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The News Feed is a curated selection of the most important China-Africa news edited by CAP’s editors in Asia and Africa.

Maybe The West’s Pressure on China to Build “High Quality” Infrastructure is Working

A Xinhua headline from Wednesday hints that years of criticism of low-quality Chinese-built infrastructure in developing countries may be having its desired effect. Chinese messaging on these issues used to focus on ...

Fears of Chinese Predatory Lending in Central Asia

Niva Yao is a specialist in China-Central Asian affairs and a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
The Chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Council of Ministers, Akylbek Zhaparov, repeated debunked accusations on Wednesday that China seized strategic assets in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka when they couldn’t afford to repay their debts. ...

UAE’s Ambassador to China Meets With Sinopharm President to Discuss Future Cooperation

UAE Ambassador to China, Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri meeting with Mr. Liu Jingchen, President of Sinopharm, at the embassy in Beijing to discuss future cooperation. Image via @UAEEmbChina.
The UAE’s ambassador to China, Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri, met with the President of Sinopharm, Liu Jinchen, at the embassy in Beijing this week to discuss how the two sides can enhance ...

Tucker Carlson: China is Colonizing Countries in the Western Hemisphere

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the most popular cable talk show personality in the United States, is hosting his show from Brazil this week and warning that the “Chinese military is establishing a threatening new ...

How Will the G7’s PGII Differ from China’s BRI? An Expert Weighs In

File image of Chinese worker carrying materials for the first rail line linking China to Laos, a key part of Beijing's 'Belt and Road' project across the Mekong, in Luang Prabang. Aidan JONES / AFP.
Responses to the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) have run the gamut from enthusiastic approval to strident condemnation. However, many have also raised questions about how the initiative will actually work.  While the ...

World Bank: Don’t Blame the Pandemic For the Global South Debt Crisis

Two leading World Bank economists issued a stinging rebuke against policymakers in developing countries who have blamed the worsening debt crisis on the pandemic.  “The seeds were sown long before COVID-19,” wrote Marcello ...

Ethiopia Shows Off New Chinese and Turkish Drones 

The Ethiopian military showed off what appear to be two newly-acquired attack drones, a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and a Chinese-manufactured Wing Loong 1. The two drones were spotted ...

No Surprise, Chinese State Media Didn’t Think Much of PGII, But They Actually Raised a Few Interesting Points

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "The G7 is going to raise $600 billion for a major project to "counter China." Where will the money come from?"
The Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times was among the first to launch broadsides against the G7’s latest effort to challenge the Belt and Road. Predictably, the paper interviewed several scholars who all discredited the new ...

PGII Will Channel a Lot of Private Capital to Developing Countries But What About the Debt?

US President Joe Biden speaks next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the first day of the G7 leaders' summit held at Elmau Castle, southern Germany on June 26, 2022. JONATHAN ERNST / POOL / AFP
Even as the G7 was unveiling its new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), protesters in the Alpine town hosting the summit were calling for more action on infrastructure-related debt. This debate has ...

Prominent China Scholar Maps a Way Out For Beijing’s Global South Debt Crisis

Exterior of the China Development Bank Tower in Shanghai.
With the global economy steadily sliding towards recession, a growing number of Chinese bankers are no doubt becoming increasingly nervous about whether they’ll ever see again the tens of billions of dollars they lent to developing ...

Communist Party of China Reaches Out to Nigerian Political Parties

An announcement of the meeting between the CPC and Nigerian political officials on the Chinese embassy in Abuja's Twitter feed
Nigeria’s Inter-Party Advisory Council, an umbrella organization representing all the country’s registered political parties, held a joint seminar with the Chinese embassy and the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist ...

B3W 2.0: The $600 Billion “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment”

US President Joe Biden speaks next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the first day of the G7 leaders' summit held at Elmau Castle, southern Germany on June 26, 2022. JONATHAN ERNST / POOL / AFP
G7 leaders unveiled their latest effort to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative with the announcement of the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII).” The new plan was revealed on Sunday at ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G7’s New Infrastructure Initiative Could Strengthen China’s Global South Game: Experts

The G7’s new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), a $600 billion plan to build infrastructure across the Global South and counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), could have the effect of improving how Chinese companies do business and could end up improving the BRI itself, according to development experts. 

Some acknowledged that the BRI has been controversial for its environmental and debt impacts. But they also pointed out ...

U.S. Forms Coalition to Break China’s Hold on Critical Mineral Supply Chains

A cobalt processing line in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China controls the bulk of the blue metal supply chain that's critical for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. AFP.
The United States, along with partner countries in North America, Europe, and Asia unveiled a new Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) pact earlier this month that aims to challenge China’s control ...

U.S. and Its Allies in Asia Form New Group to Counter China’s Rising Influence in the South Pacific

File image of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at a joint press conference in Fiji's capital city Suva. Leon LORD / AFP
The United States formed yet another coalition with a catchy tagline intended to push back against China’s growing clout, this time in the South Pacific.  The United States, Japan, ...

USAID Emails Reveal Anxiety Over China’s Solomon Islands Security Pact

U.S. government emails accessed via a Freedom of Information request that reveal unease over China's security pact with the Solomon Islands. Image via USAID.
Newly-released emails obtained by Al Jazeera through a Freedom of Information request highlight U.S. unease over China’s recent security agreement with the Solomon Islands. “Yikes! This is very troubling,” said Ryan ...

China, Iran Aim to Boost Trade Through New Railway

TWEET TRANSLATION: The first international cargo "crossing the Caspian Sea" departed from Yinchuan in the northwest to the port of Anzali. The train is scheduled to arrive in the port of Anzali in northern Iran in about 20 days.
A new railway cargo line connecting the southwestern Chinese province of Ningxia with the northern Iranian port city of Anzali is now operational.  The new 8,500-kilometer route is supposedly twice as fast as ...

WEEK IN REVIEW: The United States To Re-launch B3W at Next Week’s G7 Conference

U.S. President Joe Biden tours the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Arvada, Colorado, on September 14, 2021, before delivering a speech on the infrastructure deal and the Build Back Better agenda. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The United States will re-launch the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative at next week’s G7 conference with a new program that aims to provide an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing in the Global South. National ...

BRICS Summit Raises Questions About Shared Agenda

File image of the five leaders from the BRICS countries who will convene virtually this week. Sergio LIMA / AFP
This week’s BRICS summit sets the stage for renewed wrangles around the bloc’s future role. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will meet virtually on Thursday 

Israel’s Shakshuka Diplomacy in China

Israel's Consul General in Guangzhou appeared on a Chinese cooking show, and the occasion was packaged for the press back home by the Israeli foreign ministry.
China’s efforts to promote itself to foreign audiences frequently take the form of stiffly-produced TV inserts on traditional cuisine and historical festivals.  But China isn’t alone in this game – sometimes, it goes the other ...

COVID Lockdowns Hit Cobalt Prices

A cobalt processing line in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China controls the bulk of the blue metal supply chain that's critical for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. AFP.
Chinese cobalt prices fell about 13% from a peak in May as China’s ongoing COVID lockdowns hit demand for electric vehicles.  The dynamic reveals a gap between the Chinese domestic price for ...

Corruption Documentary Rocks China-Guyana Relations

Guyana’s ruling party faces controversy following a documentary by the U.S. media outlet VICE alleging that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo took bribes from a Chinese businessman. President Irfaan Ali 

Despite Controversy, the Video Industry Exposed by the BBC’s Racism Documentary Is Thriving

A still from the BBC documentary "Racism for Sale," showing the producer Runako Celina with stills from the hundreds of "well-wishing" videos featuring African children.
Even as Chinese diplomats scramble to distance themselves from the trade in videos featuring African children coached to repeat demeaning phrases in Mandarin, the “well-wishing video” industry exposed by the recent BBC documentary “Racism for ...

Life at the Heart of Africa-China Trade 

File image of an African trader negotiating with a Chinese merchant in Yiwu. Image via Xinhua.
COVID and government crackdowns have hollowed out Guangzhou’s once-thriving African community. While many of these traders have left China, some are relocating to Yiwu. The city, in Zhejiang province, is one of the world’s largest ...

UK’s New Special Envoy Signals Contrast to China’s Approach in the Horn of Africa

Sarah Montgomery is the UK's newly appointed Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea.
The United Kingdom has announced that it’s appointing a special envoy to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region. Sarah Montgomery has experience in the Persian Gulf, Iran and Yemen.  ...

Worsening Criminal Attacks on Chinese in DRC 

Attacks against Chinese nationals in the DRC’s mining provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga are worsening. Chinese community groups have listed ten violent incidents in the region since late May.  The city of Lubumbashi ...

China’s Top Diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa Visits Tanzania

Chinese ambassador to Tanzania (far left) Chen Mingjian with Director-General Wu Peng (left) and Tanzanian Foreign Minister Liberata Mulamula (in pink). Image via @WUPENG_MFA.
Wu Peng, the Director-General for Sub-Saharan Africa in China’s Foreign Ministry, continued his African tour with a visit to Tanzania. He tweeted that he met with Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation ...

What Transsion Did in Africa’s Mobile Phone Market, Chinese Device Maker Realme is Doing in India

Chinese smartphone maker Realme has jumped to number three in India's massive and hugely competitive mobile phone market. Image via Realme.
The Chinese brand RealMe isn’t well known in China, but it managed to zoom to the number 3 position in India’s notoriously competitive mobile phone market. With a 16% market share, the company ...

China’s Censors Catch Up with Discussions of BBC Racism Expose

Chinese censors are tightening up the discussion surrounding the controversial BBC documentary Racism for Sale by banning any screengrabs from the program to be displayed on social media.
China’s censors are now cracking down on online discussions sparked by the BBC documentary “Racism for Sale.” The program exposes the trade in online videos in which African children are ...
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