A new report led by the U.S.-based research center AidData is drawing global attention this week. It shows that from 2008 to 2021, China spent $240 billion in bailouts and liquidity support to 22 Global South countries.
Even though the report focuses squarely on economics, it also feels like a key piece of a geopolitical puzzle: how China’s Global South relationships work. As I’m writing this, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is ...
Category: Weapons
Chinese Weapons Manufacturers Take Part in UAE Arms Show
Nine Chinese arms manufacturers are taking part in the 16th International Defense Exhibition and Conference, a military technology expo in the United Arab Emirates, the first time since China’s COVID-related shutdowns. Chinese companies are showing 500 different products. They range from ...
This Year’s U.S.-African Land Forces Summit Was Partially Intended to Persuade African Militaries Not to Partner With China and Russia
Generals and other high-ranking officers from 40 African armies traveled to the southern United States last month to watch the U.S. Army show off its latest weapons and tactics. The week-long event at the sprawling army base at Fort Benning in ...
Al Jazeera: UAE Providing Ethiopia Use of Chinese Made Wing-Loong II Drones
Recent gains by Ethiopian government troops in pushing back Tigrayan opposition forces may have been helped by the use of sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey, Iran, and China, according to satellite photos seen by Al Jazeera. The role of the ...
The 5 Chinese Weapons Manufacturers You Should Know About
China is now among the world's top five largest arms exporting countries alongside the U.S., Germany, France and Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) annual report on global weapons sales. Although China's becoming an increasingly important actor ...
New Chinese-Made Wing Loong II Attack Drones Arrive in Nigeria
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) marked the arrival this week of a pair of Wing Loong II attack drones from China. The Wing Loong II is among China's most sophisticated unmanned combat aerial vehicles, and can remain airborne between 26 and 31 hours. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Lending Data Offers Clue to China’s Global South Influence
Challenging Pax Americana: The Commercial Imperative in Chinese Arms Exports To Africa – a Case Study of Uganda and Kenya
Professor Elijah N. Munyi from United States International University in Nairobi is a leading scholar in U.S.-Africa policy, with particular expertise in military relations. Professor Munyi published a working paper this week that coincided with his participation in the China-Africa Research Initiative's annual conference that ...
The U.S. Now Wants to Compete With China in the Fast-Growing Armed Drone Market in Africa and the Middle East
The United States is easing restrictions on the sale of armed drone technology to governments in the Middle East and elsewhere in a bid to avoid being left behind by Chinese competitors in this fast-growing segment. The United States has now ...
The Algerian Army is the First Customer for China’s New Shoulder-Mounted HJ-12 Anti-Missile System
In a somewhat surprising move, the Chinese military will not be the first client to get its hands on the new HJ-12 (红箭-12) shoulder-mounted anti-tank missile system produced by the large state-owned weapons contractor NORINCO. That honor will instead go to the Algerian army. It bought an ...
Twitter Thread: Nigeria’s Covert Military Procurement Deals With China
The widely-read military blogger Defense News Nigeria explained in a multipart Twitter thread published yesterday why Abuja felt it necessary to negotiate a series of covert military procurement deals with Beijing. The thread explains how U.S. export controls on attack drones ...
China Halts Arms Sales to South Sudan (Wait, What?)
In June, China's ambassador to Juba publicly declared that Beijing would not sell weapons to any side of the ongoing civil conflict in South Sudan. So it was a bit of a surprise when it was discovered that $38 million of weapons had been ...