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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Developing countries along China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) owe nearly $400 billion in so-called "hidden debts," according to a landmark new study published on Wednesday from AidData researchers at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. These newly discovered ...
Looks Like Latin America Will Be the First Place Where B3W Will Take on China’s BRI
It looks like the U.S.-led Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative that was announced at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England earlier this summer is moving forward and Latin America is going to be the first region where Washington aims to challenge China's Belt and Road Initiative. ...
New Report Examines China’s Expanding Role in Multilateral Development Banks
China is increasingly turning to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to pursue its geopolitical agenda and promote alternate norms of global governance, according to a new report published on Wednesday by the London-based Overseas Development Institute. The report by Chris ...
This Chart Explains Why DRC President Tshisekedi Wants to Renegotiate Those Chinese Mining Contracts
While DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi has said that he wants to review foreign (mostly Chinese) mining contracts to ensure they're more equitable, he hasn't provided any specific explanation for why he's choosing to do so now. There are many theories ...
DRC Cabinet Tasked to Deliver Report on Sicomines in Two Weeks
The DR Congo's equivalent of the presidential cabinet, the Council of Ministers, has been tasked to create a commission to investigate “major legal, technical and financial problems observed in the collaboration agreement” of the $6 billion Sicomines deal between Congo's state mining company and a consortium of ...
ICBC Launches New China-Africa Currency Center in Hunan
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Hunan province launched a new cross-border China-Africa currency center on Tuesday to facilitate transactions between Chinese yuan and six African currencies including the Kenyan shilling, Nigerian naira, Botswanan pula, Ghanaian sedi, and the Zambian kwacha.
Check Out What Exhibitors Are Selling at This Year’s China-Africa Trade Expo in Hunan
A big part of Chinese trade expos, like the one that's taking place this week in Hunan, is the opportunity to sell stuff... lots and lots of stuff. Thousands of local residents flood the exhibition floor at these fairs to taste ...
Three Years Since Ghana Signed That Big Bauxite-For-Infrastructure Deal With China and Not One Road Has Been Built Yet
A fierce debate broke out this week in Ghana over the status of the 2018 bauxite-for-infrastructure deal with China and the fact that three years later, not a single road has been built. Opposition MP Cassiel Ato Forson, the ...
Chinese Sources Refute Story That a Chinese National Was Jailed For Insulting the DR Congo’s Mining Minister
Chinese sources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are challenging reports first published by human rights activist Géorges Kapiamba that Wang Haifang, a Chinese national, was sentenced to three months in jail and fined $500,000 for insulting the Minister of Mines Antoinette N'samba. ...
Ford’s CEO is Unhappy with China and the DRC’s Control Over EV Supply Chain
Ford chief executive Jim Farley said the cost of electric vehicles remains too high, in part because of the cost of importing key raw materials like cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and relying on batteries made in China. Instead, Farley called for both to ...
Slowly, More Chinese COVID Vaccines Are Landing in Sub-Saharan Africa
China's total vaccine shipments to Africa now total 61.9 million doses (both sold and donated) with more shipments going to sub-Saharan countries including deliveries of more than a million jabs each to Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Although not included in
Congolese Ministers Deliver Mostly Favorable Report to President on Chinese Infrastructure
Two Congolese ministers delivered a largely upbeat assessment of the status of Chinese infrastructure projects tied to major mining contracts in a key report for President Félix Tshisekedi at the latest cabinet meeting on Friday. Infrastructure and Public ...