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

China Tops Indonesia Trade, August Surplus Highest Since 2022

Stacks of cargo containers at the Jakarta International Container Terminal in Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta on July 7, 2025.
China was Indonesia’s top buyer and top supplier as Indonesia’s goods trade surplus reached $5.49 billion in August. The number is the highest since November 2022, according to the Indonesian statistics agency. ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Colombian President Fires Beijing Embassy Staff for “Sabotaging” China Outreach

President of Colombia Gustavo Petro speaks during the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered staff at his country’s embassy in Beijing to be removed, accusing them of undermining outreach efforts to China. “There is a foreign ministry that feels ashamed of ...
by CGSP Staff

Albanese “Concerned” About BHP Iron Ore Halt

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (front, right) with Chinese President Xi Jinping (front, center) at the G20 summit in Brazil last year. Photo by ERIC LEE / POOL / AFP
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he is “concerned” about reports that China has halted iron ore orders from the Australian mining giant BHP. Shipments have reportedly been paused amid price disputes ...
by CGSP Staff

China Sends Pointed Message with South China Sea Flag-Raising

An aerial view of the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea in February 2025. (Photo by Jam STA ROSA / AFP)
The Chinese Coast Guard held a flag-raising ceremony to mark China’s National Day off the Scarborough Shoal, a zone in the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines. The ceremony, which ...
by CGSP Staff

Beijing Pushes Palm Oil, Rubber Supply Guarantees from Jakarta

Large-scale agriculture in China's Hebei Province. China palm oil supply guarantees top Jakarta farm talks as Beijing also seeks rubber and bird’s-nest access, rice R&D, and deeper ties. Image: AFP
China asked Indonesia to guarantee long-term supplies of crude palm oil (CPO), natural rubber, and edible bird’s nest during bilateral farm talks in Jakarta on Tuesday, Indonesia’s vice minister of agriculture, Sudaryono, ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China–Malaysia in Rare Earths Refinery Talks, With Tech Transfer

The Lynas Malaysia Advanced Materials Plant. China and Malaysia are in early talks on a rare earths refinery talks, with Chinese tech transfer, amid supply and environmental hurdles. Image via Lynas
China and Malaysia are in early talks on a rare-earth processing project. The potential collaboration could involve Chinese state-linked firms partnering with Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional to build a refinery ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Trump to Meet Argentina’s President Amid China Soybean Tensions

Argentine president Javier Milei (R) receives the 2025 Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award from US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 24, 2025. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)
U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with his Argentine counterpart, Javier Millei, in two weeks. The meeting comes as huge exports to China threaten an economic deal between the two right-wing governments. ...
by CGSP Staff

Top-Level Leadership Change In CPC’s International Outreach Body

File image of Liu Haixing. Photo: Chinese People's Congress
Liu Jianchao, long the Communist Party of China’s head of international outreach, has been replaced by Liu Haixing, previously a high-ranking security official, as the head of the International Department of the Communist Party of ...
by CGSP Staff

China, Zambia and Tanzania Seal $1.4 Billion Deal to Modernize Tazara Railway

Signing Ceremony for the Tazara Modernization Agreement in Beijing on September 29, 2025. Image via the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa.
More than a year after a memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing, China, Zambia and Tanzania have finalized an agreement to rehabilitate and modernize the Tazara railway. Built by China in the ...
by Christian Geraud Neema Byamungu

Geely Starts Assembly in Indonesia as the U.S. and EU Tariffs Rise

Geely in Indonesia starts assembly, targeting faster deliveries as the U.S. and EU raise duties on Chinese EVs.(Peter PARKS / AFP)
Geely, the Chinese carmaker, has begun knock-down (KD) assembly in Indonesia through its unit Geely Auto Indonesia. The work is taking place at a plant in West Java. The company says building ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Signs Deal to Upgrade Iconic African Rail Line

A 2013 file image of Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete (2ndL) at a wreath-laying ceremony to honor Chinese workers who died building the TAZARA rail line in the early 1970's. It was one of Xi's first overseas trips after becoming president. (Photo by JOHN LUKUWI / AFP)
China, Zambia, and Tanzania signed a $1.4 billion deal to upgrade the TAZARA rail line between the two countries. The line is an icon of Africa-China cooperation, with its first iteration supported ...
by CGSP Staff

Beijing Starts Reining In Non-Ferrous Producers, Puts Quality First

A worker in the production workshop of a new energy enterprise produces new energy vehicle power battery shell products in Ningde, China, on February 17, 2025. Beijing launched a two-year plan to rein in non-ferrous metals: curb price wars, cap output, boost recycling, drive higher-value growth.(Photo by CFOTO / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP)
China on Sunday announced a two-year plan to tighten control of its non-ferrous metals industry. The policy aims to curb cut-throat competition and shift growth toward higher-value, cleaner production. The plan, issued ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

Thailand FDI Jumps 125% in 2025; China & Hong Kong Commit $922 Million

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)
Investors from China and Hong Kong committed nearly $922 million to Thailand from January to August 2025, the Ministry of Commerce said. Total foreign projects approved reached about $6.27 billion, up 125% from ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Sentences 16 Myanmar-Linked Gang Members to Death

1 criminals from gangs based in northern Myanmar were sentenced to death on September 29, 2025, on multiple criminal charges, according to the verdict of a local court in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. Image via People's Daily.
A Chinese court sentenced to death on Monday 16 members of a family-run criminal gang that established deadly scam centers in Myanmar’s Kokang region on the border with China, among other crimes. Scam ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Eye-Rolling Through the Apocalypse

November’s COP30 gathering in Belém, Brazil, marks three decades since COP1 in Berlin in 1995, and raises a sobering reminder of how deep we’ve sunk into a climate morass of our own making amid non-stop warnings. The evacuation of millions of people and the deaths of at least seventeen due to Typhoon Ragasa’s rampage through the Philippines, Taiwan, and China couldn’t have been more pointedly timed as U.S. and Chinese ...

Indonesia Fines TikTok Over Late Tokopedia Acquisition Notice

(Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)
Indonesia’s antitrust agency has fined TikTok $900,000 for failing to notify regulators in time about its acquisition of e-commerce platform Tokopedia, an official said on Monday. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, completed an ...
by Agence France-Presse

Iran Recalls European Ambassadors After Failure of China-Led UN Vote

China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Geng Shuang speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting last week. Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP.
Iran recalled its ambassadors to the UK, Germany, and France, following the defeat of a China-led draft resolution in the UN Security Council to prevent the reimposition of sanctions against the country.
by Eric Olander

Singapore Denies Entry to HK Activist, Citing ‘National Interests’

File image of former Hong Kong legislator and pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, who posed for this picture in London in August 2023. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
Singapore said Monday it had refused entry to Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law over the weekend as his presence would not be in the city-state’s “national interests”. The activist, who holds a ...
by Eric Olander

BYD: 1 in 5 EVs Will Be Exported in 2025 as Production Ramps

BYD vehicles await export at a Hangzhou terminal, June 2, 2025. BYD says 1 in 5 EVs will be exported in 2025, driven by its car-carrier fleet, Hungary plant, and growth in Europe and Southeast Asia. (Photo: Long Wei/CFoto via AFP)
China’s BYD expects to export 800,000 to 1,000,000 EVs in 2025, about a fifth of its 2025 sales as it moves more cars on its own vessels and adds capacity overseas. “We estimate ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Calls on North Korea to Oppose ‘Hegemony’

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in Beijing on September 28, 2025. Image via Xinhua.
Beijing wants to strengthen cooperation with Pyongyang and work together to oppose hegemony, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his North Korean counterpart, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States. North ...
by Agence France-Presse

Thailand Asks China to Complete the 280,000-ton Rice Import

Thailand asks China to complete a 280,000-ton rice purchase and explores an extra 500,000 tons in 2025.. June 26, 2024, Chiang Hong District, Chiang Rai. The rice fields near the Ing River wetlands in Chiang Khong, Chiang Rai
Thailand asked China to complete a 280,000-metric-ton government rice purchase and floated a separate 500,000-metric-ton buy for 2025, Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun said on Saturday. The remaining 280,000 tons are believed to be ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

China Puts EV Exports Under Permit Regime from 2026

BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded on a ship stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port at Suzhou Port, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province. (Photo: AFP)
China will add electric vehicles, or EVs, to its export-permit list effective Jan. 1, 2026, the Ministry of Commerce said, citing “healthy development” of the sector. The step brings EVs into ...
by Edwin Shri Bimo

$80 Billion Zambian Lawsuit Triggers Outrage on Chinese Social Media

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: “Chinese companies were extorted for $80 billion — Zambia has really gone crazy from being poor.”
China’s social media has been buzzing after Zambian farmers filed an $80 billion lawsuit against Sino-Metals, a Chinese-owned copper mining company, accusing it of causing an environmental disaster following the collapse of a mining waste ...
by Han Zhen

China at UN Warns of Return to ‘Cold War Mentality’

Premier of China Li Qiang speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on September 26, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Chinese Premier Li Qiang warned Friday against a return to a “Cold War mentality” and defended multilateralism and free trade, in a veiled criticism of the United States from the United Nations. The ...
by Agence France-Presse

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
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