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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A Desire to Move the Guangzhou Narrative Beyond Polarization
While African social media, Nigeria's legislature, and media outlets across the continent boil with rage over the reports of maltreatment and discrimination against Africans in China, some Chinese commenters are calling for more nuance in the debate. The fact that these ...
Prominent Africa Scholar in China Says COVID-19 & Guangzhou Provides Opportunity for Chinese and Africans to “Reflect on How We View Each Other”
In a subtle yet important recognition of the burgeoning chasm between Chinese and African civil societies, one of China's most prominent Africa scholars, Dr. Liu Haifang from Beijing University, called on scholars and other researchers to step back from the various crises that have recently shaken the ...
Reflections on a Decade of Chinese Agricultural Engagement in Mozambique
It’s almost common knowledge that China is one of the main development partners of African countries. Like the other economic powerhouses of the world, China is implementing China-Africa partnerships, where, currently, the more visible interventions are related to infrastructure projects. ...
Video Released of This Week’s Police Raid of Alleged Illegal Chinese Gold Mining Operation in Nigeria
There's new video available that shows Nigerian authorities in Zamfara state raiding the home of two Chinese nationals who allegedly ran an illegal gold mining operation. They were arrested and have been transferred to a detention facility in Abuja. Authorities say ...
Outspoken Kenyan MP Warns China: We Can Do to Your People What You Did to Ours
Kenyan MP Babu Owino issued a stark warning to the Chinese government this week during a press conference in Nairobi where he condemned the reported recent maltreatment and discrimination against Kenyans and other Africans in Guangzhou. "To the Chinese government," he said, ...
Nigeria’s Unprecedented Censure of China
The Nigerian House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a series of motions on Wednesday that condemned the "maltreatment & institutional racial discrimination against Nigerians living in China." The motion was brought to the floor by Representative Benjamin Kalu from the southern region of Bende who made an impassioned ...
A Progress Report by the UN’s Vera Songwe on the Status of African Debt Relief
Economic conditions in a number of African countries are worsening by the day. Lockdowns and a plummet in global commodity prices brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to severe economic repercussions across the continent.
A Ugandan State-Owned Newspaper Issues Correction Over Taiwan
The state-owned New Vision newspaper in Uganda issued a correction on Tuesday for referring to Tsai Ing-wen as the "President of Taiwan," rather than how China describes her role: as the "leader of the Taiwan Region."
African Celebrities, Billionaires, Activists, and Students All Speak Out on Current Challenges in the China-Africa Relationship
In the immediate aftermath of the crisis in Guangzhou, the discourse over what happened was dominated by political leaders, official spokespeople on all sides, and state-run media outlets. Civil society stakeholders, for the most part, were not as vocal. Now, that's all changed and a wide cross-section ...
On Their First Day Back in Session, Nigeria’s House of Representatives Put Chinese Immigrants on the Agenda
On their first day back from a five-week recess, Nigeria's House of Representatives did not waste any time in addressing the still-simmering issue of the treatment of Nigerians and other Africans by Chinese authorities in Guangzhou. These legislators are still angry over how the situation unfolded and ...
Report: Workers at a Private Chinese Mining Company in Zimbabwe Blinded From “Dodgy” COVID-19 Tests, Embassy Responds Defensively
The Chinese embassy in Harare is confronting a new public relations crisis related to a reportedly private Chinese gold mining company in Zimbabwe that allegedly used sub-standard COVID-19 testing equipment that injured, even blinded, an unknown number of local workers, according to the news ...
Fact-Checking The Claim That Chinese Medical Aid Received in Ghana Has Been Contaminated With COVID-19
Fake news and other rumors started to circulate widely on Ghanaian social media this month claiming that imported personal protective equipment from China was infected with COVID-19: “As long as they allowed materials from china which contains COVID-19 the number of ...