The Philippine coastguard called on its country’s fishing fleets to keep operating around the Scarborough Shoal (known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Dao in China) despite the large Chinese presence in the disputed South China Sea area.
Coastguard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said while Philippine government vessels can’t maintain a constant presence, they are committed to protecting the country’s fishing rights in what it sees as its Exclusive Economic Zone.
Country: Zimbabwe
The Starkly Different Responses by the U.S. and China to Zimbabwe’s Controversial Election
The Chinese government said it is "ready to work" with the new (old) Zimbabwean government and claimed that the controversial vote was conducted in "peaceful and orderly fashion." Although Beijing did acknowledge some irregularities in last week's balloting, it called on ...
Reminder: China Will Be Central to Clean Tech Supply Chains for a Long Time
Financial Times published a fascinating rundown of China’s ongoing centrality in the mining and refining of critical minerals. These minerals, which include lithium, cobalt and nickel, are key to many clean energy applications, from e-vehicle batteries to wind turbines. China’s investments in ...
Chinese Mining Company Launches Africa’s First-Ever Lithium Processing Facility in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe became the first country in Africa to process locally-mined lithium with the opening of a new Chinese-owned refining facility outside of the capital Harare. Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, a unit of the Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, formally commissioned the ...
How Chinese Construction Giant Sinohydro Benefits From Sanctions and Power Shortages in Zimbabwe
Sanctioned and isolated by the West, Zimbabwe’s economy has taken a beating for more than two decades but in that period, a number of Chinese companies have stuck it out and become favorites winning contracts for big-ticket projects. Chinese state-owned Sinohydro ...
Veteran Chinese Diplomat is New Envoy to Zimbabwe
China's new envoy to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding, presented his credentials to President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week to become the second Chinese ambassador in Africa (after Zhao Bin in the DRC) to take up their post this year. Zhou, like Zhao, comes ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Philippine Fishing Fleets Urged to Maintain Presence at Disputed Shoal as Tensions Build
Chinese Merchants Are Disrupting Kenya’s Business Cartels
In the old days, a small group of Kenyan elites dominated the business of importing low-cost products from China that they would then turn around and sell for two or three times the cost. But that once-lucrative business is now under ...
Zimbabwe Pushing Chinese Steel Giant’s Plans to Exclusively Import Electricity From Mozambique
Chinese giant Tsingshang’s Zimbabwe subsidiary, Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco), will start importing electricity from Mozambique’s Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric power project once complete. This follows a plan, supported by the Zimbabwean government, to have Disco exclusively import power for the ...
Chinese-Funded, Constructed Dams Prioritized in Zimbabwe’s Irrigation and Energy Plan
Zimbabwe is accelerating the construction of 12 large dams to irrigate at least 350,000 hectares by 2025 and generate hydropower while also providing potable water. The acceleration plan is meant to increase land acreage under irrigation with farmers in Zimbabwe ...
Chinese Company Targets Zimbabwe’s Solar Power Generation Amidst Crippling Blackouts
The China Energy Engineering Corp. has propositioned the Zimbabwean government for the construction of a 1,000-megawatt (MW) floating solar plant on the Kariba dam along the Zambezi River. At nearly $1 billion, the project will be on the world’s largest man-made ...
How Far Ahead Is China in the Battery Race? Pretty Far.
China is sprinting ahead in the global race for critical minerals used to make batteries for electric cars, leaving Western competitors scrambling to catch up. Chinese companies’ early investment into the extraction of lithium and cobalt in Africa was key to this success, according to a detailed new report by ...