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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China’s Massive New Data Trunk Line Linking Asia, Africa, and Europe is Nearing Completion
A consortium of Chinese companies is nearing completion of the 12,000-kilometer PEACE cable (Pakistan East Africa Connecting to Europe) that will deliver badly-needed bandwidth to large swathes of Africa. The capacity of the undersea cable is so large, in fact, that it can transport 90,000 hours of ...
Chinese Vaccines Arrive in Congo-Brazzaville
Chinese ambassador Ma Fulin (photo) led a donation ceremony at the international airport in the Republic of Congo capital Brazzaville on Wednesday to hand over 100,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government. (CGTN) ...
Why China’s Vaccine Outreach in Africa May Not Produce the Soft Power Dividends Many Assume
There's growing anxiety in many Western capitals that China's head start in distributing vaccines to African countries will provide Beijing with a powerful diplomatic advantage. While there's no doubt that China's vaccine donations are well received on the continent, a trio of Africa analysts at the UK-based ...
Chinese State Media Showcase African Scholars, Journalists Who Make the Case For China’s Development Model
Chinese officials typically do not come out and say that their development model should be adopted by other countries as that could be construed as interfering in another state's internal affairs. Instead, that message is increasingly conveyed through Communist Party-controlled media outlets like China Daily, CGTN, and ...
New Crop of Wilson Center Fellows Apparently Not Interested in China-LatAm, Africa Relations
Parsifal D'Sola, director of the Bogota-based think tank Center for China-Latin America Investigation at the Andrés Bello Foundation thought that it was a bit strange that given the high level of concern among U.S. policymakers in Washington, D.C. about China's growing influence in the Americas and Africa that ...
The Transsion Phenomenon in Africa
Too often, the discussion about Chinese tech in the Global South, particularly in places like Africa, focuses primarily on just two companies Huawei and ZTE. It's not surprising given that in recent years both have been the focus of so much attention in Australia, the U.S., and ...
Someone Paid a Huge Ransom to Free the Crew of Chinese Fishing Vessel Taken Captive in the Gulf of Guinea
The Nigerian Navy reports that the crew of a pirated Chinese fishing vessel was recently released following the payment of a $300,000 ransom. The crew had spent a month in captivity The 14-member crew, including six Chinese nationals, was kidnapped off the ...
Chinese Fishing Vessel Runs Aground in Mauritius, Sparking Fears of Another Environmental Disaster
Coastguard and security forces are racing to offload 130 tons of fuel and lubricants from a Chinese fishing vessel that ran aground off the coast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The incident took place on Sunday when ...
The Zambian Employee Who Pulled His Chinese Boss on a Cart Says The Whole Thing Was Just a Big Misunderstanding
Two videos surfaced today on Twitter that seem to show a Zambian employee who was recorded pulling his Chinese boss on a trolley cart saying that the resultant outrage is a big fuss over nothing. The employee explained that his boss treats him very well ...
Hundreds of Thousands of Ghanaian Rosewood Logs Were Illegally Smuggled to China While This Man Was Lands Minister, Now he Too is On His Way to China… as Ambassador
During the time that Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh was Ghana's Lands and Natural Resource Minister, an estimated 147,000 kilograms illegally logged rosewood was smuggled out of the country to China. And yet, not one person was ever arrested during Asomah-Cheremeh's tenure as minister. Now, he too is on his way ...
Rebuffed by the United States, Mexico Places a Huge Order For Chinese Vaccines
Shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden turned down a request from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to supply vaccines, the Mexican government turned right around to place an order with China for 22 million doses, according to Foreign Minister Marcel Ebrard.
China’s Propagandists Use African Scholars to Make Its Case on Sensitive Core Issues Like Hong Kong
Chinese state media turns to "a Kenyan expert" to recite Beijing's logic for why it's important "to have patriotic people taking up certain positions" in Hong Kong under what was once the "One Country Two Systems" paradigm. Dr. Kigen ...