In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...
Category: Environment
How Chinese Takeout Bags Became Africa’s Street-Style Hit
Chinese social media spotted a quirky trend in African cities like Nairobi. Sturdy, brightly printed Chinese takeout bags, the kind you get from a hotpot chain or milk tea shop, are showing up everywhere. These are not souvenirs from China. They sell for over a dollar ...
Zambian Government Tries to Calm Fears Over Contaminated Water From Chinese Mine Disaster
The Zambian government is seeking to reassure the public that municipal water supplies in communities along the Kafue River are still safe, even though recent tests detected excessive levels of heavy metals following a major environmental disaster at a Chinese-owned copper mine six months ago.
Zambian Documentary Slams Chinese Companies’ Environmental Record; Embassy Responds, Accuses Producers of “Hidden Motive”
The Chinese embassy in Zambia denounced an hour-long documentary program made by the independent national daily newspaper News Diggers that detailed extensive environmental and labor violations committed by Chinese mining companies operating in the country.
Can China and Indonesia Help Save the World’s Rainforests?
Tropical forests around the world are vanishing fast. Logging, mining, and industrial agriculture continue to raze the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, accelerating the climate crisis and displacing the people who have protected these forests for generations. Efforts to halt deforestation have largely failed—not because the science is ...
Grassroots Diplomacy in Dairi: How a Small Indonesian Community is Challenging China’s Zinc Ambitions
The sounds of mining machinery in the highlands of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have fallen silent — not due to proactive government intervention or seamless regulatory enforcement, but because of relentless grassroots resistance. A controversial mining project in the Bukit Barisan ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
ASEAN, Gulf, and China Signal New Phase in Global South Climate Leadership
For decades, global climate action has been largely shaped by the Global North—through frameworks like the Paris Agreement and funding mechanisms such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P). These initiatives have set the tone, the goals, and the financial flows, often leaving countries in the Global ...
Europe’s Green Mining Regulations May Push Africa Closer to China
While Europe’s environmental policy to limit carbon emissions is well-meaning and aims to fight climate change, it could actually make things worse for Africa. Instead of helping the continent to develop its industries, EU policy might instead give China more control over access to valuable mineral resources, ...
China Lead Mine Plan Weighs Heavily on Myanmar Tribe
Hundreds of protesting Myanmar tribespeople march up a hillside to a cavernous facility where a Chinese joint venture's giant milling machines stand ready to grind up the rocks of their ancestral homeland for lead ore. Demand for the heavy metal is ...
China-Africa Critical Minerals Update: Clean Up in Zambia, Disputes in the DR Congo
In Zambia, efforts to clean up a massive acid spill from a Chinese-owned mine have been met with skepticism, despite government assurances. Officials claim restitution is underway and rehabilitation plans are in place, but activists question the fairness of compensation and ...
China Offers Pacific Islands Climate, Development Cooperation
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi focused on climate change and development cooperation during the China-Pacific Islands Forum ministerial meeting that took place on 28 and 29 May in Xiamen, Fujian Province. It was the first in-person event since its launch in 2021. It included senior officials from ...
Nigeria Backtracks Solar Import Ban Amid China’s Supply Dominance
Nigeria recently floated, and then quickly walked back, a proposed ban on imported solar panels, most of which come from China. The about-face came just a month after the initial announcement, stirring familiar concerns about policy volatility in Nigeria and across Africa. But beneath ...
A Greener Footprint? Decoding China’s New ESG Standards for Global Projects
China’s domestic and overseas projects may soon become significantly greener. A groundbreaking new law — the Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards: Basic Guidelines — marks a potential turning point, provided it is fully implemented and enforced. The new ESG disclosure rules represent ...