Sri Lanka’s major creditors, including India, Japan, and France, are nearing a debt deal by mid-October, according to the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shinbun. However, there are serious questions as to whether China (one of Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditors) will be part of the deal.
This puts much pressure on Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s upcoming visit to Beijing to attend ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Wickremesinghe ...
Country: Burkina Faso
How Do Western and Chinese Development Models Differ? Noted Chinese Economist Weighs In
While China's financing of Global South infrastructure faces ongoing criticism from the World Bank (see above,) these traditional development institutions are partly to blame for many Global South countries' inability to boost development. This is the viewpoint of Justin Yifu Lin, ...
Four Different Chinese Ambassadors are Moving On
An unusually large number of Chinese ambassadors announced this week they will be leaving their posts in at least four African countries. It's just a coincidence that so many are happening at once and there is no indication that any of the envoys have been recalled.
There’s a Huge Difference in How China Responded to the Coups in Burkina Faso and Guinea
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded on Tuesday to the military overthrow of democratically-elected Burkinabé President Fas Roch Marc Christian Kaboré with a call to "restore normal order" and "resolve differences through dialogue." Zhao, speaking at the ...
Folashadé Soulé on West Africa’s Priorities at FOCAC 8
The triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit is just weeks away now and speculation is now starting to build as to what will be on the agenda. As of now, very little is known as to what's going to happen, ...
With U.S. COVID Jabs Now Landing in Africa, Vaccine Rivalry With China Likely to Intensify
For the first since the beginning of the pandemic, U.S.-made vaccines are arriving in Africa, opening what will likely become another front in the burgeoning global rivalry with China. The first half of an order of 300,000 doses of Johnson & ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Glimmers of Debt Deal for Sri Lanka Raises China Pressure
Burkina Faso Launches New Huawei-Powered Smart City Initiative Using Loan From the China Exim Bank
The Burkina Faso government announced an ambitious new plan last week to build a 650-kilometer fiber-optic network that will connect all of the country's major cities to a new Huawei-powered Smart City platform. Sensitive to the perception that the ...
Chinese Legislators Meet With Counterparts in Burkina Faso and Egypt
There's been a noticeable uptick in the number of engagements between Chinese and African legislative leaders. In Burkina Faso, members of the Foreign Affairs Commission from China's National People's Congress held a video conference with representatives from the National Assembly.
Human Rights Watch’s Africa Advocacy Director Can’t Understand Why African Leaders Are “Shielding China Over Xinjiang”
Human Rights Watch Africa Advocacy Director Carine Kaneza Nantulya is puzzled as to why African governments are not doing anything to confront China on the mass internment of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang. She noted in a post on Monday that it's especially ironic that African ...
China Cranks Up the Campaign to Lobby African Stakeholders on Xinjiang
With Xinjiang now emerging as a core dividing issue in the increasingly acrimonious U.S.-China relationship, it appears that Beijing is leaning even more on its ties in Africa and other parts of the Global South as part of an effort to build a coalition ...
Some African Governments Can’t Have it Both Ways
African governments and multilateral institutions frequently say that they want no part of any new so-called "Cold War" between the U.S. and China. Leaders in those organizations are very quick to remind everyone that they remember the last time Africa got swept up in a Great Power ...