Reflections on the legacy of Jiang Zemin, China’s president from 1993 to 2003, who passed away on Wednesday, emphasized how he presided over a decade of explosive economic growth. Fewer have pointed out that he was also a key architect of China’s current relationship with Africa.
After the Mao era, emblematized by Chinese involvement in African anti-colonial struggles, the relationship went dormant as China focused on building economic ties ...
Country: Kenya
Why It Isn’t China’s Fault Its Trade With Africa Is So Distorted
China is forecast to break another trade record with Africa this year, potentially even crossing the $300 billion barrier. While that sounds great, the big number masks a distorted trading relationship that is mostly concentrated in extractives among a small handful ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Jiang Zemin Created the Africa-China Relationship As We Know It Today
Hunan Throws an Africa-China Fruit Trade Matchmaking Party
China’s Hunan province cemented its role as a hub for African agricultural trade via a recent matchmaking meeting to team up major Chinese fruit buyers with key African producers like South Africa and Kenya. It is an example of the innovative ways Hunan is boosting ...
How the Chinese Protests Are Being Discussed in South Africa
Coverage of the ongoing protests in China has been relatively muted in major African media markets like Kenya and Nigeria. Most outlets only covered the protests sporadically and mostly relied on Western news agencies. Much more coverage was dedicated to Africa-China issues, like trade and ...
FACT CHECK: No, Kenya’s Lamu and Mombasa Are Not Being Targeted by the Chinese Military
The prominent Kenyan daily The Standard this week published a breathless front-page story claiming that the U.S. government says it is concerned that China wants to leverage the Kenyan ports of Mombasa and Lamu for military use. The article ...
Kenya’s Transport Minister to Chinese Ambassador: No Hard Feelings About the Release of SGR Loan Agreements, Right?
Kenya's Road and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen was all smiles last week when Chinese ambassador Zhou Pingjian made a courtesy call to his office in what appears to be an effort to show that ties between the two had not been impacted by the ...
Will China and Wealthy Countries Pay For Climate Damage in the Global South?
Join us for a very lively end-of-week show where Eric, Cobus, and Geraud get into a spirited debate over whether China, India, and wealthy countries will pay for the damage they've caused to poor countries in Africa and elsewhere from global ...
Seminar Highlights China-Africa Media Alignment
Chinese and African media professionals committed to working together to reshape media narratives about Africa-China relations. Delegates from the continent gathered in Nairobi for a seminar organized by the state-owned China Media Group. Aziz Hartley, editor-in-chief of the partly Chinese-owned Independent ...
Africa’s Dangerous Ignorance of China
Last week’s news was dominated by the publication, on Sunday, November 6, 2022, of part of the Kenyan SGR contract. It was far from the entire contract promised by the new Kenyan transport minister, but it was still a step towards transparency after years of ...
Kenya’s Supreme Court to Weigh In on SGR Contract
Kenya’s Supreme Court will rule on the legality of the country’s Standard Gauge Railway contract. Opponents say the contract being awarded to China Road and Bridge Corp contravened Kenya’s competitive tender rules. The ruling will ...
Just as in Nigeria, Kenyan Lawmakers Are Also Confused About What It Means to Waive “Sovereign Immunity” in Chinese Loan Contracts
Anger is mounting across Kenyan society over the terms of the loan agreements with the China Exim Bank for the multi-billion dollar Standard Gauge Railway that were released by the government on Sunday. Members of Parliament are sounding off in the ...
Kenyans React to Publication of SGR Documents
The decision by the incoming government of Kenya to release some documents relating to the controversial Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway is causing massive controversy at home. The main reaction has been anger that the main commercial contract has not yet been ...