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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Despite his reputation as brash, outspoken and confrontational, Lin Songtian, the former Chinese ambassador to South Africa, quietly left the country on Monday. His sudden departure is a bit surprising given the enormous role he played in shaping ...
Lin Songtian, China’s Brash Former Ambassador to South Africa Suddenly Returns Home
China’s most outspoken ambassador in Africa, Lin Songtian, abruptly left his post in South Africa yesterday just a few days after news had broke that he had been ordered back to China. Lin published ...
U.S. Conservative Media Now Fully Enraged About China’s Former Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian… And Maybe That’s All Part of the Plan
China's outspoken, charismatic ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, is reportedly preparing to leave the country today, according to a report by journalist Peter Fabricius in the Daily Maverick. In the report, Fabricius insinuated that ...
Chinese Embassy in Botswana Uses Facebook to Slam U.S. Over Failure to Deliver COVID-19 Donation
The Chinese embassy in Botswana has joined the growing chorus of Chinese diplomatic social media accounts in escalating anti-U.S. rhetoric. In a strongly-worded post published on the embassy's Facebook page, the mission alleged that none of the funds promised by the United States were ever sent to ...
Context Matters: No Matter How Much Good Press China’s Getting Over its COVID-19 Relief Efforts, the U.S. Far Outspends the Chinese in African Public Health
Popular Nigerian political commentator Onye Nkuzi (nom de plume) reminded his 155,000+ followers on Twitter that while China may be getting a lot of attention for its recent COVID-19 relief efforts, it's the United States that remains the dominant public health donor in ...
Why Jack Ma’s Donation is the Knock-Out Punch in the U.S.-China Soft Power Fight Over COVID-19 in Africa
Leaders across Africa, from Ethiopia to Rwanda, took to Twitter this weekend to express their appreciation to Chinese philanthropist Jack Ma for his massive donation of supplies to each African country in the fight to contain the spread of ...
Millions of Masks and COVID-19 Test Kits Donated by Alibaba’s Jack Ma Arrive in Africa
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the distribution of the millions of masks, testing kits and other medical supplies donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma will begin as early as today. The Boeing 777 Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane full of supplies ...
Life in Wuhan: An African Student Reflects on Months of Forced Isolation
Just as the rest of the world struggles to contain the highly-infectious COVID-19, China is now starting to emerge from its own battle with this deadly virus. Slowly, people are being allowed out of their homes and even returning to work. ...
China’s Aid Push and COVID-19 Revisionism Rankles the U.S.
The U.S. President and his supporters in conservative media are determined to link COVID-19 with China by insisting on referring to it as "Chinese" or "Wuhan virus" over the objections of the World Health Organization who work hard to avoid using locations or countries in the official ...
China Leveraging Its Deeply-embedded Media Ties in Africa to Tell its COVID-19 Aid Story
The Chinese government is leveraging its vast content distribution network in Africa to tell its story about its rapidly expanding anti-COVID-19 relief effort that's now underway. Articles written by Xinhua and other state-run media outlets are popping up across African news websites this week to showcase the ...
China Leveraging New Aid Push to “Flip the Script” on the COVID-19 Story Says China Scholar
The highly coordinated Chinese COVID-19 relief effort that is underway around the world is in part intended to provide badly-needed supplies to countries in need but also to shift the narrative about China's role in the entire COVID-19 saga. Now that ...
China Launches Massive Global COVID-19 Aid Campaign in Africa
Over the past several days China has rapidly escalated relief efforts in Africa and elsewhere around the world to help governments to contain the spread of COVID-19. Chinese state-run media outlets, official social media accounts and third-party media partners across Africa (see below) are flooded with stories ...