Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Category: Travel
Chinese Tourist Flight Given Hero’s Welcome in Cambodia
In a sign of how eager Southeast Asian countries are to welcome back Chinese visitors, the first flight from China since outbound travel resumed was given a ceremonial welcome when it landed on Tuesday in the Cambodian capital Phenom Penh. Cambodia ...
China’s Highly Selective Retribution Against Countries That Impose COVID Tests
The Chinese government on Tuesday stopped issuing short-term visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan in retaliation against COVID tests both countries imposed on Chinese visitors. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the testing requirement for Chinese nationals "unacceptable" and "unscientific."
Chinese Arrivals Feted at Bangkok Airport
In a striking demonstration of how central Chinese tourism is to Southeast Asian economies, travelers arriving from a reopening China were literally applauded as they disembarked in Bangkok this week.
APSONIC Is Another Chinese Company That You’ve Probably Never Heard but That’s Absolutely Crushing It in Africa
A Chinese maker of motorcycles is quietly cornering the African market. While Apsonic isn’t famous, the Guangzhou company has built up an impressive presence in West Africa, after setting up shop in Togo in 2003. Now its products are buzzing through ...
Morocco Students Plead to Go Back to School… in China
Around a thousand Moroccan university students who started their studies in China but haven't been able to return since the beginning of the pandemic are pleading with the Chinese government to let them back into the country. China's borders have been ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
What Did Chinese Community Leaders in Africa Think of the Two Sessions Meeting in Beijing?
Since last Friday, Chinese news has carried wall-to-wall coverage of the Two Sessions "parliamentary pageant" in Beijing. Not surprisingly, it's been followed by Chinese expats across Africa. The Two Sessions meetings provide a rare glimpse into the ...
Africans Inoculated With Sinopharm Blocked From Entering the European Union
Europe is gradually reopening to vaccinated travelers as coronavirus restrictions ease, but in some African nations such as Morocco recipients of jabs not recognized by the EU are facing disappointment. “It seems very much as if a vaccine has become a ...
The Mideast’s Travel and Hospitality Industry Has a Lot at Stake in the WHO’s Impending Ruling on Chinese Vaccines
Representatives from the Mideast's travel industry are closely watching their news feeds for any updates on the World Health Organization's impending decision as to whether or not to grant emergency use approval to Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac. Currently, the ...
In a Bid to Get People Back in the Air, Ethiopian Airlines Deploys Chinese Tech For Rapid Passenger COVID Testing
Ethiopian Airlines is hoping that a new Chinese-made COVID-19 rapid testing facility at its hub in Addis Ababa will resuscitate its passenger business. The airline partnered with BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China's biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co, to build the new testing center at Bole ...
Trump’s Travel Restrictions Benefits Only China
Overwhelmed by the coronavirus panic, US President Donald Trump’s impeachment folderol, and the chaotic Iowa Democratic caucuses, few took notice of the Trump administration’s announcement that it will expand its controversial 2017 travel restrictions to six more countries, including four in Africa. It is a politically expedient ...