Category: Politics
New Report Examines China’s Expanding Role in Multilateral Development Banks
China is increasingly turning to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to pursue its geopolitical agenda and promote alternate norms of global governance, according to a new report published on Wednesday by the London-based Overseas Development Institute. The report by Chris ...
Three Years Since Ghana Signed That Big Bauxite-For-Infrastructure Deal With China and Not One Road Has Been Built Yet
A fierce debate broke out this week in Ghana over the status of the 2018 bauxite-for-infrastructure deal with China and the fact that three years later, not a single road has been built. Opposition MP Cassiel Ato Forson, the ...
Tshisekedi Was the Only African Head of State That Got an Audience With Blinken, China Not on the Agenda
Senior U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, were surprisingly averse to meeting with African heads of state who were in the United States last week for the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York. ...
CCP Quietly Bolsters Ties With Africa’s Ruling Parties
The Secretary of Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement Party, Richard Todwong, took part in a seminar on Saturday organized by the Chinese Communist Party that is part of a broader effort by the CCP to further strengthen its ties with ruling parties across the continent.
Ethiopia, China and the Future of African Conflict
Ethiopia is giving us a glimpse of a set of dynamics that could come to shape African life in complicated ways. Last week, the Biden administration announced new sanctions aimed at reducing violence in the Tigray region, where conflict between the forces of President Abiy Ahmed and ...
Is China Exporting Authoritarianism Around the World?
The Chinese and U.S. Presidents spoke on the same day this week at the United Nations General Assembly with each offering a different vision for the future. Joe Biden challenged critics who contend that democracy is in retreat while Xi Jinping ...
China is Stepping Up Its Opposition to Proposed U.S. Sanctions Against Ethiopia
The Chinese government on Wednesday issued its most forceful denunciation to date against proposed U.S. sanctions on Ethiopia for the war in Tigray. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said possible U.S. measures against Ethiopian officials involved in the conflict is a "wanton exertion ...
Biden Touts B3W Developing World Infrastructure Plan in UN Address
Joe Biden didn't say the word "China" once in his sweeping, half-hour-long address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, his first as U.S. president, but confronting Beijing nonetheless emerged as a key theme. On issues ranging from COVID vaccine distribution ...
It’s Time For a More Nuanced Discussion About China
Recently, I caught up by phone with a long-time Chinese friend. The conversation started off friendly enough but soon veered into a heated debate after he accused me of turning from pro-China to anti-China. I met my Chinese friend while I was working at the Chinese embassy’s ...
Our Haunted Moment
Today we’re featuring a fascinating conversation with the Congolese analyst Christian-Geraud Neema Byamungu about recent developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In case you haven’t been following this story, the last few ...
Update on the China-DR Congo Mining Contracts Dispute
After months of negative media coverage, Chinese mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are pushing back against the perception they aren't fulfilling their contractual obligations to provide social services and build infrastructure for the local communities where they ...
Chinese Stakeholders in the DR Congo Go On the Offensive in a Bid To Change the Narrative
Chinese mining interests in the DR Congo are now pushing back aggressively against the perception that they are unfairly exploit Congo's natural resources through unfair contracts, avoiding taxes, and not fulfilling corporate social responsibility commitments. The companies, many of which are ...