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

How Africa-China Studies Exploded Since 2012

The SSRC report is its first mapping of the Africa-China field since 2012 and shows the field’s rapid expansion. Ten years ago, it found three key subfields in Africa-China studies: trade and aid; ...
by Cobus van Staden

The Sprawling World of Asia-China Studies

SSRC’s mapping of research on the relationship between China and Southeast, Central, South and Western Asia shows both how vast these fields are and how they differ significantly both in terms of research ...
by Cobus van Staden

Two Themes Dominate Latin America-China Studies

The SSRC’s mapping of scholarship on the relationship between China and South and Latin America and the Caribbean shows that the entanglement of geopolitics and global economics dominate the field. However, the report ...
by Cobus van Staden

Will Infrastructure Boost African Growth? Maybe Not, Says Economist

File image of a refugee from South Sudan carrying her child on her back while working at her vegetable crops in Kalobeyei settlement for refugees in Turkana County, Kenya. Luis TATO / AFP
The Kenyan economist David Ndii published a fascinating paper casting doubt on one of the most fundamental assumptions in Africa-China relations: that the key to boosting growth is infrastructure. Ndii, a prominent critic ...
by Cobus van Staden

Pressure Mounting on Biden to Counter China’s Free Trade Push in South America

US President Joe Biden meets with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 2022. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso’s visit to Washington this week prompted urgent calls from Capitol Hill for the President to do more to counter China’s growing influence in South America. Lasso met with Biden on Monday ...
by Eric Olander

New Satellite Images Show Widespread Road Building on Both Sides of the Disputed India-China Border

Before-and-after satellite images show key access roads on the Chinese side have been resurfaced or upgraded, and a new road has been constructed on the Yangtse Plateau from Tangwu New Village to within 150 metres of the LAC ridge. Image via ASPI.
The Chinese and Indian militaries are building out transportation infrastructure high up in the Himalayas along their disputed border known as the Line of Actual Control, according to new satellite imagery published by the ...
by Eric Olander

Apple’s “Out of China” Moves Continue Apace With MacBooks Now Set to Be Produced in Vietnam

Chris Tuite / AFP
Add MacBooks to the growing list of Apple products that the tech giant now plans to produce “Out of China.” The Cupertino-based company will reportedly begin manufacturing the laptops in Vietnam in mid-2023, according ...
by Eric Olander

Why Vietnam and Other Asian Countries Won’t Replace China as an Electronics Manufacturing Hub Anytime Soon

Via Bloomberg
There’s growing excitement in some corners of Washington, D.C., that Apple’s drive to shift production to other countries in Asia is a sign of progress in the ongoing effort to decouple U.S. manufacturing from ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Contractor Signs $2.2 Billion Deal to Build Next Stage of Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway

Source: @SuluhuSamia Twitter Account
The Tanzanian government and an unspecified Chinese contractor signed a $2.2 billion contract on Tuesday to build a 2,561km rail line from Dar es Salaam to the Lake Victoria city of Mwanza. It’s ...
by Eric Olander

One of China’s Top Africa Diplomats in Ghana Just as Debt Crisis Unfolded

Liu Yuxi is the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs.
One of China’s most senior Africa diplomats, Special Representative Liu Yuxi, was in Ghana on the same day the country’s finance ministry announced it would suspend debt repayments to external creditors. Liu appears to be ...
by Cobus van Staden

Zambia’s President Hichilema Clarifies Chinese Loans’ Role in Debt Crisis

Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema speaking at Council on Foreign Relations event in New York on December 13, 2022. Image via CFR.
As Ghana sinks into debt distress, many are looking to Zambia’s debt restructuring process for clues on how China will feature. Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema provided a glimpse into his government’s thinking about ...
by Cobus van Staden

It’s China, Not Africa That Could be Facing a Debt Trap: Report

Top 20 recipients of Chinese loans in Africa, 2000–20 ($ millions, unadjusted). Source: Boston University Global Development Policy Center (2022), ‘Chinese Loans to Africa Database.’ Note: These figures are based upon loan commitments, and should not be regarded as equivalent to African government debt, as a portion of signed loans are not disbursed, and a significant portion have been repaid as scheduled.
At 12% of Africa’s total external debt, China didn’t cause the current wave of debt distress hitting the continent. But the crisis presents Beijing with a dilemma: should it strongarm these countries to get its ...
by Cobus van Staden

Uruguay’s Free Trade Talks With China and Desire to Enter Pacific Trade Pact Upsets Regional Neighbors

Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou gestures as he leaves the leaders' summit of Mercosur and associated countries in Montevideo on December 6, 2022. Eitan ABRAMOVICH / AFP
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou came under intense criticism from fellow leaders within the South American trading bloc known as Mercosur earlier this month over his government’s moves to strike ...
by Eric Olander

Fury Mounts in India Over Chinese Border Clash, Opposition Blasts PM For Remaining Silent

Screenshot of a New Delhi TV report on the walkout by the opposition Congress Party in parliament to protest the government's response to the recent border clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming under intense criticism from the opposition Congress Party for not condemning China for a December 9th military skirmish in the Tawang sector along their disputed border ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...

Chinese Media’s Low-Key Reaction to Border Clash With India

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Don't Let Border Issues Affect China-India Relations
While India’s notoriously outspoken media is filled with anger over the December 9th skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops along the disputed border in the Himalayas, it’s a very different situation in China, ...
by Eric Olander

Get Ready For Lots of Tough Talk on Chinese Debt When Janet Yellen Travels to Africa Next Month

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen meets with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, on December 15, 2022. SAUL LOEB / AFP
Just days after it wrapped up a summit with African leaders, the Biden administration is following through on its promise to send more high-level officials to the continent.  First ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: More Details About Sri Lanka’s Economic Recovery Program Is Emerging

Arun SANKAR / AFP
More details about Sri Lanka’s economic recovery program is emerging as the country struggles to restructure its debt, about a fifth of which is owed to China. The country’s Foreign Minister, Ali Sabry told ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese State Media Strident on Summit

Editorial cartoon published by the Chinese Communist Party-run nationalist tabloid Global Times. Image via Global Times.
While the Chinese public seems disinterested in the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, China’s state media is rolling out the invective.  The state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times published two highly negative articles dismissing the summit. 
by Cobus van Staden

African Media Largely Indifferent to Summit

The Wednesday edition of Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, like most publications across Africa, did not include a single mention of the summit on its front page.
The U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit has drawn very little media attention in Africa. The coverage that appeared was rehashed copy from international news agencies. Very few publications focused on how the outcomes will affect ...
by Cobus van Staden

Oh, the Talking Points: Why It’s Sometimes Better When U.S. Officials Leave China Out of the Africa Conversation…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin participate in a Peace, Security and Governance Forum during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 13, 2022. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP
At the outset of the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, one message was clear: African countries hate being made to ‘choose sides’ between the U.S. and China. So, U.S. officials were determined to avoid the ...
by Cobus van Staden

That Viral Clip of Indian and Chinese Border Fighting Isn’t What It Seems

India Today television host Shiv Aroor debunks a viral video purportedly depicting last week's clash between Chinese and Indian troops that's been circulating widely on social media and in the news. Image via India Today.
A video clip purporting to show last week’s border clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers is going viral online. However, the news program India Today showed that the footage was actually shot ...
by Cobus van Staden

What Actually Happened in the China-India Border Fight Last Week?

Ananth Krishnan is the Beijing-based correspondent for The Hindu newspaper.
Last week’s violent border skirmish between Chinese and Indian soldiers sent the already frosty relationship into the deep freeze. However, much still remains unknown about the incident and its wider implications. 
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Social Media Largely Ignores U.S.-Africa Summit

Anti-U.S. comments by Chinese netizens on the United States embassy's Weibo page in response to a post about the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit underway in Washington.
While the state media reaction in China to the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit has been predictably negative, Chinese social media has largely ignored the event completely.  China Global South Project China editor Han Zhen ...
by Cobus van Staden

Critical Report from African Think Tank Name-Checked in Beijing’s Response to Summit

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin speaking during the regular press briefing in Beijing on November 12, 2022. Image via the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
While the Biden administration is trying to steer discussions of its Africa summit away from its geopolitical competition with China, the opposite is true in Beijing. At a press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Press: The U.S.-Africa Summit is All About China

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: What is the intention of the Biden administration's U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit?
The Chinese press and think tank coverage of the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit is echoing the geopolitics-focused response from the Foreign Ministry. China’s state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times set the tone by arguing that ...
by Cobus van Staden

Prominent Africa Scholar Shapes Beijing’s Summit Talking Points

He Wenping is one of China's most prominent Africa scholars and Research Program Director at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Chinese experts play a key role in shaping Beijing’s messaging on the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit. Key among them is He Wenping, a researcher at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at ...
by Cobus van Staden

U.S. Signs MoU with DRC, Zambia for e-Vehicle Supply Chains

US Secretary Antony Blinken (C), Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula (L) and Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo sign a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, on December 13, 2022. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP
The governments of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States to develop an electric vehicle supply chain in their countries. The exact details of the agreement ...
by Cobus van Staden

Biden’s Africa Talk is “Hollow”: Expert

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit on December 13, 2022. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP
While many U.S. government spokespeople are putting a happy face on the summit, independent analysts are being less diplomatic.  Amaka Anku, the head of Africa analysis at the Eurasia Group, didn’t mince words ...
by Cobus van Staden

Global Coverage Zeroes In On Weak U.S.-Africa Engagement

Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist Kate Fisher reporting for Singapore's Channel News Asia.
Global coverage of the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit pointed out how little energy has been invested in the relationship in contrast to China’s ongoing diplomatic outreach. Kate Fisher, a correspondent for Singapore’s Channel New ...
by Cobus van Staden

China’s Party-run Media, Scholars Dismiss U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Washington Invites 49 African Leaders to US-Africa Summit This Week, Against China?
While U.S. officials have sought to downplay competition with China in Africa ahead of this week’s leaders summit in Washington, D.C., Chinese scholars and Communist Party-run media, on the other hand, are eager ...
by Cobus van Staden
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