China’s Vice President Han Zheng addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Along with retreads of established Chinese positions on Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Israel/Palestine conflict, his comments also provided interesting clues about China’s messaging to the Global South.
First, he called on the international community to “follow the direction of a multipolar world” with the UN at its center. I wonder how opinion within Beijing’s inner circles breaks down around the bipolarity/multipolarity issue, considering ...
Category: Development
Chinese Contractor Pledges to Complete Nigerian Capital’s Light Rail in Eight Months
The local head of Chinese construction major CCECC, Jason Zheng, pledged that it would only take eight months to build the once-abandoned light rail in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Zheng made the promise during a meeting last week with Nigerian Vice ...
Climate Change Dilemma: How Can the Global South Get Rich from Their Own Minerals?
This week, the Democratic Republic of Congo convened its inaugural DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum in Kinshasa. Under the theme “Creating Wealth for the DRC and Africa’s Battery Metals Industry Value Chain,” the event tackles an issue that has preoccupied many Global South countries. Considering that everyone wants their minerals, ...
Coups in the Sahel: Where China, U.S., and EU Should Work Together
Niger's coup leaders have been unfazed by military threats and economic blockade of food and medicine by neighboring countries and have not returned to their barracks. The unfolding coup is the latest event in ongoing chaos across the Sahel. Sudan fights a civil war, jihadism menaces the ...
Chinese Debt Servicing Costs Surge for Angola and Uganda
Debt servicing costs have been steadily rising across Africa, largely due to the falling value of local currencies that are used to repay dollar-denominated loans. But in Angola and Uganda, interest payments to Chinese creditors have jumped considerably in recent months ...
China Calls for Africa-Focused Reform of the UN Security Council
On Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an expansive statement titled “Proposal of the People's Republic of China on the Reform and Development of Global Governance.” According to FM spokesperson Mao Ning, the timing is aimed at informing discussions ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Unpacking Han Zheng’s Messaging to the Global South at the UN General Assembly
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Arrived in Beijing on a High-Speed Train
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived in Beijing on Tuesday in a rather unusual manner for a visiting head of state. Rather than fly into Beijing's sprawling Capital Airport on the outskirts of the city, Maduro traveled aboard one of China's newest and ...
Forget About Everything Else, Hichilema’s in China to Resolve Zambia’s Still Unfinished Debt Restructuring Deal
Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema is spending much of this week visiting Chinese business hubs in Shenzhen and Shanghai, but the real focus of this trip will be dealt with later in Beijing, where he will tackle the sensitive issue of debt. ...
Proposed India-Middle East-Europe Trade Route Could Take India-China Rivalry to Israel
Few people have been as enthusiastic about the announcement of an ambitious proposed trade corridor linking India and Greece via Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Israel as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, who is facing ongoing protests against controversial ...
BRI @ 10: Lessons From Cambodia About Chinese Investment
China's Belt and Road Initiative marked its 10th anniversary this month, prompting a lot of discussion about what's next for Beijing's controversial development agenda. While BRI spending in Africa and the Americas has plummeted in recent years that is not the ...
China Thinks New India-Mideast-Europe Railway Announced at G20 is Really About China
The Chinese Communist Party is not impressed with the "historic" announcement made at the G20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday that aims to build a vast multi-modal transportation corridor linking India to Europe via the Middle East. The new railway, according ...