Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Category: Academia
It’s Getting Tougher for African Students to Get a PhD in China
Thousands of African students are back in class again in China following a three-year absence due to the pandemic and Beijing's strict COVID Zero travel restrictions. But doctoral students from Africa and elsewhere are confronting ...
Debunking Propaganda in the Debate Over “Western Private Creditor” Debt in Africa
In this short piece, I will use statistical data extracted from the World Bank's online database. The figures I will use here are for Africa as a whole, i.e. sub-Saharan Africa (the one most often referred to when talking about "African" debt) and North Africa. Figures are for the ...
What’s Driving the Steady Decline in Chinese Overseas Development Lending?
There was a time when Chinese lending to developing countries rivaled the World Bank. Those days are now long gone as Chinese overseas development lending has been on a steady downward trajectory.
Why Chinese Lending to Pacific Island Countries Has Steadily Declined in Recent Years
Chinese lending to Pacific Island Countries (PICs) is now at its lowest level in 15 years, according to new data published by the Australian think tank Lowy Institute. The findings may come as a surprise, given China's heightened diplomatic and security ...
Fresh Data on How China Affects African Jobs
Job creation is one of the most important issues in Africa-China relations. Two fascinating recent research articles give different takes on how engagement with China affects African development. The first focuses on the controversial issue of the importation of Chinese workers ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
How Africa-China Studies Exploded Since 2012
The SSRC report is its first mapping of the Africa-China field since 2012 and shows the field’s rapid expansion. Ten years ago, it found three key subfields in Africa-China studies: trade and aid; the role of multilateral institutions, and migration. By ...
The Sprawling World of Asia-China Studies
SSRC’s mapping of research on the relationship between China and Southeast, Central, South and Western Asia shows both how vast these fields are and how they differ significantly both in terms of research focus and method. More than in Africa and ...
It’s China, Not Africa That Could be Facing a Debt Trap: Report
At 12% of Africa’s total external debt, China didn’t cause the current wave of debt distress hitting the continent. But the crisis presents Beijing with a dilemma: should it strongarm these countries to get its money back or trade economic losses for diplomatic gains? ...
China’s Growing Influence in West Africa
As former colonial powers like France and the United Kingdom lose their relevance in West Africa, the region is pivoting to China. This trend comes as China’s own confidence in West Africa is growing, despite relatively slow engagement compared to other parts of the ...
How Does Local Agency Fit into Africa-China Negotiations?
In the first of a three-webinar series, the Le Collectif pour le Renouveau Africain (CORA) brought together a group of leading African analysts and scholars to discuss local agency in Africa-China negotiations. The panelists and discussants analyzed the extent of agency exercised by local actors in Chinese-funded infrastructure ...