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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Nigerian Leaders Say Everything With China is “Sorted Out” Over What Happened in Guangzhou
Less than one week after the situation in Guangzhou erupted, two of Nigeria's top politicians moved as quickly as possible to put the issue to rest. Both Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeam and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila declared that they're satisfied with China's handling ...
African Leaders Declare Crisis in Guangzhou is “Sorted Out.” What Did We Learn?
Less than one week after alarming videos, photos and accounts of African migrants being forced out of their homes and hotels in the southern China city of Guangzhou, the story has been “sorted out” in the eyes of many ...
China May Be Patching Things Up With African Leaders Over What Happened in Guangzhou, But Persuading Everyone Else is Going to be Much More Difficult
While African foreign ministers and other high-ranking officials appear satisfied, at least publicly, with China's explanation for the forced evictions and other apparent maltreatment of African migrants in Guangzhou last week, vast portions of African civil society are not persuaded and feel quite bitter over the indignities ...
China Moves Quickly to Reassure Anxious African Governments that the Crisis in Guangzhou has been Resolved
For the second time in less than a week, Chinese ambassadors in Africa fanned out to foreign ministries across the continent, this time as part of Beijing's effort to reassure foreign ministers in various countries that the situation in Guangzhou has now been resolved and also to ...
The African Migrant Crisis in Guangzhou Emerges as New Point of Contention Between the U.S. and China
The United States government further escalated its denunciations of China for reported instances of discrimination and xenophobia against African migrants in Guangzhou. Washington's top diplomat for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy, posted his views on Monday and described the situation over the weekend in Guangzhou ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Moves to Calm Tensions With African Diplomats Over the Recent Crisis in Guangzhou
Diplomatic tensions between China and a number of African governments and institutions appear to have considerably following the crisis over the weekend in Guangzhou where African migrants and residents were forcibly removed from their homes and hotels. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang ...
A Western (read US) Role in What’s Happening in Guangzhou Emerges as a Key Chinese Message Point
One of the key themes to emerge from China's rebuttal to well-documented instances of maltreatment of African migrants in Guangzhou centers around the role that Western governments are playing to foment discord in China and in its ties with African countries. ...
An Unprecedented Rupture in China-Africa Relations
China-Africa relations face an unprecedented crisis after several days of evictions and maltreatment of African migrants by landlords and local authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Beginning late Thursday China time, photos, videos, and other accounts began to surface ...
China’s Response to the Crisis in Guangzhou is Missing One Critical Element: Emotion
The Chinese response to the ongoing crisis in Guangzhou has been dry, technical and, at times, defensive. What it's missing, though, is emotion and a recognition that something has gone wrong. Chinese stakeholders don't seem to fully understand that their old ...
Slow to Act at First, China Now Ramping Up Its Response to the Burgeoning Diplomatic Crisis
The Chinese government appears to have been caught off guard by the speed with which the diplomatic crisis ensued following the initial wave of evictions of African migrants from their homes/hotels in Guangzhou that began last Thursday. The first response came ...
Daily Nation Headline Highlights the Dramatic Change in China’s Narrative in Africa
By Saturday morning, the photos and videos that had dominated so much of the discussion on social media had made its way to mainstream press outlets in Africa, with dramatic headlines like this one in the popular Daily Nation newspaper. What's ...
Nigeria’s Speaker of the House Publishes Video Admonishing Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian About the Situation in Guangzhou
In a notable break with diplomatic protocol, Nigeria's Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, published a 2:20 minute excerpt of his meeting on Saturday with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian. Normally, when an ambassador is called by a host government to ...