After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...
Category: Research
How China Really Secures Its Loans to Developing Countries
The "debt trap" meme claims that China is intentionally lending vast sums of money to poor developing countries in Africa, and elsewhere, with the express intent to seize physical assets in those countries when they inevitably can't repay their debts.
The Evolution of China-Africa Research and Where It’s Headed
A new generation of scholars is reshaping China-Africa research. More geographically diverse and digitally fluent than the field’s early pioneers of the 2000s, this cohort brings fresh perspectives and tools to the study of China’s engagement on the continent.
Startup in Malawi Bets on Chinese Tech to Power an EV Shift
For years, Malawi, the world’s fourth-poorest country, has suffered from chronic fuel shortages. However, in a sunbaked workshop on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe, a team of local electric vehicle (EV) technicians is working to overcome this anomaly. Huddled around ...
Model Meets Reality: The Africa–China Export Forecast That Delivered
In an era where economic uncertainty often renders forecasts obsolete before they materialize, Africa’s export performance to China between 2022 and 2026 stands out as a compelling exception. Projections that I made together with Professor Reon Matemane, an associate professor at the University of Pretoria, in ...
Tracking China’s Dominance of the Transition Minerals Trade
U.S. and European leaders often talk about the importance of building China-free supply chains for transition minerals and other critical resources. While, for a lot of people, that may resonate among their constituents at home, the reality is that it's not ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Tracking Chinese Mineral Engagement Along the Belt and Road
China’s centrality in the global critical minerals sector is frequently bemoaned in Western capitals, but what’s less understood is how China got there. A new report by AidData, a research center at the College of William and Mary, came out this week and tracks mineral-related deals ...
Discontent Shadows Kenya’s Biggest Chinese-Funded Solar Power Project
Although the community initially agreed to the plant and were paid for their land, Abdi says that without the other promised benefits, they now regret their decision.
New IMF Report Takes the Pulse of Rapidly Changing China-Africa Economic Trends
Talks are underway between African and Chinese negotiators over the agenda for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that will take place later this year in Beijing. But this year's FOCAC is going to be very different than previous ...
Drawing in the Relational Net of Influence & Power
By Felix Brender 王哲謙 With analysts ruminating over the rise of China for the past decades, we have seen a more recent trend among the Western academy that attempts to see what China wants and does through a Chinese lens and perhaps ...
DRC Ex-Prez Gets PhD Focusing on China
A PhD dissertation by Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been approved by South Africa’s University of Johannesburg. Kabila was a key architect of the controversial Sicomines deal. His dissertation title is "Geopolitical Turn: USA-China-Russia Rivalry and Implications for ...
China’s Maritime Research Has Military Role: Report
The government of Sri Lanka announced in early January that it is imposing a one-year ban on Chinese research vessels docking at its ports. Last year, Colombo got into a spat with India about allowing a Chinese ship to dock amid Indian fears about military surveillance.
From Promise to Practice? Analyzing China’s Overseas Energy Finance and Opportunities for a Greener Horizon
By Cecilia Springer As the world grapples with the climate crisis, China's role in financing global energy projects has come under intense scrutiny. And while China has financed significant amounts of fossil fuel energy ...