Category: Q&A

Q&A: Reading China’s Military Parade and Southeast Asia’s Optics Right

In Asia’s high-context politics, the stage often speaks as loudly as the words. Welcoming ceremonies, traditional dances, marathon speeches, China's military parade, and photo ops are never just pomp. They are signals to multiple audiences. At home, they convey respect and access. 

Q&A: China’s EV in Southeast Asia: Growth or Dependency Trap?

A few weeks ago at the Indonesian auto show, I stood near a cluster of visitors crowding around new electric cars EVs. I noticed three questions that came up repeatedly as people leaned in to quiz the sales reps: How far can it go? Will it last? ...

Q&A: Beijing Deal for Post-War Gaza Leaves Analysts Skeptical

By Chloe Rouveyrolles-Bazire and Louis Baudoin-Laarman Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement has agreed with Hamas to form a "national unity government" in post-war Gaza, but analysts are skeptical about the significance of the Beijing-brokered deal. ...

China Still Not Seen as a Serious Political Actor in the Middle East, Explains Top Sino-Mideast Scholar

With yet another Chinese envoy touring the Mideast, many people are scratching their heads, wondering what Beijing is trying to accomplish with its diplomacy in the region. Many Arab and Gulf governments see the Chinese as "the new kid on the ...

Q&A: Indonesia’s EV Success Now Hinges on U.S. & EU. Will Indonesia Be Forced to Pull Away From China?

In November last year, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo met with United States President Joe Biden to talk trade and investment. At the very top of Jokowi’s agenda was to find a way to expand markets for Indonesian nickel-based EV batteries. Jokowi had hoped to secure ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

How to Lure Chinese Financing Back to the Global South: Report

Global South countries face increasing financing pressure, endangering their ability to keep developing while also implementing measures to deal with a growing climate crisis. The disruption of global trade is coupled with a larger megatrend: flows of international capital to the developing world have turned negative. This means that countries are now routinely paying more to service loans than they receive in disbursements.

The vast majority of Global South borrowers ...

Q&A: How Will Tshisekedi’s Re-Election Impact Chinese Mining Interests in the DR Congo?

The incumbent Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi won a landslide re-election at the end of last year that was validated this week by the country's Constitutional Court despite accusations of voting irregularities by both opposition parties and foreign election observers. Also this ...

A Billion Dollar Copper/Cobalt Mine is Up For Grabs in the DR Congo, Providing Rare Opening For the U.S. to Get in the Market

For the first time in seven years, the United States can re-enter the all-important critical resources mining sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where China is the dominant actor. The persistently low price of cobalt, a metal used to ...

Q&A: Chinese, and Nigerian Researchers Collaborate on Super Sub-Saharan Africa Electricity System

China's strategic investments through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) showcase its aspiration to play a role in the global energy infrastructure.

Lots of Smiles and Lots of Handshakes, But What Else Did Syria’s President Get During His Recent Visit to China?

President Bashar al-Assad's visit to China in late September is widely seen as an important step in Syria's re-integration into the international community after years of Western-led international isolation. Assad received a much warmer welcome in China than he would pretty ...

Q&A: Lots of Smiles, Lots of Handshakes, But What Else Did Syrian President Bashar Assad Get During His Recent Visit to China?

President Bashar al-Assad's visit to China in late September is widely seen as an important step in Syria's re-integration into the international community after years of Western-led international isolation. Assad received a much warmer welcome in China than he would pretty ...

Q&A: Financing a Renewables Shift in African Countries as China’s New “Small or Beautiful” Model Takes Root

If you look at the specific demands of many African countries, they are now more focused on production-related activities rather than fancy highways that lead to nowhere.

Q&A: ASEAN Is Showing Teeth To Myanmar

On the first day of the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, the group leaders released a review on the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), which was put out in 2021 to help resolve the crisis in Myanmar.  The document ...
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