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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Why What Happens in Guinea Matters to China
Guinea may be small and far away, but what happens there is critically important to metals manufacturers in China who depend on key ingredients from this West African country to produce huge quantities of aluminum and, eventually, steel. BAUXITE: China relies ...
You Knew This Was Going to Happen, Right?
It took less than 24 hours for the coup in Guinea to get sucked into the vortex that is the U.S.-China propaganda duel. China's foremost provocateur (aka "China's greatest internet troll"), Hu Xijin, the editor in chief of the nationalist tabloid newspaper Global ...
Don’t Worry About the Debt, Assures Kenya’s Treasury Minister as Millions Flow Back to China
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary in the Treasury, Ukur Yatani defended the government’s recent borrowing spree and urged citizens not to worry about debt since the government has a repayment plan. “If you want fast development you have to borrow. It would take us ...
Chinese Vaccine Shipments to Africa Lag Far Behind Asia and Latin America
China shipped just 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines last week, according to the latest data from the Bridge Beijing Vaccine Tracker Report, highlighting how the continent is falling behind other regions like Latin America and Asia in terms of vaccine shipments. ...
People’s Daily Launches Kiswahili Language Website
The People's Daily, China's largest and arguably most important state-run media outlet, launched three new online sites last week including one in Kiswahili, a language spoken widely throughout East Africa. The new site complements an increasingly prominent Chinese media presence in ...
Gauging the Effectiveness of Chinese Soft Power in Africa
It is very difficult, if not impossible, right now to accurately public opinion perceptions of China in a region as large and diverse as Africa. There are strong indications that point in opposite directions. African leaders one after another shower China ...
A Conversation With Wu Peng, China’s Top Diplomat For Africa
This week Eric & Cobus sit down with Wu Peng, the director-general of the department of African affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his perspective on a wide range of issues that are impacting relations between the two ...
News24: South African Intelligence Concerned ANC MP Xiaomei Havard is Sharing Secrets With China
South Africa's State Security Agency, the country's intelligence service, has concluded there is a "high likelihood" that ANC MP Xiaomei Havard (张晓梅) may be passing on classified information to the Chinese Communist Party, according to a bombshell report published Wednesday on South Africa's online ...
Hichilema Acknowledges Zambia’s Debt “Hole” is Bigger Than He Thought
Newly-elected President Hakainde Hichilema's brief honeymoon with the international financial community may have come to an end on Wednesday when he publicly acknowledged what's long been suspected: that Zambia's hidden debts are far more extensive than what's been publicly disclosed. Zambia’s ...
Chinese EV Battery Makers Push New Cobalt-Free Power Packs
Two seemingly contradictory trends are underway in China's electric vehicle battery market. On the one hand, there's a greater push to import ever-larger quantities of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the same time, there are also rapid moves to develop ...
Mnangagwa: “We Are Not Worried About Those Who Get Angry Because China Has Helped Us.”
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa toured the construction site of the new Robert Mugabe International Airport expansion in Harare on Wednesday. The expansion is being financed and built by China. After the tour, President Mnangagwa took aim at critics, presumably in the U.S. and UK, of ...
Thanks to a “Partnership” With China, President Kenyatta Breaks Ground For New Military Hospital
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had a photo op atop a heavy earth mover on Wednesday at the Kabete Military Barracks in Nairobi to break ground on a massive new state-of-the-art military hospital that will be built in "partnership" with China. ...