Author: Eric Olander
Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Global South Project (CAP), 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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The Plunge in Chinese Overseas Lending is a Big Deal. It’s a REALLY Big Deal.
Recent findings by Boston University's Global Development Policy Center that China's two largest policy banks, China Exim Bank and the China Development Bank, sharply curtailed their lending from $75 billion in 2016 to just $4 billion, was a stunning surprise. Long ...
New Database Provides Fresh Insights Into Chinese Lending Practices Around the World
Yesterday's Financial Times headline that "China's overseas lending collapses" dominated the news about Boston University's pioneering new database that tracks lending by two of China's largest policy banks, China Exim Bank and the China Development Bank.
Reaction to New Data That Reveals “Chinese Overseas Lending Collapse”
Findings from Boston University's new database on Chinese development finance patterns that revealed a "collapse" of overseas lending sparked a lot of conversation online yesterday from leading development economists in the U.S. and Europe. The general consensus among the experts was ...
Peking University Professor: Chinese Loan Losses in Asia and Africa Reinforce Painful Lessons Learned in Venezuela
The following is a transcript of a nine-part Twitter thread posted by the prominent China economist Michael Pettis, a professor at Peking University. As I have been writing since 2011, China’s development lending was always likely to follow the ...
China Strikes Financing Deal With Iraq, Providing New Clue to How Beijing Deals With Major Oil Supplying Countries
The Chinese government is reportedly coming to the rescue of the financially stressed Iraqi government with a $2 billion cash payment for a year's worth of oil at current market prices. The five-year agreement, as reported by Bloomberg, provides fresh insights into how China ...
Morocco to Use Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine as a Part of a Nationwide Vaccination Campaign
The Moroccan government announced that it plans to embark on a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign that will initially use Chinese-made vaccines even before they've completed advanced trials. King Mohammed VI instructed the government to make the vaccine free, according to a ...
Chinese State Media Refutes Erroneous Taiwan Report About Vaccinated Chinese Workers in Uganda Contracting COVID-19
China's state-run Global Times newspaper took aim at an erroneous report published on the Taipei-based news website Taiwan News that 47 Chinese workers who contracted COVID-19 last week in Uganda had previously been vaccinated with a Chinese C19 vaccine. ...
Who Exactly is the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria Trying to Reach With a Tweet Like This?
It's apparent that the social media managers in various Chinese embassies across Africa are still not entirely clear on how to best use Twitter to engage a large audience of local constituents. The Chinese embassy in Liberia posts Tweets in Chinese?!?!? ...
Africa’s Newest Chinese-Financed and Constructed Railway Begins Operating in Nigeria
The newest Chinese-built railway in Africa is now officially in service following a Tweet on Monday from the office of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari that launched the new Lagos to Ibadan line. The $1.59 billion standard gauge railway was
With Chinese Loans Coming Due, Ethio-Djibouti Railway Suffers Heavy Losses Due to Theft, Vandalism
The Chinese-financed and constructed Ethiopia-Djibouti standard gauge railway is bleeding money due to rampant theft and vandalism, according to a report in the Addis Standard newspaper. The situation is now so bad, say company officials, that the trains have been forced to reduce their speed ...
China’s Growing Influence in the Middle East and North Africa
China's presence in the Middle East North Africa region has been steadily rising over the past 25 years and is now entering a new, more complex phase that extends beyond commercial ties to also include potential security implications, writes Afshin Molavi, a senior fellow at ...
Analysts Weigh What Role China Should Play in the Biden Administration’s Africa Policy
With 43 days to go before Joe Biden assumes power in Washington, D.C., analysts in the U.S. are weighing in with suggested foreign policy priorities for the incoming administration. Some are proposing bold moves like the U.S. coordinating with China on ...