Category: Politics

Coverage of the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Bali was dominated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's high-profile exit from the meeting and the first encounter since October between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. But the event also saw a flurry of Chinese diplomatic ...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged China and members of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to collectively pressure the military government in Myanmar to return to democracy. "It is incumbent on China and in China's interest to see ...

Zambia appears to be edging closer to a debt restructuring deal with its official creditors. Insiders tell Reuters it could happen sometime in July. Some sort of arrangement between the Zambian government and the Franco-Chinese-led Creditor Committee would be a major breakthrough. ...

China's most senior diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa announced that Special Representative on African Affairs, Xu Jinghu, has kicked off an 8-nation African tour. The Foreign Ministry hasn't provided any information about her visit besides the itinerary (thanks to this map). Prominent Africa-China ...

The United States government on Wednesday imposed new sanctions against Iranian oil companies and the network of firms that help facilitate the flow of Iranian crude to markets in East Asia, specifically China. Every year, millions of barrels of oil are effectively ...

The Algerian military is reportedly in talks with China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) to purchase four of the company's WJ-700 Falcon armed reconnaissance drones, according to Algerian press reports. Algiers hopes the drones will help improve the air power balance ...

Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) released grim new data this week that highlights the acute problems confronting developing countries with large Chinese trade deficits and debts, both of which increased substantially: TRADE: The country’s trade deficit with China surged ...

The imminent handover of the newly-built Zimbabwe parliament building that was almost entirely paid for by the Chinese government has prompted a lively debate online about China's so-called "Palace Diplomacy" in Africa. Opinions about the new hall in Harare were largely split between ...

When President Xi Jinping announced China's Global Development Initiative (GDI) in September, the response among Western observers was muted.   Not so in China, where scholars see the GDI and its sibling, the Global Security Initiative, as the new step in China's global influence. ...

Big things are happening in the world, but don’t expect me to tell you what they are.  Like many South Africans, I’ve been a little distracted these days. The country’s notorious electricity situation has worsened to blackouts three times a ...

The past 4-5 days have been especially busy for Chinese diplomacy in Africa and Asia. This outreach included the first time that President Xi Jinping left Beijing since the pandemic began almost 900 days ago. Although technically still within China, President Xi's visit to Hong ...

A consortium of Chinese entrepreneurs based in Angola recently signed an agreement to build an electric power generation facility in the small Congolese city of Kenge, 269 kilometers west of the capital Kinshasa, according to Radio Okapi. Not much is known about ...