The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...
Category: Podcast
Cars May be Last to Electrify in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania
More than three-quarters of all EVs in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania combined are two and three-wheelers, meaning there are less than five thousand four-wheelers across the three countries. While e-bikes, tricycles, and buses have set the pace in terms of ease ...
Solar Taxi Solving Adoption Challenges in Ghana as Chinese EVs Gain Popularity
Ghana’s Solar Taxi was launched as a pilot project in 2019, initially operating a solar-powered taxi service, importing vehicles and components from China. Today, it has grown into Ghana’s leading e-mobility company and ranks as the third-largest electric vehicle assembler in ...
Counting the Cost: Chinese EV Tech and Affordable E-Mobility in Sierra Leone and Kenya
When Moses Sandy traveled to China with his prototype, he knew that Sierra Leone needed reliable and clean transport that could easily be powered not by gasoline but by the abundant energy harnessed from the sun.
China’s Role in the Panama Canal Controversy
When Donald Trump criticized Panama for its management of the canal that he claimed had fallen under Chinese control, many people at first thought this was just another round of Trump's usual bluster. But since his election last November, the President ...
Does Trump Help or Hurt China’s Diplomacy in Africa?
Donald Trump roared back into power this week, signing dozens of executive orders on his first day that upended large parts of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. The president withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
The World According to Marco Rubio
Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the State Department, Marco Rubio, appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week as part of the confirmation process. Rubio testified for more than three hours and made it very clear that ...
China and the Global South in the Trump 2.0 Era
On Monday, January 20, Donald Trump will take the oath of office and return to power as president of the United States. Trump is promising to overhaul U.S. foreign and commercial policy in what many experts believe will mark the start ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Wraps Up Low Key Africa Tour
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ended a four-nation Africa tour on Thursday that included stops in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad, and Nigeria. Other than a $255 million railway loan deal for Nigeria, there were very few other major announcements ...
Why Views About China Are So Different in the Global North and South
China is deeply unpopular in the U.S., UK, Japan, and most other wealthy countries, and given the politics in those regions, there's no indication that's going to change anytime soon. It's a very different story, though, in large parts of developing ...
View From Israel: China’s Once Tidy Mideast Policy Now Upended
A few months ago, China looked like it had all its Mideast diplomacy figured out. Israel and the U.S. were taking heavy hits in the court of global public opinion over the devastation caused by the war in Gaza.
Morocco is Now a Major Hub for Chinese Investment in Africa
Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised a lot of people last month when he made an unannounced stopover in Morocco on his way home from the G20 summit in Brazil. The North African country doesn't often come to mind when considering China's ...
Don’t Expect a Resolution to the South China Sea Crisis in 2025
Tensions between China and the Philippines over territorial disputes in the South China Sea flared anew in December after another confrontation at sea. Soon after two vessels collided near the contested Scarborough Shoal, representatives from both sides took to the airwaves ...