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: Fellows
Crude Deals or Clever Design? Unpacking China’s Resource-Backed Finance in Africa
It is not every day that a highway is paid for with barrels of oil. Yet in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, that is exactly how some of the region’s largest infrastructure projects are being financed. Instead of tapping their treasuries or issuing sovereign bonds, governments are ...
In Bolivia, China’s Lithium Extraction Plans Went to the Polls and Lost Badly
Bolivia’s presidential elections have thrown the future of its lithium sector into doubt — and the country’s relationship with China has gone along with it. The first round of voting in late August ended two decades of rule by leftist party Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), and now, ...
China–Central Asia Weekly Digest: Vocational Training, Cultural Centers & Governance Programs
This is a free preview of the upcoming China-Central Asia Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in late 2025. This week’s developments highlight how China is deepening its engagement with Central Asian societies through education, culture, and ...
China-Central Asia Weekly Digest: China Brings E-Commerce, EVs & Health Closer to Consumers
This is a free preview of the upcoming China-Central Asia Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in late 2025. This week's developments demonstrate China's expansion into consumer-facing sectors across Central Asia, moving beyond infrastructure projects into direct ...
China’s Belt and Road Recalibration: Why Kazakhstan is the New Metals Frontier
Despite widespread expectations that China’s engagement with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries would slow, recent data tells a different story. According to a new report from the Griffith Asia Institute, Chinese involvement in the 150 BRI countries surged in the first half of 2025, reaching ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Inside the Fine Print: Understanding Finance Contracts in Chinese-supported Power Projects
Every power plant begins long before a single shovel hits the ground. Before turbines are ordered, before concrete is poured, and well before the lights ever flicker on, a dense legal and financial architecture must first be assembled. For state-backed Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa, that ...
Beyond Cooperation: How China-CELAC Relations are Evolving
The 4th Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC (which stands for Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum closed with the unveiling of the 4th Joint Plan of Action for Cooperation in Key Areas (2025-2027). Since its formal establishment ten years ago, the Joint Plans of Action ...
How Beijing is Deepening Stakes in Kazakhstan’s Energy Value Chain
China’s growing presence in Kazakhstan’s energy sector marks a strategic evolution that extends far beyond traditional resource extraction. While Beijing has long focused on upstream oil and gas operations to secure energy supplies, recent agreements—particularly those emerging from the Second China–Central Asia Summit—point to a more comprehensive ...
Betting on Beijing: How a Diplomatic Switch Sank Honduras’s Shrimp Exports
In 2023, Honduras severed ties with Taiwan and recognized China, betting that access to one of the world’s largest markets would bring new prosperity. The move was hailed by President Xiomara Castro’s government as a strategic step toward bigger trade deals and deeper economic cooperation.
Bundles, Banks, and Builders: Inside China’s Finance Models for Power Projects in Africa
Building large-scale infrastructure requires more than engineering expertise. Just as critical is how the project is financed, how capital is raised, structured, and repaid. In Chinese-supported power projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, finance is often the entry point: the mechanism through which projects are proposed, evaluated, and ...
What Would a Grand Bargain Between China and the U.S. Mean for the Rest of Us?
The prevailing view among Chinese intellectuals is that U.S.-China strategic rivalry is structural and enduring. Yan Yilong, for instance, describes the competition as “not merely a disagreement between two sovereign states” but a “structural conflict between the great rejuvenation of ...
Amid Fuel Shortages, Cuba Looks to China for Energy Solutions
Cuba is in the middle of a profound energy crisis — and China sees an opening. As Havana struggles with crumbling infrastructure, dwindling oil imports, and a decades-long economic downturn, Beijing is stepping in to fill the void left by its traditional allies, Russia and Venezuela. The ...