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.
Related Posts
China’s C19 Vaccine Propaganda Campaign: “Who’s Helping Countries in Africa, Asia, The Caribbean, Asia?”
Chinese state media outlets are ramping up a propaganda campaign against so-called "vaccine nationalism" and findings that Chinese-made vaccines are much less effective than those made in the U.S. and Europe (which is actually the case). The effort started in earnest ...
Joe Biden’s Getting a Lot of Advice on How To Reset U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa and It All Calls for Less Focus on China
Scholars, analysts, and commentators in the U.S. and Africa are all offering lots of advice for what Joe Biden should to do to revitalize foreign policy in Africa. Seemingly without exception, the experts agree that Washington urgently needs to shift the focus away from China and towards ...
Despite Lots of M&A Activity in the Cobalt Mining Sector, Chinese Imports of the Precious Metal Fell Sharply in 2020
Chinese cobalt imports fell 41.8% last year compared to the volumes shipped from the DRC in 2019, according to the mining news website Argus Media. The lockdowns in response to COVID-19 at the mines in the DRC and at South African ports, from where the precious metal ...
Senegalese and Chinese Officials Meet to Plan This Year’s Upcoming China-Africa Summit
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Deng Li and the Senegalese President's Chief Foreign Affairs Adviser Dunbar Ba met virtually on Friday to discuss plans for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit that will be held sometime later this year in Dakar. Precisely ...
The Plunge in China’s Overseas Lending
Getting a loan from one of China's two largest policy banks is significantly more difficult than it was just a couple of years ago. According to data from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, lending by the China Development Bank and ...
Kenya, China Agree to $245 Million Debt Deferral Deal
China and Kenya have agreed to a six-month debt repayment holiday worth $245 million. Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani announced the deal during a radio interview on Wednesday when he said the deferral "will give us an opportunity and break on the kind of liquidity ...
Brazil is Running Low on Chinese Vaccine Supplies Prompting Concerns Beijing May Be Playing Politics
Brazil is running out of its supply of the Chinese-made CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccines and apparently, Beijing hasn't approved the shipment of ingredients needed to make more. Only 6 million doses out of a 46 million dose order have arrived and those stocks are ...
With the U.S. Likely to Focus Less Attention on China in Africa, Kenya’s Free Trade Deal Now in Question
Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter stopped by the State House on Wednesday to meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta (photo). McCarter, a Trump political appointee, will soon be leaving his post now that a new administration has taken power in Washington, D.C. ...
The UK Invests More in Africa Than Either the U.S. or China
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was among the featured guests at Wednesday's online Africa Investment Conference organized by the UK Department for International Trade. The conference was a follow-up to last year's UK-Africa Investment Summit that took place in London. One ...
“I Can Be 100% Congolese and 100% Chinese” Social Media Star Zhong Feifei Tells Teen Vogue
Chinese-Congolese social media influencer, model, and aspiring pop star Zhong Feifei got a break this week when the hugely popular publication Teen Vogue profiled her and featured a Q&A: TV: You have a mixed ancestry of both Chinese and Congolese, what was ...
Donald Trump’s Spectacular Failure in Africa
At the sunset of the Trump administration, it's worth reflecting on all that went wrong with its Africa policy and specifically the oft-stated effort to contain China's rise on the continent. There's really no other way to describe it other than to say that it was a ...
Looking for Clues as to How the New U.S. Government Will Approach China’s Engagement in Africa
The incoming national security and diplomatic leads who will oversee Africa policy for the new Biden administration appear poised to take U.S. foreign policy towards the continent in a much more moderate direction. President Joe Biden and his team will assume ...