Reflections on the legacy of Jiang Zemin, China’s president from 1993 to 2003, who passed away on Wednesday, emphasized how he presided over a decade of explosive economic growth. Fewer have pointed out that he was also a key architect of China’s current relationship with Africa.
After the Mao era, emblematized by Chinese involvement in African anti-colonial struggles, the relationship went dormant as China focused on building economic ties ...
Category: B3W
B3W 2.0: The $600 Billion “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment”
G7 leaders unveiled their latest effort to challenge China's Belt and Road Initiative with the announcement of the "Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)." The new plan was revealed on Sunday at the leaders' summit in Germany and included pledges to raise $600 billion ...
Happy Birthday, B3W! We Have Some Questions.
Very few noticed, but June 12 saw an important milestone: the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative. The plan drew on two kinds of connectivity. First, it was linked with Biden’s ...
The Only Way is South
Earlier this week, we highlighted a tweet from the Africa News journalist Ronald Kato: “Can safely argue at this point that the recent EU-Africa summit was a waste of time. The Global Gway is dead.”
China Opens Door to B3W Cooperation
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi surprised commentators on Monday by saying that China might be willing to cooperate on the United States-led Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative. Wang was speaking at a ceremony commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Shanghai Communiqué, the Nixon-era agreement which normalized U.S.-China relations. ...
China, Africa and the War in Ukraine
With the Russian military now moving on Ukraine, the consequences of Europe's latest war are being felt around the world. Asian markets fell sharply today while oil prices shot up, crossing the $100 mark for the first time in seven years. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Jiang Zemin Created the Africa-China Relationship As We Know It Today
The Global Gateway’s Real Challenge
With the EU-AU summit kicking off later this week in Brussels, I’ve been fielding questions from several journalists. They all kick off with one question: will the EU’s Global Gateway supplant the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa? In answering with a ...
Beijing Feels Egypt’s Administrative Capital Will Prove China’s Winning the Global South Infrastructure Game
Chinese media appears to be increasingly concerned about the emergence of new competitors to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly the U.S.-led Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, which is now gaining momentum. U.S. officials say around 50 projects have ...
China Dismisses the White House’s B3W Plan
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was asked to comment on Tuesday about the news that the U.S. plans to launch its Build Back Better World global infrastructure program in January. The B3W is ostensibly intended to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative.
U.S. Hints at January Launch For Build Back Better World Initiative That Aims to Challenge China’s Belt and Road
An unnamed senior U.S. official told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration is planning to announce the launch of its Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative as soon as January and that West Africa will be among the key priorities for what's ...
If B3W is Supposed to Rally “Like-Minded Democracies” to Confront China in the Global South, Then the U.S. Has a Big Problem
Building a coalition of "like-minded democracies" to challenge China's Belt and Road Initiative in developing countries was a founding principle of U.S. President Joe Biden's Build Back Better World initiative when he unveiled the plan over the summer at the G7 summit in ...