Category: Politics

Two senior-level Chinese diplomats in Africa are speaking out against U.S.-led accusations that Beijing engages in predatory lending on the continent, or "debt trap" diplomacy. In separate appearances, Chu Maoming, the consul general in Lagos, Nigeria, and Li Nan, the deputy chief of mission (DCM) at the ...

China's newly-appointed ambassador to Ethiopia Zhao Zhiyuan will take up his new post in Addis Ababa soon where he will replace Tan Jian who left his post last month in what was described as a regular rotation. But Zhao comes to ...

Since a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or a so-called "cooperation agreement" is not legally binding, many U.S. and European stakeholders often shrug when China announces that it's signed one of these agreements with countries along its Belt and Road Initiative. That's ...

Is unrelenting grimness more palatable if it is also instructive? Africa's current debt crisis will soon provide an answer. The continent's slide into debt distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been very revealing of Africa's position in the world. Despite ...

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian pointedly rejected accusations that Beijing is not doing enough to help alleviate the worsening debt crisis in Africa. Speaking to reporters at the ministry's regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday, Zhao refuted the suggestion that China is ...

African countries were once again pulled into a bitter dispute last week at the United Nations between China and a coalition largely made up by the U.S. Germany and other European countries over human rights conditions in Xinjiang. For the second ...

The rapidly deteriorating financial crisis in Lebanon provides a grim preview to other developing countries of what happens when the bottom falls out of an economy. After the government defaulted on its debt last spring, conditions spiraled downwards to the point where 

United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is in Africa this week, his first visit to the continent as defense chief, in a trip that's aimed in part to push back against increased Chinese and Russian military influence in the region. ...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday amended its promise to provide a future COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries with the introduction of the phrase "at a fair and reasonable price." Prior to this, there had been no mention of any cost. ...

Chinese officials from Xi Jinping down have been clear about their intention to make any future COVID-19 vaccine available to Africa and other developing regions. "China will make its COVID-19 vaccine a global public good when it is ready for application after successful research and ...

The recent announcement that Zambia will default on several of its Eurobond notes, and the indication from ratings agencies that several other African countries are in similar danger are just the latest indicators of how the economic crisis kicked off by the pandemic is impacting African economies.  ...

Debt relief for developing countries is emerging as the latest front in China's rapidly escalating confrontation with the U.S, European countries, and Japan. Finance ministers from many of those countries, representing the Group of 7 (G7), met on Friday to discuss debt relief initiatives for ...