With U.S.-South Africa ties in the deep freeze, it was notable to see the sheer size of the U.S. delegation sent to this week’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town – one of the most prominent industry gatherings and one of the few where the Global South gets a prominent voice.
The Trump administration’s famous Afrophobia seems (momentarily at least) tempered by its greed for minerals. It is reportedly walking ...
Category: Protests
Chinese Scholar Returns From Iran With Stark Account of Unrest and U.S. Influence
Marking one of the first visits by a Chinese scholar to Iran since the country’s violent nationwide protests that left thousands dead, Fan Hongda, one of China’s most prominent Iran scholars and director of the China-Middle East Institute at Shaoxing University in Zhejiang province, revealed the ...
Chinese Analysts: Iran Will Endure External Pressure, Even as Internal Strains Mount
For weeks, even as protests rocked the streets of Iran with Donald Trump’s constant military threats, the prevailing narrative from Chinese scholarship was one of endurance; Tehran would not break as easily as the world imagined. That prediction held firm even ...
Iran Is Not Going to be the Next Venezuela, Says Chinese Scholar
As Iran undergoes another wave of political protests, a question has been circulating on Chinese social media: could Iran become “the next Venezuela”? The speculation gained traction after the United States took action against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, combined with increasingly tough rhetoric on Iran from U.S. ...
Indonesian Riots Won’t Turn Into Another 1998 Anti-Chinese Pogrom, Chinese Expert Says
Recent unrest in Indonesia has been one of the largest outbreaks of social turmoil since 1998, when widespread violence included anti-Chinese riots. Some Chinese business owners in Indonesia even reinforced their shops to prevent damage. In an interview with the ...
Unpacking the Indonesian President’s Trip to China
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto made a brief visit to China to join the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, even as protests simmered at home. The tightly scheduled visit was seen as a way of projecting stability abroad and reconnecting with ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Indonesian Leader U-Turns on China Visit Despite Deadly Protests
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will visit China for a military parade commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II on Wednesday, after earlier cancelling his trip over deadly domestic protests stoked by the death of a young delivery driver. ...
Protest After Chinese-Made Jet Crashes in Bangladesh
Bangladeshi Police used tear gas to disperse angry students following the crash of an F-7 BGI Bangladesh Air Force jet into a school in Dhaka on Monday. 31 people were killed, including at least 25 children. The students protested on Tuesday ...
Grassroots Diplomacy in Dairi: How a Small Indonesian Community is Challenging China’s Zinc Ambitions
The sounds of mining machinery in the highlands of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have fallen silent — not due to proactive government intervention or seamless regulatory enforcement, but because of relentless grassroots resistance. A controversial mining project in the Bukit Barisan ...
Hundreds Protest Against Illegal Mining In East DR Congo
Several hundred people demonstrated Wednesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo to protest illegal mining in the country's east, where authorities are investigating claims of widespread illicit Chinese involvement. The gathering followed the announcement Sunday of the arrest of three Chinese ...
Uganda Detains 21 People Protesting Sino-French Oil Project
Ugandan police arrested 21 environmentalists in the capital, Kampala, on Monday as they protested a controversial multi-billion-dollar oil development scheme, their lawyer said. The East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP), headed by French oil giant TotalEnergies, involves drilling for oil ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese Debt and the Anti-Government Revolt in Kenya
Protestors in Kenya this week expressed fury against the government and the IMF but interestingly made no mention of China during an unprecedented uprising in Nairobi. It's notable because the Kenyan Treasury spends more money to service its Chinese loans than ...
Hundreds of Filipino Fishers Protest Against Beijing’s South China Sea Claims
Hundreds of protestors marched on the Chinese embassy in Manila on Tuesday to protest against Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, particularly the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.