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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The news that Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno sold tens of thousands of phones infected with malicious viruses between 2018 and 2019 is now a major international story. CNN, the BBC and dozens of African news outlets have been ...
Leading Environmental Protection NGO Responds to Ghana’s Controversial Decision to Re-License a Chinese Trawler
The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) responded this week to the Ghanaian government's controversial decision to renew the fishing license for the Chinese trawler Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956. The EJF's main point of contention is that Lu Rong Yuan Yu ...
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta Wants to Know What Happened to the Missing Jack Ma PPE Donations
Under mounting public pressure, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered an investigation into Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and its handling of the March 2020 PPE donations from the Jack Ma Foundation, amid allegations that they were illicitly sold, lost or wasted. The ...
China’s New Top Diplomat For Sub-Saharan Africa Lays Out His Agenda
China's former ambassador to Kenya and the new head of the African Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wu Peng, laid out his agenda in a recent column published in the state-run China Daily newspaper. There ...
China’s Soft Power Play in Africa: Rapid Industrial Development
The Chinese embassy in Cameroon posted a short, seemingly innocuous video today that commemorated 40 years of development in Shenzhen, a once-sleepy fishing town near Hong Kong that is now one of the world's leading tech hubs with a population of 13+ million people. ...
The Political Ramifications of China’s Reduced Appetite for African Oil
News that two of China's largest oil companies, Sinopec and CNPC, are going to scale down their presence in South Sudan provides the latest evidence of China's waning appetite for African oil. This isn't a new phenomenon. In fact, ...
China’s Ejiao Producers Are on a Quest for Africa’s Donkeys
In Africa it’s said that “if you don't have a donkey you become a donkey yourself”. A proverb that is becoming more relevant as China’s ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) producers look to the Continent for resources. Ejiao is a glue derived from ...
Transsion’s Transgressions in Africa
Transsion has long been the pride of China's private sector engagement in Africa. It's conquered the African mobile phone market by providing affordable devices that include a number of fantastic features customized specifically for local consumers. Its suite of brands including Tecno, ...
Tecno Dismisses Malware Allegations, Saying It’s Old News
The Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno is rebutting new accusations that its W2 phones came pre-installed with malware. In a statement sent to the Nigerian tech news website Silicon Nigeria on Tuesday, Tecno claimed that the Triada malware was first discovered in April 2018 ...
The COVID-19 PPE Donated by the Jack Ma Foundation Has Turned Into a Complete and Total Mess in Kenya
It's been six months since the first shipment of personal protective equipment and other materials donated by the Jack Ma Foundation arrived in Kenya and still, only 24 of the 81 infrared thermometers have been distributed, according to the Ministry of Health. ...
Protestors Rally Against Sinohydro for Polluting Water Supply in Eastern Kenya
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Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe Gets Into Media Spat Over the Return of a Controversial Diamond Mine
In a highly unusual move, the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe published a detailed rebuttal on the Bulawayo24.com website against allegations that they were involved in the return of the controversial Anjin diamond mine. The spat began on Sunday when ...