Related Posts

Chinese Social Media Mocks India’s ‘Semiconductor’ Stock Mania

Chinese social media has been buzzing with disbelief and humor over India’s latest stock market frenzy, RRP Semiconductor Ltd., a company whose skyrocketing stock is almost entirely divorced from its real operations. The share price of RRP Semiconductor has surged by an eye-popping 55,000 percent over ...

Bangladesh’s Eurofighter Move Is To Counter India’s Rafales, Not a Break With China

Bangladesh’s air force has quietly moved closer to acquiring one of Europe’s most advanced fighter jets. In recent days, Bangladesh and Italy’s Leonardo signed a letter of intent in Dhaka for the purchase of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. While neither side disclosed numbers or pricing, outside estimates based ...

Beyond the Scams Narrative, Chinese Entrepreneurs Bet on Cambodia

Cambodia is often portrayed in Chinese media as a place defined by gambling, fraud, and danger, but for a growing number of Chinese investors, it represents a blue-ocean market at an early stage of industrialization. A Caijing magazine feature examines ...

Thailand’s Resumed Border Strikes on Cambodia Highlight Limits of U.S. Pressure, Chinese Scholars Say

Thailand and Cambodia signed a joint peace declaration at the ASEAN summit in late October, aimed at ending long-standing border disputes. Yet, less than two months later, Thai forces launched strikes on casinos and hotels in Cambodia, reportedly linked to cross-border online fraud. Experts in China

Automakers Seem the Target in Mexico–China Tariffs, but Small Exporters Take the Hardest Hit

Most media coverage of Mexico’s new tariffs on Chinese goods has zeroed in on the obvious visible targets: automakers and auto parts, where duties climb as high as 50 percent. These sectors are capital-intensive, politically sensitive, and easy to frame as symbols of shifting trade policy.

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke

When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...

Kidnapping of Chinese Influencer in South Africa Sparks Alarm Over “High-Profile Travel”

A kidnapping in South Africa has sent shockwaves through China’s internet, not only because a Chinese traveler was violently targeted, but because the scheme appears to have been orchestrated with help from a Chinese national. The victim, a top travel influencer with more than 26 million ...

Chile’s Rightward Shift Signals New Risks for China in Latin America, Chinese Commentator Says

As vote totals came in over the weekend in Chile's presidential run-off election, Chinese social media began to anticipate what José Antonia Kast's victory could mean for China. A WeChat account focusing on international affairs tried to analyze how Kast’s ...

Inside the Himalayas’ Last Living Trade Route

A recent in-depth feature published on the Guangzhou-based renowned newspaper Southern Weekly takes readers into Purang (Burang) on Tibet’s remote Ali Plateau, a tri-border junction between China, Nepal, and India, where one of the Himalayas’ oldest trading systems is still alive. And timing matters: 2026 will ...

U.S. Mineral-Driven Intervention in Congo Creates Fragile Peace, Chinese Commentator Says

As the United States inserted itself into Congo’s decades-long conflict, a Chinese WeChat commentator dissects the real motivations behind Washington’s diplomacy and why the so-called peace may be more fragile than it seems.  Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President ...

Kenya Sees a Third Wave of Chinese Investment, Led This Time by Shandong

Over more than a decade in Kenya, the popular WeChat commentator Xiao Nie  “小聂说事儿,” witnessed three waves of Chinese investment. The first came from Guangdong and Fujian, who are small-scale commodity traders. The second was led by Zhejiang entrepreneurs in manufacturing, wholesale, and e-commerce, followed by a ...

Why Argentina Is Turning to China’s Natural-Gas Buses in an Age of EV

Argentina recently committed $45 million to purchase 150 natural-gas buses from China’s King Long, a move that may seem counterintuitive to readers accustomed to seeing Latin American cities embrace full electrification. But an article on a WeChat public account focused on Latin America’s economy explains that ...

As Conflict Escalates in Eastern Congo, China’s Mining Giants Confront New Risks Far From the Front Lines

In late November, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a stark warning about the Democratic Republic of Congo: the security situation in the east has deteriorated sharply, with armed clashes, extremist activity and attacks against foreign workers rising again. Congo sits at the ...
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