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Mapping Power Plants: What China’s Energy Footprint in Africa Tells Us

Over the last two decades, China has moved from the periphery to the very center of Africa’s power sector story. It has done so not quietly, but with the kind of scale, speed, and scope that makes it impossible to ignore. And yet, for all the attention ...

Inside the Fine Print: Understanding Finance Contracts in Chinese-supported Power Projects

Every power plant begins long before a single shovel hits the ground. Before turbines are ordered, before concrete is poured, and well before the lights ever flicker on, a dense legal and financial architecture must first be assembled. For state-backed Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa, that ...

Bundles, Banks, and Builders: Inside China’s Finance Models for Power Projects in Africa

Building large-scale infrastructure requires more than engineering expertise. Just as critical is how the project is financed, how capital is raised, structured, and repaid. In Chinese-supported power projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, finance is often the entry point: the mechanism through which projects are proposed, evaluated, and ...

Plugging into African Agency

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 ...

Motives That Matter: The Economic and Strategic Logic Behind China’s Power Sector Engagement in Africa

Why is China building power plants across Sub-Saharan Africa? What exactly motivates its involvement in the sector? What does it hope to gain, and what does this mean for countries on the receiving end of its infrastructure support? Is this simply a gesture of South-South solidarity, ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

How to Lure Chinese Financing Back to the Global South: Report

Global South countries face increasing financing pressure, endangering their ability to keep developing while also implementing measures to deal with a growing climate crisis. The disruption of global trade is coupled with a larger megatrend: flows of international capital to the developing world have turned negative. This means that countries are now routinely paying more to service loans than they receive in disbursements.

The vast majority of Global South borrowers ...

Inside China’s Power Play: Understanding the Institutions Behind Africa’s Energy Projects

 China’s role in African power generation is substantial. Chinese-backed projects account for approximately 23 GW of installed generation capacity across at least 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – nearly 20 percent of the region’s total. This footprint reflects more than just a financial commitment; it signals ...

UAE Denies Supplying Chinese Weapons to Sudan Paramilitaries

The United Arab Emirates on Friday denied an Amnesty International report accusing it of providing Chinese-made weapons to Sudanese paramilitary forces at war with the regular army. "The UAE strongly rejects the suggestion that it is supplying weaponry to any party ...

UAE-Supplied Chinese Weapons Used by Sudan’s RSF: Amnesty

Chinese weapons provided by the United Arab Emirates have been found in the possession of Sudan's paramilitaries, in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, Amnesty International reported Thursday. "Sophisticated Chinese weaponry, re-exported by the United Arab Emirates, has been captured ...

Battle for Khartoum Wrecks Chinese-Built Oil Refinery in Sudan

By Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali The once-pristine white oil tanks of Sudan's largest refinery have been blackened by nearly two years of devastating war, leaving the country heavily dependent on fuel imports it can ill afford.

Indian, Chinese Blue Helmet Troops in Sudan Face Off in Tug-of-War Competition

A rare display of military camaraderie took place this week between Indian and Chinese blue helmet soldiers stationed in Sudan, where the two sides faced off in a friendly tug-of-war competition (India won).

Chinese FM Meets With Arab Counterparts, Calls for Halt on Attacks on Red Sea Shipping

China's foreign minister devoted much of his day on Tuesday to separate talks with visiting foreign ministers from Sudan and Yemen who were in Beijing for this week's China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. During his meeting with his Yemeni counterpart Shaya Mohsin Zindani, Wang issued ...

Words Come Easy, Action Does Not: China in the Context of Sudan

By Felix Brender Earlier this month, media and commentators briefly shifted their hyperfocus from conflicts that fit into an easy-to-grasp Disney-style good/bad binary to “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory:” the consequences of the most recent round of sectarian ...
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