Live Feed

The News Feed is curated by CGSP’s editors in Asia and Africa.

China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan Reject U.S. Bagram Airbase Return

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 20, 2025. China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan opposed any U.S. move to regain Bagram base, citing Afghan sovereignty. Kabul rejects the idea. Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry
China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan jointly opposed any move for the U.S. military to regain a presence at Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Starts Pitching Car Factory System to Set ASEAN Standards

Darion Cortez on display. China pivots to exporting factory systems in ASEAN, targets 30% higher output, 31% lower cost, and aims to set regional auto plant standards. (Photo: MacauBusiness)
China’s auto manufacturers are moving from exporting vehicles to exporting manufacturing systems, technology platforms, and standards into ASEAN, using localized rollouts (right-hand models, local partners) to anchor market entry. SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) used ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

WEEK IN REVIEW: China Secures Soybeans from Argentina, Snubs U.S. Exports

Browning soybean pods are seen at Harborview Farm as harvest for the crop nears in Rock Hall, Maryland, on September 23, 2025. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)
Chinese traders are rapidly increasing their orders of Argentinian soybeans, following the country’s temporary suspension of export taxes. Since the tax holiday was announced on Monday, at least twenty ship cargoes (about 1.3 million ...
by CGSP Staff

Chinese EV Giant Reenters South African Market

A Geely exhibit at a car fair in Shanghai in April. Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP
The Chinese car company Geely has announced it will return to South Africa, about a decade after it withdrew from the market. It has reportedly secured 35 dealerships around the country, aiming ...
by CGSP Staff

Spike in Chinese Oil Imports from Indonesia Sparks Iran Rumors

Graph via Bloomberg
A surge in oil imports from Indonesia to China over the last two months has sparked allegations that China may be importing sanctioned Iranian oil via the Southeast Asian country. Since July, China ...
by CGSP Staff

China Announces New Climate Goals

Chinese president Xi Jinping virtually addresses the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 21, 2021 in New York. (Photo by Spencer Platt / POOL / AFP)
China’s President Xi Jinping announced a new set of climate goals at Wednesday’s UN General Assembly meeting. The announcement comes a day after his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, dismissed climate change, calling ...
by CGSP Staff

Famed ‘Sponge Cities’ Chinese Architect Dead in Brazil Plane Crash

File image of Yu Kongjian, dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape of Peking University, who died in a plane crash in Brazil on September 24, 2025.
Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian, known for his so-called nature-mimicking “sponge cities,” has died in a small plane crash in Brazil with two filmmakers documenting his work, police said Wednesday. The 62-year-old was ...
by Agence France-Presse

China Leads Influence in Southeast Asia, but Neighbors Come First

China tops Lowy’s Southeast Asia Influence Index, but ASEAN neighbors collectively wield more sway than any external power, including China. (Graphic: Lowy Institute)
China leads the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia Influence Index by a point, 65 to 64 over the United States on the latest reading, but the study finds neighbors are more important than ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China–ASEAN Trade Nears $1,05 Trillion as Surplus Hits $278 Billion

Containers at the Laem Chabang deep-sea port in Chon Buri province, Thailand, on June 25, 2024. (Photo by Nutthawat Wichieanbut / Bangkok Post / Bangkok Post via AFP)
China and ASEAN are set to pass the trade threshold in 2025, with nearly $1.05 trillion in goods. That would leave China with a surplus that swells past $278 billion, a big ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Trump Tariffs Boosting Nigerian E-Commerce Giant

A file image of a delivery driver for Jumia in Côte d'Ivoire. Jumia is a New York-listed Nigerian e-commerce service with a large footprint in West Africa. Photo by ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP
The CEO of the Nigerian e-commerce company Jumia says the Trump administration’s tariffs are easing its access to Chinese manufacturers. Francis Dufay told Bloomberg that trade barriers in the U.S. are forcing Chinese ...
by CGSP Staff

Deals Signed at China-South Africa Trade and Investment Conference

A still from a video promoting the trade and investment fair, via the South African Broadcasting Corporation
The 9th China-South Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Conference opened in Johannesburg on Tuesday. It was marked by the signing of several deals, including an MoU for closer cooperation between the ...
by CGSP Staff

Chinese Importers Buy Argentinian Soybeans Amid Global Trade Shift

Browning soybean pods are seen at Harborview Farm as harvest for the crop nears in Rock Hall, Maryland, on September 23, 2025. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)
Chinese agricultural traders booked at least ten orders of Argentinian soybeans following the Milei government announcement on Monday that it will suspend export taxes on key crops. The move comes as Argentina tries ...
by CGSP Staff

U.S. Tariffs Hit China’s Exports; Pressure Rises in Southeast Asia

File image of cargo containers stacked at Yantian port in Shenzhen in China's southern Guangdong province. STR / AFP
China’s exports to the United States fell 25% between April and August 2025, about $57 billion, yet shipments redirected to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe helped offset the hit, a recent UNDP ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Chinese Commentary Says New Saudi-Pakistan Pact Could Lead to an “Islamic NATO”

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "Are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan building an 'Islamic NATO'?"
After Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed their joint defense pact, global attention surged, largely due to Pakistan being the sole nuclear-armed Muslim nation. A detailed commentary published on the popular nationalist news site Guancha ...
by Han Zhen

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

Argentina’s “Foreign Exchange Bet” Could Shake Up the Global Soybean Trade, Chinese Commentator Says

A hopper loads soybeans on a truck after the harvesting of a soy field in Lobos, some 100 km west of Buenos Aires. (Photo by Juan MABROMATA / AFP)
Argentina recently dropped an agriculture bombshell: a temporary, full tax exemption on exports of key grains and oilseeds, including soybeans, wheat, and corn, effective until October 31st. The policy has a built-in “stop-loss” mechanism: ...
by Han Zhen

China Not Seeking New Special and Differential Treatment in WTO Pacts

Exterior of the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
China will not be seeking new special and differential treatment — a privilege granted to developing countries — in current and future World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, the country’s official Xinhua news agency ...
by Agence France-Presse

Zelensky Says China Could Force Russia to Stop Ukraine War

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a United Nations Security Council minesterial meeting on Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York on September 23, 2025. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / POOL / AFP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN Security Council Tuesday that China could pressure Russia to end the war in his country, following a U.S. call for Beijing to stop buying Moscow’s oil. ...
by Agence France-Presse

ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting Pushes Regional Integration Amid Trade Tensions

The trade relationship between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to take center stage at the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) gathering in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. A consultation ...
by CGSP Staff

China to Donate Over $400,000 in Police Gear to Vanuatu: Minister

Vanuatu says it will sign a policing agreement with China that includes motorcycles, drones and other equipment, on top of existing training programs. Image via the Chinese embassy in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu’s interior minister has said China will donate hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of police equipment to the Pacific island nation, local media reported Tuesday, as Beijing deepens its influence in the ...
by Agence France-Presse

Why Venezuela Has Become China’s Frontline Partner Against U.S. Pressure

Members of the Bolivarian Armed Forces take part in a military exercise at Fort Tiuna in Caracas on September 20, 2025. (Photo by Pedro MATTEY / AFP)
A Chinese military blogger on the video platform Bilibili recently analyzed the rising military tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, framing Venezuela’s importance to China in both strategic and practical terms.  His argument goes ...
by Han Zhen

Mexico’s Tariff Move Risks Binding Itself to U.S. Protectionism, Chinese Scholar Warns

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on September 3, 2025. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / POOL / AFP)
Phoenix News published a commentary by Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, on Mexico’s surprise proposal to raise tariffs on imports from countries without free trade ...
by Han Zhen

China May Strengthen Climate Role Amid U.S. Fossil Fuel Push

Rotating wind turbines are in a wind power base in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto) (Photo by CFOTO / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP)
By Issam Ahmed and Ivan Couronne All eyes are on China this week, as the world’s biggest polluter readies a new emissions-cutting plan — reinforcing its role as a steadfast defender of global climate diplomacy ...
by Agence France-Presse

China-Backed Free Trade Giant RCEP Mulls Expansion and Upgrade

ASEAN Secretary General in Nanning, China. (Photo: Asean Secretariat)
China-backed trade platform in Asia, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), will return to the leaders’ level in October for the first time since 2020. Malaysia, the summit host, says the 15-economy ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Senate Confirms Outspoken China Critic as Next U.S. Ambassador to Argentina

Newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to Argentina, Peter Lamelas, speaking during a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on July 22, 2025. Image via the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The United States Senate late last week formally confirmed Florida physician and outspoken China hawk Peter Lamelas to be the new U.S. ambassador to Argentina. During his confirmation hearing in July, Lamelas accused ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Soybean Farmers Anxiously Watch Brazil Sell More and More to China

File image of imported soybeans from Brazil being unloaded at Longkou Port Area in China's northeast Shandong Province. (Photo by Tang Ke / CFoto / CFOTO via AFP)
Chinese soybean imports from Brazil rose by 2.4% in August compared to last year, according to customs data, a modest increase but one that nonetheless causes considerable consternation for U.S. farmers who have ...
by Eric Olander

Social Media Users Backed by the Chinese State Ensure Heated Exchange Caught on Video Stays Viral

File image showing a confrontational engagement between between Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University, and Elad Shoshan from the Israeli embassy shorten this
A viral video that captured a heated exchange last week between one of China’s most acclaimed foreign policy scholars and Israel’s defense attaché in Beijing spiked in viewership over the weekend as ties between ...
by Eric Olander

Disputes Over Gaza, Iran, and Taiwan Sour China-Israeli Ties

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to members of a bipartisan delegation of American legislators at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on September 15, 2025. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP)
In the nearly two years since the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, China’s ties with the Jewish state have been tense but largely stable. Clearly, the Israeli government has not ...
by Eric Olander

CAEXPO Wrap: China Pitches an Operating System for ASEAN Trade

High Resolution AI Satellite at China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, 2025. (Photo: Xinhua)
China wrapped CAEXPO in Nanning with a pitch that goes beyond product sales. The expo presented AI-ready factory “cells,” a low-speed autonomous shuttle, and a Beibu Gulf satellite. It also showcases vocational ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Leads Vietnam’s Electronics Component Imports, $33.5 Billion in 2025

File image of an apparel factory in Hanoi, Vietnam that manufactures activewear for various international clothing brands. Nhac NGUYEN / AFP
China was the largest supplier of computers, electronic products, and components to Vietnam in January–August. Imports from China reached $33.5 billion, placing it ahead of South Korea at $24.1 billion, Taiwan at ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo
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