshan’s “Five Basic Facts About China-Africa Relations”
Professor Li Anshan is widely regarded as the preeminent Chinese scholar on African affairs. Li, who's now a professor emeritus at Peking University and President of the Chinese Association of African History, has shaped the Chinese intellectual discourse on Africa probably more than anyone else in academia. ...
FOCAC Comes as Both China and the U.S. Are Evolving Their Africa Policies
The upcoming FOCAC summit comes at a critical time when both the United States and China are actively transitioning their engagement strategies in Africa. For the Chinese, the summit will provide an opportunity to formally lift the veil on a new set ...
Last Week it Was B3W, This Week It’s The Blue Dot Network
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken led a discussion yesterday in Paris (photo) on the Blue Dot Network, another White House initiative aimed at curtailing China's Belt and Road Initiative. Blinken was joined by U.S. and European corporate and ...
Almost Every Country in Africa Has Now Received Chinese Vaccines
46 African countries to date have received shipments of Chinese vaccines, either sold, donated, or both, according to the latest update from the Beijing-based consulting firm Bridge's vaccine tracker report. In total, China has shipped 72.3 million doses ...
China Shuns World’s Poorest Countries For COVID Vaccine Distribution
The overwhelming majority of Chinese COVID vaccines have been sold to middle-income countries with only about 2% going to low-income states, according to new research by the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Since ...
Ghanaian Government Blames COVID For Delay in Chinese Construction Projects But Says Work Will Be Done on Time
A top Ghanaian government spokesman pushed back on accusations that the administration has been slow to build the promised infrastructure projects as part of a controversial $2 billion resource swap deal with the Chinese state-owned conglomerate Sinohydro. President ...