After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...
Category: View From China
China’s Delivery Titans Export Their Ugliest Rivalry to Brazil
Two of China’s biggest delivery giants are exporting not just their business models but also their worst habits. In Brazil, Didi’s 99Food and Meituan’s Keeta have turned a promising overseas expansion into a spectacle of lawsuits, exclusivity deals, and copycat branding so absurd that instead of toppling ...
How Chinese Companies Weigh Risk Against Profit in Africa’s Volatile Goldfields
Is Africa’s gold rush worth the life-and-death risks? Armed militants regularly storm mines in Ghana, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, wrecking equipment, kidnapping workers, and demanding ransoms. Embassies have even urged Chinese firms to pull out. Yet with gold ...
How Chinese Takeout Bags Became Africa’s Street-Style Hit
Chinese social media spotted a quirky trend in African cities like Nairobi. Sturdy, brightly printed Chinese takeout bags, the kind you get from a hotpot chain or milk tea shop, are showing up everywhere. These are not souvenirs from China. They sell for over a dollar ...
Tariffs Expose Cracks in U.S.–India Biotech Alliance, Chinese Analysts Say
For decades, the U.S. and India have appeared aligned in biotechnology. But Chinese commentators and policy analysts alike now point to a paradox: Trump’s new tariff plan, designed to push Indian drugmakers into relocating production to U.S. soil, adds fresh uncertainty and risk to what was supposed ...
Chinese AI Firms Turn to the Middle East Amid Domestic Funding Crunch
A recent feature in Economic Observer, a business news outlet, shows how Chinese AI companies, squeezed by fierce competition and a shrinking capital pool at home, are pivoting toward the Middle East, where deep-pocketed sovereign funds and ambitious digital transformation agendas are opening new doors.
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
U.S. Designation of Baloch Militants Deals Blow to India, Secures Chinese Projects in Pakistan, Chinese Commentator Says
On August 11, the U.S. State Department announced it was designating the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its armed wing, the Majeed Brigade, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) effective immediately, while also listing the Majeed Brigade as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT). ...
How Pandemic Controls Still Shape Trade and Migration in a China–Myanmar Border City
A deeply reported story published on a WeChat public account specializing in literary reporting examines how pandemic-era border control policies in Ruili, once China’s busiest land port with Myanmar, have outlasted COVID-19 and devastated the city’s once-thriving jade trade while restricting the movement of cross-border migrant ...
Murder of Chinese Farm Owner in Zambia Shocks Nation, Sparks Unprecedented Outcry in China
In what has become one of the most widely followed cases of a Chinese citizen murdered in Africa to date, the killing of 57-year-old Chinese farm owner Ms. Shi in Zambia has sparked nationwide outrage and soul-searching across China. Unlike previous cases that circulated mainly within ...
Tariffed by the U.S., Shunned by China: India–Philippines Naval Drill Sparks Nationalist Glee on Chinese Social Media
As India and the Philippines held their first-ever joint naval exercise in the South China Sea on August 3–4, Chinese social media lit up not with surprise, but with sarcasm. The timing was key: both countries had just been hit with punishing U.S. tariffs. ...
A Rosy Road Ahead? Chinese Documentary on EVs in Thailand Arrives as Doubts Mount
Framed like a hopeful road trip into Thailand’s EV future, Auto Roam is a glossy branded documentary by Chinese automotive media Autohome, following a diverse cast of local EV adopters to portray how Chinese electric vehicles are reshaping everyday life in Thailand. Slick, upbeat, and unmistakably ...
Why Milk Sank the Deal: A Chinese Scholar Explains the Cultural Clash Behind the U.S.–India Trade Breakdown
A Chinese scholar argues that the sacred status of milk in India was a key reason the U.S.–India tariff negotiations fell apart. In India, milk is not just food but a symbol of purity and divinity, deeply tied to Hindu rituals and identity. According to Wang ...
Chinese Commentators Cheer Over Iran Ditches GPS for Beidou
In a move hailed by Chinese media as a geopolitical turning point, Iran has announced plans to gradually replace the U.S.-controlled GPS system with China’s Beidou satellite navigation network. The decision, revealed in mid-July by Iran’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology, is being framed in ...