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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U.S. Concerns About Chinese Infrastructure and Debt Financing in Africa Date Back More Than Half a Century
Judd Devermont, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted in his daily Africa history Tweet that U.S. anxiety about Chinese infrastructure development in Africa is not a new phenomenon. In fact, as he remarked on Monday, ...
Checking In on Black Life in Shanghai in 2021
It's been a while since social media weighed in on the theme of Black life in China. The topic was immensely popular in the aftermath of anti-Black discrimination that occurred in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou last Spring, but faded in the second half of the ...
Report: Nigerian Government In Contact With Chinese Cyber Authorities Over How to Build New Internet Firewall
Less than 24 hours after the Nigerian government announced that it would impose a ban on Twitter, officials in President Muhammadu Buhari's office reportedly made contact with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to discuss how to implement a Chinese-style firewall in Nigeria, according to ...
AU Official: Chinese Construction of New Africa CDC HQ Moving “Very Smoothly With Full Force”
Chinese construction of the African Union's new Center for Disease Control headquarters in Addis Ababa is proceeding "very smoothly," according to Fantahun Hailemichael, coordinator of the Africa CDC headquarters project at the AU, in a report published by China's state-run news agency Xinhua.
China Restarts PPE Donations in Africa While Vaccine Sales/Donations Trickle Along
There's been a noticeable increase in recent weeks in the frequency of Chinese donations of masks, protective gowns, and other medical supplies to various African stakeholders. On Friday, the Chinese embassy handed over a donation of 50,000 masks to the University of Zambia in ...
Chinese Propaganda Uses Corporate-Style Content Marketing Tactics to Promote Its Vaccines in South African Media
Some unknown Chinese entity in South Africa, most likely the embassy in Pretoria, is using paid content to promote Chinese vaccines in local media. Beyond the fact that this is obviously propaganda, it's not clear from the article who the author is or who actually paid for
In What Could Be Bad News From the DR Congo, the Cobalt-Free EV Battery May Happen Much Sooner Than We Thought
The world's leading automakers are making much faster progress than anticipated in moving away from electric vehicle batteries that contain cobalt. VW, Tesla, and the Chinese EV giant BYD (the world's second-largest EV maker) have all either developed new cobalt-free batteries or are in late-stage development.
Nigeria’s Twitter Ban is a Big Win For China
Chinese officials are no doubt celebrating Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's decision late last week to ban Twitter. The move marked the most important endorsement in Africa to date of Beijing's long-held view on "internet sovereignty." The Chinese have never accepted the ...
Why Huawei’s Much Ridiculed New OS Could Still Have a Big Impact in Africa
Huawei officially launched HarmonyOS this week, its new mobile operating system. The company was forced to build its own in-house OS after the Trump administration banned it from accessing key U.S. technologies including Alphabet's Android. ...
U.S, China Exchange Jabs Over Vaccine Deliveries to the World’s Poorest Countries
The battle over so-called "vaccine diplomacy" between the United States and China is beginning to intensify as Washington moves closer to finally shipping surplus jabs to developing countries around the world. Foreign policy leaders from both countries issued veiled critiques of ...
Time’s Up. Kenya’s Debt Deferral Deal With China Runs Out at the End of the Month and a Big Payment is Due
The 6-month debt deferral deal that Kenya secured with China back in January under the auspices of the G20 is now coming to an end and the government will either have to come up with almost a billion dollars to begin loan payments or negotiate ...
A 2021 Update On What We Know About Chinese Lending to African Countries
There's ample evidence of a sharp decline in Chinese lending to developing countries, specifically in Africa. But that doesn't mean that China is out of the development financing game altogether. Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at Carnegie Endowment for ...