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 ...
Country: China
China’s Lending to Latin America and the Caribbean Begins Again with Smaller, Targeted Support
By Rebecca Ray and Margaret Myers Chinese development lending to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has begun to rebound, according to the latest update of the Chinese Loans to Latin America and the Caribbean Database, maintained by the Boston University ...
Chinese Central Bank Official Explains Why Beijing Is so Worried About Debt Restructuring
A senior official with the People's Bank of China, the country's central, provided new insights as to why Beijing is demanding that multilateral development banks (MDBs) also take losses on their loans to developing countries -- a key sticking point that has brought debt restructuring processes in several ...
China to Decide When Brazilian President Will Visit, Says Minister
The Chinese government will be responsible for choosing a new date to host Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after his state visit to Beijing was postponed over the weekend due to illness. Monday would have marked the start of a ...
Insecurity in Pakistan: Losses and Gains for China
By Saniya Kulkarni Security in the Central-South Asian region is an issue of increasing importance to China, especially in light of growing uncertainty in Pakistan and an ongoing threat to infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K, or ...
China Should Not Compromise With Western Creditors in Zambian Debt Relief, Says Prominent Scholar
Zambia’s debt renegotiation is being delayed by barriers within China’s banking system and by Western pressure. So says Professor Tang Xiaoyang, a prominent expert on Chinese overseas development finance and the director of the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University, in an interesting interview with the ...
New Report: China Is Now the Major Lender of Last Resort for Developing Countries
China has spent $240 billion in rescue payments to 22 economically distressed Belt and Road economies between 2008 and 2021. A new report published by AidData, the research center at the College of William and Mary, and co-authored with researchers at the ...
Chinese Scholars See U.S. Veep’s Africa Tour in the Context of Great Power Competition
One stop into her week-long, three-nation African tour, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to mention the "C" word. But China is very much on the minds of her traveling press corps that seems to take every opportunity ...
Honduras Says Adiós Taiwan, Formally Establishes Diplomatic Ties With China
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina looked visibly pleased this weekend when he shook hands with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang after the pair formally oversaw the establishment of diplomatic ties. The signing ceremony took place at the Diaoyutai State ...
China’s Party-run Media Frames Honduras Switch as Part of Larger Struggle Against the U.S., Taiwan Independence
The Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper boasted in a series of articles over the weekend in both their English and Chinese editions that Honduras's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan is both a victory against "Taiwan separatists" and an embarrassment for the United States:
U.S. Analysts, Scholars Skeptical About the Benefits to Honduras From Ties With China
Honduran officials maintain that the decision to abandon ties with Taiwan in favor of China was an economic decision inspired by the hope of boosting Chinese trade and investment. But a number of U.S.-based scholars and analysts caution that those hopes ...
New Data Reveals Small Increase in Chinese Lending to Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
China is once again extending development finance loans to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, albeit only a small fraction of what it lent to the region a decade ago. Brazil, Barbados and Guyana received a total of $813 million ...
South Africa Hosts Trade Discussions With Chongqing, One of China’s Largest Industrial Cities
The Southwestern Chinese industrial mega-city Chongqing hosted a delegation from South Africa last week to discuss how the two sides can further increase the $600 million of trade the two sides did last year. The event highlights how sub-national actors like ...
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 ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese President Xi Jinping Invites Russian President Vladimir Putin to Third Belt and Forum
Chinese President Xi Jinping invited Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to attend the third Belt and Forum that will take place later this year. Xi's invitation followed a pledge to “significantly increase” trade between the two countries by 2030. Russia is now China's largest oil supplier. (SOUTH CHINA ...