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Huawei Quietly Becomes a Dominant Player in Africa’s Burgeoning Mobile Money Sector

Quietly and largely out-of-sight, Chinese telecom giant Huawei is becoming one of the most important actors in Africa's mobile payment business. Many people don't realize that the popular Kenyan mobile payment service M-Pesa runs on Huawei Mobile that each year processes tens of billions of dollars in transactions ...

Chinese Corporate Communications in Africa

Over the years, Chinese companies in Africa have earned a reputation for not very being good in how they communicate with local stakeholders, particularly with local media and civil society groups. While that remains true for the large state-owned construction and ...

Beijing’s Top Diplomat For Africa Reflects on Why It’s So Difficult for China to Change the Negative Media Narrative

China needs to overcome the language barrier and do a better job of its story in Africa, said Beijing's top diplomat for the continent in a keynote address last week at the World Internet Conference in the Zhejiang city of Wuzhen. "One of our ...

Tecno’s Response to This Week’s Malware PR Crisis: “Keep Calm and Carry On”

The news that Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno sold tens of thousands of phones infected with malicious viruses between 2018 and 2019 is now a major international story. CNN, the BBC and dozens of African news outlets have been ...

Africa Braces for the Arrival of the Wuhan Coronavirus

A number of governments across the continent are proactively ramping up temperature screenings at ports of entry and proactively starting to issue public communications to reassure their publics that, so far, the virus has not made landfall. The glaring exception, though, ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Philippine Fishing Fleets Urged to Maintain Presence at Disputed Shoal as Tensions Build

The Philippine coastguard called on its country’s fishing fleets to keep operating around the Scarborough Shoal (known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Dao in China) despite the large Chinese presence in the disputed South China Sea area.
Coastguard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said while Philippine government vessels can’t maintain a constant presence, they are committed to protecting the country’s fishing rights in what it sees as its Exclusive Economic Zone.

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China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Opens Twitter Account Ushering in New Era of “Twitplomacy”

Following the lead of a number of its ambassadors and embassies in Africa, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a new Twitter account on Monday as part of a more assertive effort by Beijing to "re-shape the narrative" as to how Chinese ...

The Year of the Mobile Phone is Transforming China-Africa Relations

In the history of China-Africa relations, 2019 may come to be known as the year of the mobile phone. It was a year when phones took on an outsized commercial and political importance. Selling its Tecno phones in Africa carried Transsion, a relatively ...

Can a Phone “Made in Rwanda” Compete with Those “Made in China”? We’re About to Find Out.

The first truly African-made smartphone is now available for sale. And when they say "African made" they aren't kidding. While other phones have been assembled in Africa with components imported from Asia, the Mara Phone is made entirely of parts manufactured in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa. ...

China Mobile Reportedly in Talks to Buy One of South Africa’s Largest Mobile Operators

Cell C has been in distress for quite some time and now there are reports that state-owned China Mobile is considering buying the embattled South African mobile operator. South African tech news site Tech Central quoted a source familiar with the negotiations who ...