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Category: Travel

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 ...

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 ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China’s Global Development Initiative Meeting Signals Growing UN Influence

China’s Global Development Initiative (announced by President Xi Jinping in 2021) took a massive step towards global influence this week. It got the UN stamp of approval and is being integrated into its development plans like Agenda 2030.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-hosted a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative with UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN in New York on Wednesday. 
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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 ...

Pressure Mounts on Ethiopian Airlines to Halt Flights to China

Ethiopian Airlines appears to be stubbornly holding on to its flight operations between China and Addis Ababa, while almost all other African carriers have halted flights to China due to the spiraling coronavirus epidemic. Ethiopian Airlines is Africa's largest airline, operating daily flights to five Chinese cities, ...

Rebuttal: Clarifying the U.S. Policy Approach Towards Africa

Editor's Note: A number of current and former United States government officials took issue with many of the points that I raised in my recent column on U.S. foreign policy towards Africa ("China's role in Washington's divided, confusing foreign policy towards Africa") and disagreed vehemently both ...