Anyone who knows a South African will be amply aware that the country is currently undergoing economically ruinous rolling blackouts labeled ‘loadshedding.’ Even if you don’t know them, South Africans are liable to follow you down the street, foam-flecked and shouting about Eskom, the corruption-addled state power utility.
The loadshedding scandal is rooted in corruption. It’s only the most visible part of a historical tragedy: how the ruling African National Congress ...
Category: Iran
The SCO Reaches the Mediterranean
By Leonardo Bruni Iran joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has led to a flurry of analyses from across the wider Mediterranean. Divergent perspectives emerge between foreign media coverage, which emphasize international security implications, and what domestic Iranian media reports that ...
China’s About to Buy a Lot More Russian Oil and That’s Bad News for Iran
Iran's once steady business of selling large quantities of oil to China's independent refineries may soon become the latest casualty of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. For years, China provided Iran a vital cash flow by supplying the Chinese with
Republican Senators Find New Reason to Hate the Iran Nuclear Deal… China
Conservative Republicans in the U.S. Senate are well-known for their disdain for Iran. They're also equally opposed to the Communist Party of China. So, it's a no-brainer then to combine the two into a single piece of legislation. Tennessee Senator Marsha ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: Assessing the Impact of the Chinese Defense Minister’s Recent Visit to Iran
We start this issue of the ChinaMed Observer reporting on the visit to Iran made by the Chinese Minister of Defence, Wei Fenghe. During the visit on April 27th Wei met with several high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, Minister of Defense General Mohammad-Reza Gharayi ...
With FOCAC Now Over, Chinese FM Wang Yi Turns His Attention to China’s Forum With LatAm and the Caribbean
Within days of the conclusion of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Dakar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pivoted to focus on a similar ministerial forum with his counterparts from Latin America and the Caribbean. Wang last Friday chaired the third Ministers' Meeting of the Forum of ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
A Chinese Giant’s Complicity in South Africa’s Corruption Disaster
The China-Mediterranean Observer: Exploring the Ramifications of Iran’s Membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
We start this issue of the ChinaMed Observer with the new developments in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). On September 17, during the SCO Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Iran’s permanent membership in the organization was finalized. Many Iranian politicians and experts have voiced enthusiastic opinions of ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: Mixed Feelings in Iran and China About Strategic Cooperation Deal
We start this issue of the ChinaMed Observer with the debate in Iranian media over the signing of the Iran-China 25-year Cooperation Program. In this regard, Abolfazl Olamayifar, Director of the China Desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the pages of the economic newspaper Donya-ye ...
Why the New China-Iran Agreement Isn’t a Big Deal
Depending on who you speak with, the 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) agreement between China and Iran either marks the emergence of a new "axis of evil" that's going to overturn the balance of power in the Middle East or it's ...
China’s Embrace of Iran is Making Israel Very Nervous
Israeli politicians and foreign policy analysts are becoming increasingly alarmed over China's burgeoning ties with Iran, particularly after the signing of a 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement between Beijing and Tehran. But Israel's in a tough bind -- on the one ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: Everyone’s Calculating the Impact of the China-Iran Deal
Unsurprisingly, among the noteworthy events that took place this month, the media of the wider Mediterranean region focused on the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Middle East in late March. Although there are concerns over the impact on the region from the rising ...