Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Category: Oil
Russia Knocks Saudi Arabia From Top Spot as China’s Leading Oil Supplier
Russia overtook Saudi Arabia in the first two months of the year as China's largest oil supplier, with purchases surging 24% compared to the same time last year, according to new Chinese customs data. Chinese buyers were seemingly keen to take ...
Uganda to Become Africa’s Newest Oil Exporting Country With Inauguration of New Chinese-operated Drilling in Lake Albert
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's long-held ambition to export oil via the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will move closer to reality on Tuesday when he commissions the country's first new drilling site in Lake Albert. The President will inaugurate ...
Afghanistan Signs New Oil Deal With China, Assures Beijing It Will Also Improve Security For Its People
The Afghan government signed a symbolically important oil extraction deal with a Chinese state-owned company, the first such agreement since the Taliban took power in 2021. The Chinese side will own 80% of the venture and invest $150 million annually in ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: U.S. Launches New “China House” Initiative to Coordinate Foreign Policy Towards Beijing
The U.S. government drew on its Cold War history on Friday with the launch of a new "China House" initiative that aims to coordinate foreign policy towards Beijing. The new office will house an expanded inter-agency team of China experts who will focus on competition with China in ...
China-Saudi Trade is Booming… And Not Just Because of Oil
The obvious reason for Xi Jinping's trip to Saudi Arabia is to foster closer ties with one of China's largest oil suppliers (Russia and Saudi Arabia have been battling for the top spot for much of the past year), but that alone would overlook the increasingly dynamic ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
Why the Persian Gulf is China’s “New Africa”
Fifteen years ago, Africa supplied a third of China's imported oil and was a key recipient of foreign investment beyond its near abroad in east Asia. Today, a large portion of that energy procurement has shifted to countries in the Persian ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Beijing Considering Hosting a Third Belt & Road Forum Next Year
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is considering hosting a third Belt & Road forum next year, the first time a major BRI event would be convened in China since the beginning of the pandemic. The key question is whether China will relax its strict COVID travel restrictions ...
Chinese Oil Buying in Africa Plunges Amid Shift to Suppliers in Russia, Persian Gulf
Chinese oil imports from African countries dropped 22.6% year-on-year in the January-September period, highlighting a decade-long transition away from the continent to suppliers in Russia, the Persian Gulf and Brazil. The drop in 2022 further eroded Africa's total ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: A Military Stand-off Between a Chinese-Run Mining Company and the DRC’s State-Owned Mining Giant Gécamines Heading to Arbitration
A military stand-off between a Chinese-run mining company and the DRC's state-owned mining giant Gécamines is heading to arbitration. Congolese army forces took control of two of the Australian-based, Chinese-controlled company MMG's mines in Haute Katanga. After the company's appeals to Congolese authorities went unanswered, MMG is now ...
Annoyed With the U.S., Saudi Arabia Pivots to Asia
The steadily deteriorating ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia are coinciding with what appears to be a concerted shift by the Kingdom to foster closer ties with Asia's largest powers, namely China, India, and South Korea. On Friday, Saudi ...