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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WSJ Report Provides Clearest Overview to Date of China’s Vaccine Logistics Operation That’s Taking Shape in Africa
A trio of Wall Street Journal reporters in Asia and Africa have compiled what is the most detailed report of China's burgeoning vaccine logistics and distribution operation that's now ramping up from hubs in Ethiopia and Dubai among other places. Last ...
More Chinese Vaccines to Algeria
China's ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe announced late last week that Beijing would donate 200,000 doses of vaccines manufactured by Sinopharm. This is the second shipment of Chinese jabs to Algeria following of vaccines in January from CanSino. (CGTN AFRICA)
Zimbabwe Embarks on National Vaccination Drive With Donated Sinopharm Jabs
Less than one week after Zimbabwe took delivery of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China, the government announced an additional 75,000 are on their way from India. Even though vaccines are now starting to make their ...
China Provides Modest Debt Relief and New Grant to Rwanda
Rwanda's Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana and Chinese ambassador Rao Hongwei announced on Friday that Beijing would forgive $6 million of debt and provide a new $60 million grant to the government in Kigali as part of COVID-19 relief efforts. If the debt forgiveness ...
China-Africa Trade Held Up Last Year Despite the Pandemic
China's top diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, revealed the final two-way China-Africa trade figure for 2020 that came in at $187 billion. All things considered given the massive economic disruptions that occurred last year in both ...
Vaccines Are the New Currency of Geopolitics
It looks like reality is starting to sink in among U.S. and European leaders that their unwillingness/inability to lead the global vaccine relief effort is going to generate some unpleasant outcomes. Sure, G7 leaders said all of the right things at last Friday's virtual summit, where vaccine ...
China’s Low Profile Diplomacy in the Caribbean
China is steadily, albeit quietly, deepening its ties in the Caribbean region using many of the same techniques that it did in the early 2000s when it ramped up its engagement in Africa. The Chinese are buying more agriculture, building infrastructure, ...
At UN Security Council Meeting, Chinese FM Wang Yi Takes Aim at Wealthy Countries For Hoarding Vaccines
China is escalating its criticism of wealthy countries, predominantly in North America and Europe, for hoarding the world's supply of COVID-19 vaccines at the expense of developing nations in the Global South. Foreign Minister Wang Yi was unsparing yesterday at a virtual UN Security ...
Senegal’s First Batch of COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive From China
200,000 doses of vaccines arrived from China in the Senegalese capital Dakar late Wednesday night. This is the country's first batch of jabs, which cost $3.7 million to secure -- that's a pricey $19 per injection. Senegal is also scheduled to receive around 1.3 million doses from ...
China’s Vaccine Distribution by Region and Pharmaceutical Brand
It's interesting to note how China's vaccine distribution throughout the developing world also seems to align with the regions where China does the most trade. Southeast Asia is by far China's top trading partner in the Global South, MENA is obviously important for its oil ...
China Does a Victory Lap Over Its Promise to Make COVID-19 Vaccines Available as a “Global Public Good”
There's been a discernable change over the past week in China's messaging on vaccine distribution around the world. Both Chinese officials and state media are declaring they've made good on President Xi Jinping's promise to make vaccines a "global public good." ...
ASEAN, Not Africa is Becoming The Primary Venue for the U.S.-China Great Power Struggle
Three decades after the last Cold War ended, African leaders are understandably concerned they'll once again get swept up in great power rivalry, this time between the United States and China. But there's little indication that either Washington or Beijing has any plans to make Africa a ...