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South China Sea’s Fish Stocks Are Running Low. China’s Fishing Ban Isn’t Helping

The South China Sea punches well above its size in terms of marine biodiversity. The semi-enclosed sea, which spans over three million kilometers, is home to 8,600 different types of marine plants and animals including tuna and mackerel, grouper, herring, and crab, and seven out ...

Indonesian Nickel: Chinese Investments Must Heed Ecological Risks, Avoid Repeating European Colonialism Sins

Indonesia has a deep wound from colonialism. For centuries, Indonesia was a European colony forced to dig and provide raw materials for the European market. This practice was even maintained during the second president Soeharto’s New Order regime under the disguise of economic development. That is why, ...

Eco-Tourism in Thailand: The Case for Promoting Environmentally-Sensitive Travel to Chinese Visitors

China’s growing partnerships with Southeast Asia in the past decade, thanks largely to its Belt and Road Initiative championing the “China Dream', has attracted an influx of Chinese tourists into the region each year. Many Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia and Thailand, have even offered ...

Q&A: China’s Transsion’s Little-Known Phone Repair Business Thrives in Global South, Offers Clues To Sustainable Hardware Services

Carlcare, a post-sales repair service provider, is a little-known unit of Transsion Holdings, a Chinese maker of mobile phones beloved across Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Like its parent company, Carlcare’s business is thriving in developing countries thanks to its adept localizing; in this case, tapping into ...

“The Mekong is Dying”: How China’s River Diplomacy Neglects Locals, Exacerbates Climate Change

The rainy season would usually start in May, but this was late June and it was still not raining much. Niwat Roykaew, who grew up on the bank of the Mekong River in Thailand’s northern Chiang Rai province, noticed.  Born and ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Unpacking Han Zheng’s Messaging to the Global South at the UN General Assembly

China’s Vice President Han Zheng addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Along with retreads of established Chinese positions on Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Israel/Palestine conflict, his comments also provided interesting clues about China’s messaging to the Global South.
First, he called on the international community to “follow the direction of a multipolar world” with the UN at its center. I wonder how opinion within Beijing’s inner circles breaks down around the bipolarity/multipolarity issue, considering ...

Endangered Fish Are Disappearing Around a Chinese-Owned Mini-Hydropower Plant in Indonesia

For more than five years, Swarno Lumbangaol has been trying to preserve the Batak fish (Neolissochilus thienemannie) – an endangered species found only in Indonesia’s Lake Toba and its connected rivers –  in his backyard pond. The task has proven ...

Prioritizing Socio-Ecological Protections: Study Shows Deregulation Doesn’t Attract Chinese Investment

By Christina Duran In a March 2023 synthetic report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized that Central and South America face adverse impacts from increased climate damage “without rapid, deep and sustained mitigation and accelerated adaptation action,” which ...

Will a Chinese Green Hydrogen Project in Egypt be a Blueprint for Africa?

Egypt and China are seeking to consolidate economic and investment cooperation in various areas of common interest, including clean energy. The China International Energy Group (CIEG) intends to establish a $5 to $8 billion project to produce green hydrogen in the ...

Undercutting the Amazon? Deregulation in the Wake of South America’s Chinese Investment Boom

By Rebecca Ray As Brazilians head to the polls at the end of this month for a presidential runoff between current President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of the many issues on the table is ...

Netting Investment Flows? Why Aquaculture Has Been Slow to Catch on in Chinese Overseas Investment

By Rebecca Ray China’s demand for imported seafood is booming, projected to double by 2030. Domestically, consumer demand is primarily satisfied by aquaculture, the raising of aquatic plants and animals for food, but the sector has stagnated as the Chinese government ...
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