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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Zimbabwe To Get Chinese C19 Vaccines, Says Ambassador. When? Well, That’s TBD.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin's inclusion of Zimbabwe in a list of 14 developing countries that would have early access to Chinese COVID-19 vaccines was reaffirmed by Beijing's envoy to Harare on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the announcement caused quite a bit of excitement in ...
China and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area: What Role For Beijing?
The January launch of the AfCFTA has prompted considerable reflection in both China and Africa as to what role Beijing can play in this new free trade era and whether China's role will be harmful or helpful. Predictably, Chinese commentators are ...
With a 30:1 Trade Imbalance, Some Wonder How Mauritius Could Ever Benefit From a Free Trade Agreement With China
There was a lot of excitement on January 1st when China's first free trade agreement went into effect with Mauritius, Beijing's first FTA with a country in sub-Saharan Africa. But just a month later many observers are growing concerned about a ...
China Launches Full-Scale Media Blitz in Africa to Counter Mounting U.S-European Pressure on Xinjiang
China's propaganda strategists launched a full-scale campaign in print, broadcast and social media to rebut allegations of genocide and widespread human rights violations in Xinjiang. The effort is especially noticeable in Africa where over the past 24 hours, Chinese diplomatic ...
Ethiopia’s Appeal For Debt Relief Puts China’s Loan Portfolio Under the Spotlight
Ten months ago, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was the first African leader to sound the alarm over the debt crisis that would ensue from the then-nascent outbreak of COVID-19. African economies, he warned face an "existential threat" from the combined effects of an unprecedented ...
With Its Chinese Parent Company on the Verge of Bankruptcy, the Fate of Ghana’s Africa World Airlines Looks Grim
The future of Ghana's largest airline is up in the air now that its parent, Hainan-based HNA Group, has effectively buckled under the weight of almost $100 billion of debt and widespread reports of embezzlement.
China Brushes Aside Criticism of Its Vaccine Distribution, Says Its Fulfilling President Xi Jinping’s Promise to Make Jabs a “Global Public Good”
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin parried any critique of Beijing's vaccine distribution drive around the world, especially in developing countries, with an indirect diss against rivals in the United States and Europe. "We act on our words," he said at yesterday's regular press ...
Lots of Hot Button, Emotional Issues Help Explain the Widespread Anger to Xiaomei Havard’s Appointment as ANC MP in South Africa’s Parliament
There's widespread anger on and offline in South Africa over the appointment of Xiaomei Havard, a naturalized South African citizen of Chinese descent, as a member of parliament. She was sworn in last Wednesday which sparked almost immediate outrage. ...
Lessons From ASEAN on How Africa Can Better Manage Ties With China
While Chinese engagement in Africa is a relatively new phenomenon, dating back around 20 years now, countries in Southeast Asia have millennia of experience in managing ties with Beijing. Today, the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian ...
Vaccines and the Changing International Order
The Chief Reporter for Germany's state broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Miodrag Soric, can't believe what he's seeing. China is turning the battle for access to COVID-19 vaccines into a tremendous soft power win in the Global South -- and they're doing it at the expense of the West!
From Africa to Asia to the Americas and Even Europe, Countries Scramble for Chinese-Made COVID-19 Vaccines
Countries across the Global South and now even in Europe scrambled this weekend to source COVID-19 vaccines from pretty much anywhere they could buy them -- which in many cases brought them to China's doorstep. Amid widespread shortages, the European Union ...
European Analysts Become Increasingly Worried About Geopolitical Consequences of China’s Global Vaccine Push
European international relations scholars are expressing mounting concern over the long-term geopolitical consequences of China's assertive campaign to provide developing countries with COVID-19 vaccines. It's clear the European foreign policy establishment, both analysts and in the media, seem to regard Chinese ...