Category: Politics

The United States threw a wrench into the selection process for the World Trade Organization's next Director-General when it moved on Wednesday to block the appointment of Nigerian-American Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to support its preferred candidate Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea's trade minister. Washington's stated ...

The President of the self-declared state of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, met with Taiwan's envoy to Hargeisa this week for talks. Back in Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen took note of the meeting and retweeted a photo of the two officials bumping shoulders.

Oxford University Russia scholar Samuel Ramani is closely following Algeria's recent talks with the U.S., China and Russia and observed that Washington is making much headway in discouraging Algiers from distancing itself from its two rivals. Ramani regularly comments on Russia-China-Africa issues ...

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, declared this week that 2021 is going to be “the Africa year for the European Union!”  Yes, this is the same Josep Borrell who back in March 

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian called out the United States for its role in maintaining international sanctions on Zimbabwe, especially during the pandemic. "The few countries and organizations, such as the United States, should lift illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe as soon as possible," 

Opposition National Democratic Congress presidential candidate John Mahama scolded the government for releasing Chinese nationals caught engaging in illegal artisanal mining (locally known as galamsey) while locking up locals for doing the same thing. “Our youth have been imprisoned for their involvement in ...

As per usual, the articles published by the wider Mediterranean region’s media offer interesting insights into how China is perceived. Among the most valuable ones, we found commentaries published in Iran that further shed light on the local perception of the much-discussed new cooperation agreement between Beijing ...

Earlier this month, the Nigerian opposition politician Peter Obi delivered the 60th Founder’s Day lecture at the University of Nigeria. In his talk he took a swipe at the incumbent government’s handling of the current economic crisis, saying that instead of taking loans from China, Nigeria ...

In 2019, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, and Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba, visited several African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Ethiopia, where they met and interacted with African tech-Savvy youths.  The two ‘Jacks’ represent two different paradigms of technology, ...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian faced questions yesterday by a Bloomberg reporter as to whether Beijing would do more to help alleviate investor concerns over the lack of transparency of China's loans to Zambia.  Zhao echoed a brief comment published on ...

There's an enormous disconnect between how the Chinese are approaching the debt crisis in poor countries and the expectations of the world's legacy donors. People like World Bank President David Malpass seem befuddled as to why China is not fully supporting ...

It was mostly overshadowed by the debt crisis in places like Zambia, but last week saw a major milestone in China-Africa relations. It was the twentieth anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). In some ways, FOCAC kicked off a sea change in Africa’s position in ...