Category: Diplomacy
The Coming Sino-African Revolution
In this edition of the “China in Africa” podcast, Johannesburg-based blogger and academic Charlie Pistorius says the debate over whether Chinese investment in Africa is either good or bad is entirely irrelevant. Instead, one should evaluate the substantive outcome of China’s policies which will invariably produce a far more nuanced perspective. In a pair of ...
U.S. vs. Chinese Approaches to Aid in Africa
The idea for this new podcast series was born from the constant frustration of talking with Western “development experts,” diplomats and aid workers in Africa. In every instance, Westerners were either strikingly ignorant of Chinese engagement there or summarily dismissed the Chinese presence in Africa as “counter productive” because China ...
China in Africa: the BBC’s Annoying Interview of Liu Guijin
It’s not often that senior Chinese officials make themselves available for interviews with the international media, especially in English. So when I first heard that the BBC World Service’s “Business Today” radio program was to interview Beijing’s top diplomat on African Affairs Ambassador Liu ...
Rant: China Might Want to Consider Soft Power Too
By any measure China’s awe inspiring embrace of Africa is impressive. Let’s put aside the staggering financial statistics on how many billions of dollars Beijing is spreading across the continent or even the scale of its natural resource haul. Honestly, there is no comparison ...
The West’s Tragic Blindspot in Africa
I have been living in Kinshasa for almost three weeks now and since I landed here I’ve been asked countless times what I find the most interesting/bizarre/unusual about life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For me, the answer is clear. It’s not the vibrancy of Congolese culture, how ...