Author: Eric Olander
Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Global South Project (CAP), 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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Japan and the European Union signed a so-called "connectivity partnership" to build infrastructure and set development standards in joint projects around the world. While neither the agreement nor the leaders from either side mentioned China by name, it's widely believed that this deal is intended, in ...
The Blurry Lines Between Chinese Aid and Investment in Africa
For most countries, aid and investment are two entirely different things. Not with the Chinese, though, where until recently the country's aid programs were actually managed through the Ministry of Commerce. Because the Chinese have ...
Chinese Galamsey and the Illegal Lure of China’s Gold Rush
Some 50,000 Chinese migrants are said to have flocked to Ghana to stake a claim in the country’s illegal gold mining rush, with dire environmental, economic and social consequences. Ghana’s tradition of artisanal gold mining and the gold price boom ...
World Bank: China Sinks Further Into Debt While Investors Seem to Love Buying African Sovereign Bonds
On average, the external debt burden of low and middle-income countries remains moderate. The ratio of external debt to GNI averaged 26 percent at the end of 2018, unchanged from the prior year average, and the ratio of external debt-to-export earnings improved slightly.
Aubrey Hruby: Africa Already is a Battleground in the U.S.-China Trade War
Atlantic Council Africa Center senior fellow Aubrey Hruby explained in a recent interview at the Concordia Summit in New York that Africa is a new front in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war but nonetheless remains optimistic that some African countries are well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing ...
Why Chinese and U.S. Stakeholders Should Listen Carefully to What PLO Lumumba Has to Say
Kenyan law professor and former director of the anti-corruption commission Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba first came to the attention of a lot of China-watchers in Africa in 2018 when the Zambian government blocked him from entering the country. Lumumba had been scheduled to give a ...
Lingan University in Hong Kong to Offer Graduate Degree in China-Africa Studies
Lingan University in Hong Kong will offer one of the world's first graduate degrees in China-Africa studies. This one year program starts in the 2020 academic year and will be embedded within the international relations and feature a concentration in China-Africa studies.
Export, Employment, or Productivity? Chinese Investments in Ethiopia’s Leather and Leather Product Sectors
In a new working paper published on the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, prominent China-Africa professor Tang Xiaoyang from Tsinghua University in Beijing highlights the role of Chinese investments into the Ethiopian leather sector and offers key insights into the main ...
Understanding China’s Belt and Road Infrastructure Projects in Africa
David Dollar, senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, challenges a number of the prevailing themes common in US and European capitals about China's Belt and Road Initiative. In his paper, published on the Brookings website, Dollar addresses ...
We Focus a Lot of Attention on African Countries Involved in China’s BRI, But What About Those Who Aren’t?
40 out of 55 African countries are members of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) club, affording some of them preferential access to Chinese credit lines and infrastructure development spending. And for the most part, these forty countries tend to dominate the discussion about Africa's connection with ...
Huawei Cancels Mate 30 Pro Launch in South Africa
The latest indication that U.S. sanctions against Chinese telecom giant Huawei are having impact comes today from South Africa where the company announced that it will postpone the launch of one of its new flagship devices, the Mate 30 Pro. According ...
Survey: Favorable Views of China Fall in U.S., Europe and Canada but Rises in Africa & Middle East
It's probably not a surprise to most that public opinion of China fell sharply in North America and Western Europe due largely to trade disputes and the ongoing saga over the legal fate of Huawei CFO Meng Wenzhou who remains under house arrest in Vancouver while two ...