Reflections on the legacy of Jiang Zemin, China’s president from 1993 to 2003, who passed away on Wednesday, emphasized how he presided over a decade of explosive economic growth. Fewer have pointed out that he was also a key architect of China’s current relationship with Africa.
After the Mao era, emblematized by Chinese involvement in African anti-colonial struggles, the relationship went dormant as China focused on building economic ties ...
Category: Finance
Letter to the Editor: A Critique of 金中夏’s (“Chinese Summer in Finance”) Views on Chinese Debt in Africa
Dear China-Global South Project Editors, I read the China-Global South Daily Brief of 8 November 2022 and came across the paper by Jin Zhongxia whose name 金中夏prompted the title of this letter to the editor. I, of course, agree with ...
Q&A: Why Provinces, Not the Government in Beijing, Are Becoming the New Force in China-Africa Trade
China's engagement in Africa in the modern era is undergoing an important transition as the central government in Beijing, once the exclusive driver of this relationship, is stepping back to cede more space to provincial, municipal, and other so-called "sub-national actors" to facilitate trade and pioneer new ...
Billion Dollar Infrastructure Fund Reveals China’s New Development Finance Priorities and Tactics
The Chinese government is leveraging private capital to bolster its infrastructure development finance agenda in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. The China Exim Bank, one of China's two main policy banks, announced this week that it teamed ...
China’s Paid-In Capital on the Rise – Here’s What to Know
By Oyintarelado Moses and Laura Gormley Since 2007, Chinese special investment funds targeting overseas development projects have been on the rise. These funds are pools of capital established by multiple public and/or private shareholders that primarily provide equity financing to projects ...
How Host Country Policies are Driving Chinese Finance for Renewables
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary The Egyptian government, host of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), has dubbed this meeting the “implementation COP.” For many developing countries, international finance is a key enabler that allows ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Jiang Zemin Created the Africa-China Relationship As We Know It Today
People’s Bank of China Exec Blames Debtor Countries for Transparency Issues
As controversy swirls over the role of Chinese lenders in successive Global South debt crises, China is still getting used to its new role as a global financier. This was one of the takeaways from a revealing speech by Jin Zhongxia, ...
Loan Revelations Spark New Confusion Over Whether Kenya’s Port of Mombasa Can Be Seized by China
There is renewed anxiety in Kenya over whether the Port the Mombasa is at risk of being seized by Chinese creditors in the event that the government fails to repay the loan for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
China-based Development Bank to Ramp Up Lending by $10 Billion a Year
While China's two major policy banks have pulled hard on the reins to curtail development financing in the Global South, the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is going in the opposite direction. AIIB's President Jin Liqun told ...
China’s Share of Nigeria’s Public Debt Now Stands at 3.8%, According to New Government Data
Nigeria's Debt Management Office (DMO) released updated figures this week on the country's ballooning public debt. The country's lending jumped by more than $3 billion in the three-month period from March to June. It now stands at $103.31 billion. ...
World Bank: China’s COVID-19 Restrictions Contributes to Africa’s Economic Woes
The World Bank issued a sobering economic forecast for Africa on Wednesday, warning of a sharp slowdown in growth due to the multiple global crises that are disproportionately impacting the continent. Rising inflation, food insecurity, higher interest rates in advanced economies and widening inequality exacerbated by the ...