Category: Politics
European Analysts Become Increasingly Worried About Geopolitical Consequences of China’s Global Vaccine Push
European international relations scholars are expressing mounting concern over the long-term geopolitical consequences of China's assertive campaign to provide developing countries with COVID-19 vaccines. It's clear the European foreign policy establishment, both analysts and in the media, seem to regard Chinese ...
Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Erupts in South Africa After Chinese-Born ANC MP Sworn Into Office
Naturalized South African-citizen Xiaomei Havard's swearing-in last week to become an ANC member of parliament sparked a strong backlash online under the hashtags #SArejectsXiaomeiHavard and #PutSouthAfricansFirst. Havard was named to replace the late minister in the ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Washington’s China-Africa Groupthink
This week’s confirmation hearing for Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s to become the next United States ambassador to the United Nations provided a glimpse of how Africa might be dragged into growing tensions between the U.S. and China. Thomas-Greenfield faced hostile questioning about a speech she gave in 2019, ...
China’s Engagement in Africa Becomes Focal Point at Linda Thomas- Greenfield’s Confirmation Hearing to Become U.S. Envoy to the UN
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, came under criticism on Wednesday during her confirmation hearing, for a speech she made in 2019 at a now-closed Confucius Institute in Savannah, Georgia. Republican senators argued the speech was overly complimentary ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Testimony Reveals Gaping Holes in U.S. Understanding of Chinese Engagement in Africa
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked on several occasions to comment on how she perceives China's engagement in Africa. Remember that Thomas-Greenfield is ...
A New Piece of Equipment in Zambia Will “Help China Get Rid of Its Over-Reliance of Imported Australian Iron Ores”
An article in today's Global Times newspaper, one of China's more bombastic nationalist tabloids, provides a glimpse into how determined Chinese officials are to "decouple" their trade with Australia, especially in the hugely valuable iron sector. Sino-Australian relations deteriorated sharply in 2020 over disputes ...
African Media Didn’t Cover Xi Jinping’s World Economic Forum Speech, But They Probably Should Have
Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday delivered his first major international address since Joe Biden became president of the United States. Xi spoke remotely to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He touted China's success in battling COVID-19, reiterated his oft-stated support of multilateral institutions, and ...
What did Xi Jinping Really Say at Davos?
It’s fascinating to read Xi Jinping’s address to the World Economic Forum and then to read the comments about the speech. What U.S. commentators focus on, and what they ignore, reveal much about the challenges posed by China’s rise to established powers like the United States. The ...
China’s COVID-19 Vaccine Tussles
If Xi Jinping thought back in May when he promised to make Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines available to developing countries as a "public good" that it would be an easy soft power win, well, he may now be reconsidering that assumption. Sure, ...
India Moves to Challenge China’s Emerging Dominance in C19 Vaccine Distribution in Developing Countries
Developing countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas are now the new front in an increasingly contentious struggle between Asia's two continental powers. India and China, both pharmaceutical manufacturing powerhouses, are jostling over who will become the primary supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to many of the ...