Category: Media
No, Jackie Chan Didn’t Wear a T-Shirt Promoting Uganda’s First Son to Be “The Next President”
The fact-checking team at Pesa Check debunked a photo that's been circulating on Twitter and Facebook showing Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan purportedly wearing a t-shirt with a photo of the first son of Uganda, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, with the caption "The Next President."
One of China’s Leading Mideast Scholars Expresses Sympathy For Iranian Protestors, Testing the Limits of What’s Acceptable in His Own Country
One of China's most prominent Mideast scholars, Fan Hongda from the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, is expressing solidarity with anti-government protestors in Iran on social media. At the same time, he's pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable online speech for a Chinese ...
Libya Blockbuster Leads China’s National Day Movie Releases
Home Coming led China's National Day holiday box office bonanza, racking up $144 million in ticket sales during its first week of release. The holiday is usually marked with movies aimed at patriotic audiences. Home Coming dramatizes the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya in 2011.
Africa Again is the Backdrop for a Chinese Blockbuster Movie
Home Coming is the latest Chinese blockbuster movie set in Africa that registered big box office returns during its Golden Week opening. The film is set in the fictitious North African country of Numia and tells the story based on the 2011 ...
Blockbuster Set in Africa Dominates Chinese Box Office Over National Day Weekend
Africa is once again the backdrop for a glossy, big-budget Chinese patriotic blockbuster that dominated this weekend's National Day holiday box office with $37 million in ticket sales. "Home Coming" is a fictional recounting of the evacuation of some of the 30,000 ...
A View of the Belt and Road from Southeast Asia
Western press coverage of China's Belt and Road Initiative is frequently filtered through anxieties about shifts in the West's own international influence. So it's very interesting to watch this new documentary about the BRI by Singapore's state-owned Channel News Asia. It gives equal time to the opportunities ...
Indian Rumor Sparks Weekend of Baseless Speculation About Coup in China
All weekend there was wild speculation on both Indian and U.S. Twitter that Chinese President Xi Jinping had been placed under house arrest and that a military coup had taken place in Beijing. There was no coup, of course, and there is no ...
Kenya Should Look East, Not West, For Development Inspiration Says One of the Country’s Largest Newspapers
The Editorial Board of The East African newspaper, a publication of the Nation Media Group, one of Kenya's largest media companies, published a column on Sunday that will be a disappointment to U.S. and European governments. It blasted Africa's past half-century engagement with the West and said the continent ...
We Need to Talk About Africa’s Whole Debt Problem – Not Just the Chinese Part
This week I participated in a seminar hosted by the South African Institute for International Affairs comparing the on-the-ground experiences of Chinese-led infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia and Africa (watch the event here). Researchers from opposite ends of the globe revealed ...
China Daily’s Use of the Word “Investments” is Highly Misleading
A report in the state-run newspaper China Daily that touted China's "investments" in Africa's burgeoning sustainable energy sector was misleading and highlights a common problem surrounding the use of the word "investments" in the context of Chinese economic engagement on the continent.
Fox News Blames Biden for China in the Solomon Islands
U.S. concerns about Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands have crossed a notable rhetorical red line: it is now a talking point on Fox News. This turns it from an obscure geopolitical spat to a topic in the mainstream Republican-Democrat culture war. Fox hosted the Republican insider Newt Gingrich ...
Huawei’s Solar Pivot Widely Promoted in Africa
As the Chinese technology giant Huawei finds its traditional internet business increasingly contained due to pressure in the Global North, it's pivoting towards green energy in the Global South. Huawei recently blanketed the African press with paid articles to announce a series of new green energy ...