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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Chinese State Media Gloats About Survey Results That Show China is More Popular Than the U.S. in MENA
Chinese state media outlets this weekend touted the findings of a recent Arab Barometer public opinion survey released in January, which showed much higher approval ratings for China compared to the United States. The survey in six Middle East and North ...
Pay-TV Giant StarTimes Increasingly Becomes Vehicle for Official Chinese Propaganda
The Beijing-based African pay-TV giant StarTimes announced last week it will broadcast a government-produced TV series that, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, "seeks to boost Sino-Africa relations." This is the latest move by the ...
Webinar: China’s Becoming Increasingly Sophisticated In Its Use of Media to Drive Its Narrative
The Berlin-based think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) recently hosted a webinar that focused on how Chinese government actors are becoming increasingly effective in their use of media to drive their agendas in both Europe and Africa. The ...
Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Erupts in South Africa After Chinese-Born ANC MP Sworn Into Office
Naturalized South African-citizen Xiaomei Havard's swearing-in last week to become an ANC member of parliament sparked a strong backlash online under the hashtags #SArejectsXiaomeiHavard and #PutSouthAfricansFirst. Havard was named to replace the late minister in the ...
Tanzania’s Relationship Status With China: It’s Complicated
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's January visit to Tanzania highlighted the East African country's growing importance to Beijing. It's a strategically located Belt and Road country that has the potential to serve as a major gateway to inland regional markets along ...
China’s Engagement in Africa Becomes Focal Point at Linda Thomas- Greenfield’s Confirmation Hearing to Become U.S. Envoy to the UN
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, came under criticism on Wednesday during her confirmation hearing, for a speech she made in 2019 at a now-closed Confucius Institute in Savannah, Georgia. Republican senators argued the speech was overly complimentary ...
If/When Two Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Get Approval From WHO, Demand From Developing Countries Likely to Increase
Two Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinopharm and Sinovac are now under evaluation by the World Health Organization to receive the highly prized prequalification (PQ) status. If the Chinese vaccines do receive WHO PQ certification, that could open up vast new ...
Black Market Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines Poses a Significant Threat to China’s Vaccine Push in Developing Countries
News that Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were smuggled into the Philippines sparked concern around the world that the already thriving black market trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals will inevitably extend to the coronavirus vaccine. Lebogang Mokoena, a columnist for the South ...
Chinese State Media Isn’t Taking Vaccine Criticism Very Well
Questions about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines and whether China and India have engaged in a form of "vaccine rivalry" really seem to have gotten under the skin of China's bombastic national tabloid Global Times. In fact, they seem downright hurt by the critiques and seem to ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Testimony Reveals Gaping Holes in U.S. Understanding of Chinese Engagement in Africa
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked on several occasions to comment on how she perceives China's engagement in Africa. Remember that Thomas-Greenfield is ...
Desperate to Source COVID Vaccines, Developing Countries Jostle to Buy Chinese Jabs
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gave voice yesterday to the growing concern in developing countries about wealthy states hoarding COVID-19 vaccines. In his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Ramaphosa accused rich countries of acquiring as much as four times the ...
A New Piece of Equipment in Zambia Will “Help China Get Rid of Its Over-Reliance of Imported Australian Iron Ores”
An article in today's Global Times newspaper, one of China's more bombastic nationalist tabloids, provides a glimpse into how determined Chinese officials are to "decouple" their trade with Australia, especially in the hugely valuable iron sector. Sino-Australian relations deteriorated sharply in 2020 over disputes ...