Category: Diplomacy
Why the U.S. Shouldn’t Be Surprised About China’s Close Ties With DRC Mining Companies
U.S. officials in Washington and Kinshasa are apparently disappointed, according to a new investigation by the Paris-based Africa Intelligence, that they’ve failed to dislodge China from its dominance of the Congolese mining industry, particularly in strategically important metals like cobalt.
What Did Speculation About Xi’s Fictitious Trip to Saudi Arabia Tell Us About China’s Broader Mideast Strategy
By Leonardo Bruni Earlier this month, the internet was rife with speculation that Xi Jinping would soon break his more than two-year-long hiatus from overseas travel to visit Saudi Arabia. Although the visit did not take place, the media buzz surrounding ...
Why Zainab Usman is Cautiously Optimistic About the New U.S. Policy For Africa
While U.S. officials have said for years that it's important for Washington to focus on Africa and step up its engagement across the board, there's been very little in the way of action. But this time, Zainab Usman, the director of ...
There’s New Impetus in the U.S. To Get China Out of the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain. It Won’t Be Easy.
The electric vehicle battery start-up SPARKZ announced this week that it will build a new 4.5-hectare factory in the rural U.S. state of West Virginia. The new facility will employ 350 workers, mostly former coal miners, in what will become a critical test for Washington's desire ...
China’s Top Diplomat For Africa Leads Discussion on Infrastructure Development in Southern Africa
The African Union's representative office in Beijing co-hosted a roundtable discussion this week on Chinese infrastructure development in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). China's top diplomat for Africa, Wu Peng (center top), delivered the keynote address for the virtual event, ...
China Appoints Veteran Diplomat to Senior Africa Role
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian announced on Wednesday that veteran Chinese diplomat Liu Yuxi will replace Beijing's outgoing Special Representative on African Affairs, Xu Jinghu. Liu assumes the role with more than 30 years of ...
There’s a Creeping Sense Last Week’s Japan’s Africa Summit Was Kind of Underwhelming
The post-mortems of last week's Tokyo International Conference on African Development are starting to come in and the reviews, at least from some in the Japanese media, are not very encouraging. One of Japan's main news agencies, Jiji, said the event ...
Date for CCP’s 20th Party Congress Set, What Developing Countries Should Expect in the Meantime
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced an earlier-than-expected date for its highly anticipated 20th Party Congress when President Xi Jinping will be appointed to an unprecedented third term in office. The Party's Central Committee said the once-every-five-year gathering ...
India Ramps Up Language on Taiwan as Tensions with China Rise
India has accused China of the ‘militarization of Taiwan Straits.’ The tweet, issued by the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka, is a marked escalation of the combative language between the two and from India’s relatively muted response when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in early ...
Fox News Blames Biden for China in the Solomon Islands
U.S. concerns about Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands have crossed a notable rhetorical red line: it is now a talking point on Fox News. This turns it from an obscure geopolitical spat to a topic in the mainstream Republican-Democrat culture war. Fox hosted the Republican insider Newt Gingrich ...
South African Anti-Foreigner Campaign Targets Chinese
The worrying escalation of xenophobia in South Africa is reportedly now hitting the country's Chinese community. Under the banner of Operation Dudula ('force out' in isiZulu), protesters marched to the China City mall in Johannesburg to protest the presence of foreigners, whom the movement blames for crime ...
China’s Xinjiang Messaging to the Global South in Action
Diplomats from African and Asian countries are currently on a Chinese government-organized tour of the Xinjiang region. Official Twitter accounts and the Chinese state press provide a glimpse of these diplomats' role in Chinese counter-messaging operations amid ongoing controversy over the mass incarceration of ...