Category: Politics
Nigeria’s Twitter Ban & China’s Cyber Cultural Products
June’s been an eventful month for China, Africa, and the internet. On June 5th, Nigeria’s government suspended the use of Twitter in the country, indefinitely. The next day, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism reported that the Nigerian government had also reached out to the Cyberspace Administration ...
Leading Development Experts Try to Decipher the B3W and Whether It Can Present a Viable Alternative to China’s BRI
There's been a lot of discussion since the Group of 7 countries announced the creation of the new Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative. It is nominally intended to help developing countries build badly-needed infrastructure. But B3W also includes an underlying political objective: presenting an alternative, some ...
CCP Awards Highest Honor to Veteran Diplomat Who Designed Chinese Policy in Africa
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) awarded its highest honor to veteran diplomat Liu Guijin for his four decades of diplomatic work in Africa. In his role as CCP General Secretary, Xi Jinping on Tuesday gave Liu the Order of July the First medal.
The Diplomat’s Shannon Tiezzi on China and the Global South
While China's ties with Europe, the U.S., Japan, and other wealthy northern countries steadily worsen, Beijing is leaning harder on its relations with states in the Global South. The importance of those ties was on full display over the past week ...
U.S. Leaders Now Seem to Think They’re Finally Well Positioned to Take on China’s Belt & Road
"The Build Back Better World Partnership Could Finally Break the Belt and Road" screamed the headline on the Foreign Policy website today, giving voice to the newfound sense of confidence in the DC policy universe that after years of flailing, the U.S. is finally in a space ...
6 Reasons Why Africa Likes China
A U.S. and European observers often wonder why African leaders have so thoroughly embraced engagement with China despite warnings of predatory lending, cyber espionage and so forth. In many policy circles, there's genuine confusion as to why the Western offer isn't more appealing and largely unable to ...
Policy Brief: China Now Among Key Factors Complicating U.S. Foreign Policy in the Sahel
The growing presence of "malign Chinese and Russian activities and influence" is one of three key factors complicating U.S. foreign policy in the Sahel Region of Africa, according to a new policy brief from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. ...
Nigerian House Representative Endorses Chinese-Style Social Media Regulation
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is getting support from his ruling party allies in the House of Representatives to further the crackdown on social media and introduce even stricter "Chinese-style" regulations. "In China, social media is being regulated and such a thing ...
China’s Xinjiang Coalition Holds as Not a Single African or Muslim Majority Country Signs New Human Rights Statement
China's hard work in compelling African, Middle Eastern, and most other Global South countries to avoid criticizing Beijing on human rights issues in Xinjiang appears to be paying off. On Tuesday, Canada along with 43 other countries submitted a joint statement to the United ...
South Africa Pharmaceutical Regulator Says It Won’t Be Bullied Into Approving Chinese and Russian Vaccines
Officials from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) say they will not be bullied or intimidated to approve Chinese or Russian COVID-19 vaccines. The South African government is coming under mounting criticism for its failures to provide sufficient vaccines ...
Why the Neocolonialism Story Will Never Die
The revelation of what appears to be massive illegal Chinese gold mining and logging operations in rural Sierra Leone could open a contentious new front in Africa-China conversations. Or more accurately, it could revivify one of the ur-themes underlying the whole relationship: the idea that China is a ...
As Much as China Probably Wants to Shift Its Iron Ore Buys From Australia to Africa, It Won’t Happen Soon
There's been a lot of discussion over the past year about China's desire to eliminate its dependence on Australian iron ore in favour of supplies from countries like Guinea, Algeria, South Africa and Brazil among others. China has been steadily trying ...