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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Yet Another Social Media Video Revealing Tensions Between Chinese and Congolese Miners
In what's becoming an increasingly frequent pattern, another video appeared online on Sunday showing a heated exchange between a Chinese and Congolese miner. The video that is now circulating widely on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube does not provide a lot of contextual information as to ...
Terrorists in Pakistan Again Target Chinese Nationals in What’s Become an Unprecedented Challenge For the Belt and Road
Residents of the Pakistani port city of Gwadar gathered this weekend to mourn the death of two children killed on Friday by a suicide bomber who once again targeted Chinese nationals. A group called the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, the third ...
Reports of a Chinese “Black Site” in the UAE Used to Target Uyghurs Gaining Momentum in U.S. Media
The Washington Post picked up on a story today about an alleged Chinese "black site" in Dubai that was reportedly used to detain a young Chinese woman and at least two Uyghurs. The Post based its Editorial on a story published last ...
China Slams Economist Report on Beijing’s Financing of New Fishing Port in Sierra Leone
The Chinese Foreign Ministry seemingly went out of its way on Friday to challenge an August 19th story published by The Economist that was critical of China's plans to finance the construction of a new deep-water fishing port in Sierra Leone: "many Sierra Leoneans fret ...
Barbados PM Pushes Back on BBC Journalist About China’s Growing Investments in the Caribbean
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley took exception to questions posed by BBC journalist Zeinab Badawi in a recent interview for the program Global Questions that the Caribbean country is at risk of becoming a "pawn" of China due to rising investment. Even ...
Week in Review: Crime, COVID and Cables
The Facebook-led 2Africa undersea data cable initiative announced that it will add three more countries to its list of landing sites across Africa. Seychelles, Comoros, and Angola will all be connected to the billion-dollar, 37,000-kilometer cable that will connect Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. In what is ...
With Smaller, Targeted Loans, China Deploys New Development Finance Strategy in Africa
The huge state-owned power construction company China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) signed a small $31.22 million contract last week to upgrade a pair of substations outside of the Ghanaian capital Accra. For a company as large as CTG a deal like this is financially insignificant, but it ...
China’s EV Battery Industry Headed in Two Seemingly Opposite Directions
Chinese chemicals manufacturer Jiangsu Lopal Tech announced a new joint venture with a Chinese fertiliser company to build a new factory to manufacture materials for use in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries that are used to power electric cars. When fully operational, the new plant ...
China’s Ambassador to DRC Calls on Interior Minister To Personally Get Involved in the Search For Three Kidnapped Chinese Nationals
Chinese ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhu Jing, called on Interior and Security Minister Daniel Aselo Okito Koy on Tuesday to personally intervene in the search for three Chinese nationals who went missing last week and are presumed to have been kidnapped ...
Up and Coming Leader in Namibia’s Ruling Party is Now Studying Political Science at Peking University
Armas Amukwiyu, a rising star in Namibia's ruling SWAPO party took some time off from his day job doing political organizing in the northern Oshikoto region to go to Beijing to study politics at China's most prestigious university. Amukwiyu is in Beijing now ...
Translation: Wu Jiangtao’s Lesson For Other Chinese Entrepreneurs in Africa
Editor's Note: the following is a summary translation of an article posted on the African Research Group's (微信公众号 非洲研究小组) WeChat channel. Minor edits and slight adjustments to the translation have been done to enhance clarity. Please click here to view the original version of the article ...
Gyude Moore Reflects on Hichilema’s Victory in Zambia and Why China is Calling in Its Loans in Kenya
A lot of major developments this week in the China-Africa space following Zambia's landslide election victory for opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema and new debt repayment challenges in Kenya for the embattled Standard Gauge Railway.