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
Debt Trap? Nah, We’re Too Disorganized For Anything Like That Says China’s Chargé d’Affaires in Nigeria
China's Chargé d'Affaires in the embassy in Nigeria, Zhao Yong, provided an uncharacteristically frank rebuttal last week to the persistent accusations that Beijing is engaged in predatory lending in Nigeria and Africa writ large. In typical fashion, Zhao blamed the U.S. ...
How the World’s Great Powers Are Exacerbating the Security Crisis in the Sahel
Russia-MENA analyst and Oxford University PhD candidate Samuel Ramani argues in a compelling new article in Foreign Policy that a combination of narrow political agendas, unilateral actions and a bias towards supporting authoritarian governments by France, the U.S., Russia and China are all contributing to ...
Chinese Donation of Motorbikes Highlights Police-to-Police Ties With Lesotho
China's ambassador to the tiny landlocked southern African country of Lesotho led a handover ceremony last week of dozens of police motorbikes donated by China's Ministry of Public Security (China's domestic law enforcement agency). The donation highlights how so much of ...
From Politics to Tech: Lessons on China-Africa Engagement
Two podcasts of note this month, one about politics and the other focused on tech, provide some excellent insights on two very different aspects of Sino-African engagement. CSIS' INSIDE AFRICA PODCAST: "China's footprint in Africa extends beyond infrastructure projects and ...
New TV Ad Controversy With Anti-Black Racial Overtones Erupts
Star Wars star John Boyega resigned from his role as spokesperson for Jo Malone today after the British perfume brand replaced him with Liu Haoran, a popular Chinese actor, for the version of their TV commercial that was aired in Mainland China.
Africa’s Major Economies Sinking Under the Weight of Surging Debt, Reduced Trade, and Massive New Social Welfare Costs
The economic fundamentals in a growing number of Africa's major economies are showing signs of rapid deterioration amid the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly every week there's a new downgrade, analyst warning, or economic indicator that points to an increasingly dire situation ...
China’s New Ambassador to Kenya Makes the Rounds
Given China's extensive involvement in building transportation infrastructure in Kenya, it's not surprising that Chief Secretary James Macharia was high on the list of key cabinet stakeholders to meet, as the newly-arrived Chinese ambassador, Zhou Pingjiang, settles into his new role. ...
The Chinese Embassy in Harare Responds to Zimbabwe’s National Park Mining Ban
The Chinese embassy in Harare responded late last week to the Zimbabwean government's surprise decision to ban all mining activities in the country's five national parks and in most river beds. Although Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa did not mention China by name when announcing the ...
A New China-Ethiopia Venture is Now Producing COVID-19 Test Kits
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured a new Chinese-Ethiopian joint venture on Sunday that will be able to produce up to 10 million COVID-19 test kits per year. The new test kits will be used to help mitigate the spread of the virus domestically and will ...
More Unsubstantiated Reports of Chinese Troop Deployments to Africa
Longstanding fears of Chinese troop deployments to Namibia resurfaced last week when a legislator claimed, without evidence, that 3,500 Chinese soldiers are currently in the country. Defense Minister Peter Hafeni Vilho didn't help matters when he refused to comment on the ...
Chinese Port-building Along the BRI: “There’s a Lot More Than Meets the Eye”
Daniel R. Russel and Blake Berger, two scholars at the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute, have published a new report that looks at the broad security implications of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Although Chinese officials have long maintained that ...
Taiwan’s New Rep Office in Somaliland Opens Twitter Account
If you'd like to follow what's going on at Taiwan's newly-opened representative office in the Horn of Africa in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland, you can do so on their equally new Twitter account. Follow "Taiwan In Somaliland" ...