Live Feed

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

Update on Riot at Chinese-owned Factory in Indonesia

Video that purports to show dormitories at the China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry smelting facility set ablaze by Indonesian laborers protesting against poor working conditions.

New video footage is emerging of the riot at a Chinese-owned nickel smelter in Indonesia that killed two people over the weekend. Hundreds of security personnel were deployed to quell the protests by Indonesian ...

Fun Fact: China’s Unexpected Corn Boom

Many would be surprised to hear the results of new research showing that China now produces more corn than rice. And its need for biofuels, starches and animal feed is so big it also ...

Decoding China’s Record-Breaking 2022 Trade With Africa

Mark RALSTON / AFP

China’s trade with countries in Africa broke a new record in 2022 at $282 billion, up 11% from last year’s $254 billion in two-way trade. The data reaffirms China’s position as the continent’s ...

Chinese FM Qin Gang Wraps Up Africa Tour in Egypt

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on January 15, 2023. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP

Qin Gang concluded his first tour of Africa as Foreign Minister on Sunday in Cairo, where he met separately with his counterpart Sameh Shoukry, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. ...

Angola is Now a New Front in the U.S.-China Technology Duel

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (L) visited Huawei's technology park in Angola on Janury 13, 2023 while the State Department's number two diplomat, Wendy Sherman, (R) paid a visit to the Angola offices of the U.S. government-backed telecom operator Africell on May 5, 2022.

Technology, not oil, emerged as a key focus of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s brief visit to Angola on Friday. Qin visited Huawei’s new $80 million technology park in the capital Luanda and later ...

China’s Building Diplomacy in Africa Shows No Signs of Slowing in 2023

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Gabonese counterpart Michaël Moussa Adamo on January 12 oversaw the signing of an agreement for China to renovate the Senate building in Libreville. Image via Gabon Telegraph.

Add Gabon’s Senate, known as Omar Bongo Ondimba Palace, to the long and growing list of African government buildings that will either be renovated or newly built using Chinese money and contractors. Visiting ...

Chinese Scholars Reflect on Qin Gang’s First Africa Tour

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Foreign Minister Qin Gang's first visit, what is the significance of choosing the five African countries?

There wasn’t much media coverage or online discussion in China about Qin Gang’s week-long visit to Africa that ended Sunday in Cairo, especially compared to previous years when the visit was widely touted ...

India and China Both Send High-Level Delegations to Sri Lanka This Week to Discuss Debt Crisis

Chen Zhou, Vice Minister of the International Development Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee met with former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at his residence during a four day visit to Colombo. Image via @BRISL.

Two of Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditors, China and India, are finally taking steps to engage Colombo after months of inaction in resolving the South Asian country’s worsening debt crisis. The Chinese led ...

Sri Lanka Caught in the Middle of China and India’s Geopolitical Rivalry

BBC Economics Editor Ben Chu returned to Colombo recently to report on Sri Lanka’s fraught position in the middle of India and China’s increasingly bitter feud and what the implications are for the ...

WEEK IN REVIEW: China Pushing for Free Trade Agreement With South America’s Mercosur Bloc

Newspapers reporting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential victory. Image: AFP

China is pushing for a free trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc or any of its individual members (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.) The recent election in Brazil could be a game changer, ...

Symbolism Galore as Qin Gang Opens Africa CDC HQ

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat inaugurated the Chinese-financed and built headquarters for the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa on January 11, 2022. Image via @AUC_MoussaFaki.

Qin Gang’s many photo-ops in Addis Ababa included the opening ceremony of the Chinese-built Africa Centers for Disease Control Headquarters building on Wednesday. This is the latest in a series of high-profile buildings for ...

Qin Gang’s First Foreign Visit as FM Busted Some Conventions

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister welcomes his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, during a brief refuelling layover at Dhaka's international airport on January 10, 2023. Image via United News of Bangladesh.

China has made it a 32-year custom that its Foreign Minister’s first foreign trip of the year is always to Africa. However, this year Qin Gang broke this tradition by stopping en route ...

Fresh Data on How China Affects African Jobs

Ethiopian workers in a shoe assembly plant. Image: AFP

Job creation is one of the most important issues in Africa-China relations. Two fascinating recent research articles give different takes on how engagement with China affects African development. The first focuses on the ...

The Final Piece of China’s Central Asian BRI Puzzle Is In Place

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting with the leaders of all five countries in Central Asia on January 25, 2022. Image via the Kyrgz presidential administration.

A recent MoU between China and Turkmenistan means that the whole of Central Asia is now part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This point was made during a briefing by Foreign Ministry spokesperson ...

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 ...

Chinese and Bangladeshi FMs Have a (Very) Early Morning Stopover Meeting in Dhaka

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister welcomes his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, during a brief refuelling layover at Dhaka's international airport on January 10, 2023. Image via United News of Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen headed to the airport early Tuesday morning to greet his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at 02:00 while his plane refueled in Dhaka on its way to Ethiopia. ...

3 Chinese Nationals Arrested in DRC For Allegedly Murdering a Compatriot

Three Chinese nationals and a Congolese driver were put on display by the DRC military for allegedly trying to kill a fellow Chinese.

A trio of suspected Chinese “bandits” were made to pose in front of a stash of weapons and cash seized by military authorities in the southern DRC province of Lualaba. Authorities claim the ...

China’s Highly Selective Retribution Against Countries That Impose COVID Tests

A health worker walks in front of a Covid-19 testing centre at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul on January 3, 2023. Jung Yeon-je / AFP

The Chinese government on Tuesday stopped issuing short-term visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan in retaliation against COVID tests both countries imposed on Chinese visitors. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the testing ...

Islamic Scholars Tour Xinjiang as Part of China’s Efforts to Refute “Western Lies”

A delegation of Islamic scholars tour Xinjiang as part of a Chinese campaign to challenge well-documented accusations of human rights violations in the Western Chinese region. Image via Global Times.

A group of 30 scholars from 14 Islamic countries is participating in a highly choreographed tour of China’s western Xinjiang region as part of Beijing’s latest efforts to push back against well-documented U.S. ...

Qin Gang Should Hit the Reset Button on Africa-China Relations: Expert

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang meeting with his Ethiopian counterpart Demeke Mekonnen Hassen on the first day of a five-nation African tour. Image via the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Qin Gang is taking over as Foreign Minister at an inflection point in Africa-China relations. While Chinese investment transformed African skylines, the relationship has also hit some problems. These include sky-high debt for ...

South Africa, China and Russia to Conduct Joint Naval Exercises

File image of the South African navy hosts a welcoming ceremony for frigate Weifang of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in Cape Town, South Africa, Nov. 24, 2019.

Russia, China and South Africa will conduct trilateral naval exercises in South African waters from 17-24 February. The three navies conducted similar exercises in 2019, and China-Russia exercises took place in the East China ...

China’s Middle East Approach Probably Won’t Change Soon: Expert

China's President Xi Jinping is received by the Governor of Riyadh province Prince Faisal bin Bandar al-Saud at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh during an official state visit in December 2022. AFP | SPA

Following President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia late last year, many speculated that China was aiming to replace the U.S. in the region, not least because U.S.-Saudi relations are currently quite frosty. ...

Chinese Arrivals Feted at Bangkok Airport

Images of Chinese tourists being cheered in Bangkok, via Shanghai Daily's Twitter feed.

In a striking demonstration of how central Chinese tourism is to Southeast Asian economies, travelers arriving from a reopening China were literally applauded as they disembarked in Bangkok this week.

China’s Wolf Warrior Defanged

Zhao Lijian was once known as China's "Wolf Warrior" for his provocative attacks against Beijing's critics while serving as Foreign Ministry spokesman. Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

China’s most prominent Wolf Warrior diplomat, Zhao Lijian, has been moved from his previous position as Foreign Ministry spokesperson to a new post as Deputy Director of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs. ...

Why a Chinese Coal Buy From Australia Should Worry Some Developing Countries

File image of coal shipments being prepped for export from Australia's Newscastle port, the world's largest coal exporting port. Saeed KHAN / AFP

One of China’s largest coal importers, the China Energy Investment Corp., bought at least two shipments of Australian coal on Friday in the latest sign of thawing ties between the two countries. While the ...

China, Like the U.S., Wants to Onshore More of Its Critical Resource Mining

The Chinese Communist Party's most influential newspaper, People's Daily, ran a lengthy interview with China's Natural Resources Minister Wang Guanghua on securing the country's critical resources supply chain.

China appears to share many of the concerns over the security of its supply chains for critical minerals that now dominate conversations in North American, European and some Asian capitals. Wang Guanghua, China’s ...

Afghanistan Signs New Oil Deal With China, Assures Beijing It Will Also Improve Security For Its People

Acting minister of mines and petroleum Shahabuddin Dilawar (L), Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar (C) and China's ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu attend a press conference to announce an oil extraction contract with a Chinese company in Kabul on January 5, 2023. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP

The Afghan government signed a symbolically important oil extraction deal with a Chinese state-owned company, the first such agreement since the Taliban took power in 2021. The Chinese side will own 80% of ...

South Africa’s Ruling ANC Party Calls For BRICS Expansion

South African President and leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa delivers a keynote address during the during 111th Anniversary gala dinner celebration at the Imvelo Safari in Bloemfontein on January 7, 2023. Phill Magakoe / AFP

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party said the government should use its position as chairman of the BRICS group to welcome new countries to the China-founded bloc. “The ANC and ANC-led government ...

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