Is China’s “Engineering State” the New Development Model for the Global South?

China’s rapid ascent from rural poverty to industrial superpower reshaped the global economy and established a new center of gravity for manufacturing. Today, Chinese factories anchor much of the world’s supply chains, producing goods at a speed and scale that few ...

Why China’s Ability to Make a $6 Toaster is a Big Problem for the Global South

China is breaking the rules of development. Typically, as countries progress up the value chain, they transition from agriculture to light industry, then to heavy industry, and ultimately to high-technology and services. And as they move up the value chain, this ...

China’s Evolution from “Rules Taker” to “Rules Maker” in Development Finance

As China’s economic influence expands, so does its ambition to shape the very system that once constrained it. In this episode of The China-Global South Podcast, Eric speaks with Greg Chin and Kevin Gallagher from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center about 

“1001 Days of Pouring Concrete in Africa”: A Chinese Engineer’s Memoir Sparks Debate Online

A recently published memoir titled 《在非洲打灰的1001天:一个现代化的故事》 (“1001 Days of Pouring Concrete in Africa: A Modernization Story”) has ignited widespread discussion on Chinese social media.  The author, Cao Fengze, holds a PhD in civil engineering from Tsinghua University and previously served ...

Trade Wars and Active Non-Alignment

“I don’t recall any U.S. company visiting me during my two-and-a-half years of government”, former president Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador recently told the Financial Times, adding, “Meanwhile, Chinese companies were visiting me almost on a daily basis”. Lasso, a conservative millionaire businessman who ruled Ecuador from 2021 ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Looking Beyond “Useful Africa” at the Mining Indaba

With U.S.-South Africa ties in the deep freeze, it was notable to see the sheer size of the U.S. delegation sent to this week’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town – one of the most prominent industry gatherings and one of the few where the Global South gets a prominent voice.
The Trump administration’s famous Afrophobia seems (momentarily at least) tempered by its greed for minerals. It is reportedly walking ...

Why the U.S. is Struggling to Compete in the Global Competition for Critical Resources

U.S. officials have spoken at length about the urgent need to end their country's dependency on China for the critical resources needed to power next-generation mobility and technology. Part of the solution, they say, is ...

Westlessness: A New Era Where the West Still Matters, Just Not as Much

Chinese President Xi Jinping has long touted the East's rise and the West's decline, the kind of thinking that's triggered his supporters to fantasize about a post-Western geopolitical order. While it's indisputable that U.S. and European countries, which ...

Author Jeremy Garlick on China’s Strategic Advantage in the Global South

U.S. and European officials often lament that they've fallen behind China when it comes to engaging Africa, Asia, the Americas, and other developing regions. Western governments aren't set up to rapidly deploy the kind of money and resources that Beijing's done ...

Noo Saro-Wiwa on “Black Ghosts” in China and the Complex Lives of the African Diaspora

Author Noo Saro-Wiwa had not spent much time in China when she heard that cities like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Yiwu, among others, were home to large, vibrant African migrant communities. But other than some of the headlines about the diaspora ...

The Case for More U.S. Soft Power to Counter China in the Global South

China is one of the very few truly bipartisan issues in Washington today where there is near unanimous consensus that the U.S. must work to counter Beijing's growing influence around the world, especially in developing countries.

What China’s Past Tells Us About the Future of its Foreign Policy in Asia

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim both wrapped up state visits to China last week and their discussions with President Xi Jinping revealed some fascinating linkages between contemporary Chinese foreign policy objectives and Beijing's historical ...

Latin America Was Once an Afterthought for China… Not Anymore

In just the past twenty years, China's trade with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean surged 26-fold to almost half-a-trillion dollars. The region is also now a major destination for Chinese foreign investment and becoming a critically important new front ...
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