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

Does China Want Africa to “Choose Sides”? Maybe a Little Bit

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "With resources, markets, and votes, Africa has become a new arena for major powers."
China often assures African countries that they won’t be made to ‘choose sides’ in a new cold war. However, a recent op-ed by a prominent Africa-focused think tanker makes clear that Beijing increasingly sees the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Africa’s Cynical Democrats Face the Development Dilemma

Hong Zhang is an expert on development and Africa-China relations at Harvard University
The Biden administration frames its fight with China for influence in the Global South as a struggle between democracy and autocracy. Both sides argue that their systems boost development. The result is that Africa’s development ...
by Cobus van Staden

Exposed: The Asian Companies Ruining West Africa’s Forests

Timber awaiting transport from the Campo Ma'an National Park in Cameroon near the border with Equatorial Guinea on October 9, 2022. Daniel Beloumou Olomo / AFP
West and Central Africa house some of the world’s last remaining old-growth rainforests. Asian timber companies are now driving widespread irresponsible logging, leaving ruined ecosystems in their wake.  However, simply blaming ‘China’ for this destruction ...
by Cobus van Staden

Annoyed With the U.S., Saudi Arabia Pivots to Asia

File image of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman. VLADIMIR SIMICEK / AFP
The steadily deteriorating ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia are coinciding with what appears to be a concerted shift by the Kingdom to foster closer ties with Asia’s largest powers, namely ...
by Eric Olander

South Korea’s Growing Reliance on Saudi Oil Could Make It Vulnerable in the Event of a Taiwan Conflict

South Korea imported 31 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil last month, up 30% compared to the same time last year, according to new data from the Korea Customs Service. ...
by Eric Olander

How the U.S. Should Respond to China’s Growing Military Presence in the Middle East and North Africa

The latest U.S. National Security Strategy released this month singled out China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge,” and nowhere is that contest more on display than in ...
by Eric Olander

Poll: More People Still Prefer U.S. Over China as Global Superpower, But to What Extent Depends on Where You Live

The divide between how people in wealthy advanced countries perceive China and those in poorer, less developed countries appears to be widening, according to the findings of a new year-long ...
by Eric Olander

No, Jackie Chan Didn’t Wear a T-Shirt Promoting Uganda’s First Son to Be “The Next President”

A 2010 photo of kung fu superstar Jackie Chan with the image on the left doctored to include a photo of Ugandan First Son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Images via Pesa Check.
The fact-checking team at Pesa Check debunked a photo that’s been circulating on Twitter and Facebook showing Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan purportedly wearing a t-shirt with a photo of the first son ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Singapore Prime Minister Said There Is No Consensus yet About China Joining the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact CPTPP

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong listens to Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) speech during the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit at the International Expo Center in Hangzhou on September 4, 2016. POOL / AFP
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long said there is no consensus yet about China joining the trans-Pacific trade pact CPTPP. Although Prime Minister Lee said on Tuesday that he personally believes China would be ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s New Transport Secretary Criticizes Previous Government’s Deals with China

Cabinet Secretary nominee for Roads, Transport and Public Works, Kipchumba Murkomen testified before the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments in Nairobi. Image via @kipmurkomen.
This week’s confirmation hearing for Kenya’s new Transport Secretary included some revealing details about prominent Chinese projects like the recently inaugurated Nairobi Expressway. Kipchumba Murkomen reacted to widespread complaints about the tolls charged to use the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Embassy Calls for Retreat from Nigeria’s Kaduna State

The Chinese embassy in Nigeria called for Chinese citizens to leave Kaduna state due to ongoing criminal attacks and kidnappings. This is only the latest such warning from the embassy, and Chinese diplomats have also met with Nigerian security ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese National Convicted of Illegal Mining in Nigeria

Mug shot of Chinese national Gang Deng who was arrested in September for illegal mining and sentenced by a High Court in Nigeria to five years in jail.
A Nigerian court sentenced a Chinese national to five years in jail (with the option of a fine of 1 million naira (about $2,300) for illegal mining. Gang Deng, who works for a ...
by Cobus van Staden

China is Now Zimbabwe’s Biggest Investor

Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun speaking at a recent Chinese investment in Zimbabwe conference in Harare. Images via @ChineseZimbabwe.
Over the past three years, China invested over $2 billion in Zimbabwe and is now the Southern African country’s largest foreign investor.  This was the main takeaway of a symposium on the economic ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Building of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base Speeds Up

Satellite image of construction at the Ream Naval Base in Cambodia led by Chinese contractors. Image via CSIS | AMTI.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a U.S. think tank affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published satellite images appearing to show rapid progress in the Chinese-constructed Ream naval base in Cambodia, ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...

What Kenya’s Embattled Standard Gauge Railway Tells Us About the Future of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Screenshot from a recent Wall Street Journal video that detailed the repayment challenges Kenya is going to face on its debts to China for the Standard Gauge Railway, in part because of the new government's resistance to forcing more cargo off the roads and onto the railway.
The Wall Street Journal has published a series of articles and videos over the past three weeks detailing what they’re describing as “Belt and Road 2.0” — a slimmed ...
by Eric Olander

More Nuance Needed in Discussion About Xi’s Party Congress Speech and What It Signals About China’s Engagement in the Global South

A recent column by CGSP Editor-in-Chief Eric Olander that said Xi Jinping’s speech at the 20th Party Congress last Sunday pointed to a re-prioritization of Chinese foreign policy objectives focused primarily on competition ...
by Eric Olander

New Chinese Naval Escort Task Force Joins Multinational Anti-Piracy Operations in the Gulf of Aden

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy 42nd escort task force joined multinational anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden. Image via the PLAN.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s 42nd naval escort taskforce began operations in the Gulf of Aden last Saturday as part of the 14-year-long multinational anti-piracy campaign off the coast of Somalia in the ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary Nominee Pushes Back Against Default Allegations

File image of Musalia Mudavadi, newly-elected Kenyan President William Ruto's nominee for Prime Cabinet Secretary. TONY KARUMBA / AFP
“We should not be a country that should walk into the defaulting mode,” says Musadia Mudavadi, a nominee to become Kenya’s new Cabinet Secretary. Mudavadi committed himself to meet Kenya’s ...
by Cobus van Staden

Global South Aids China’s Rise to Number 2 Global Car Exporter

Chart tracking the trends in Chinese automotive exports over the past ten years. Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
China surpassed Germany to become the world’s second-largest car exporter, after Japan. New numbers from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that China moved up from the number three ...
by Cobus van Staden

Rail-Sea Lines Boost China-Africa Trade

Southwest China's Chengdu has launched the first-ever Chengdu-Europe-Africa rail-sea multimodal transport line. Image via CGTN.
Multimodal rail-sea lines are increasingly transforming China’s trade with Europe and Africa. This week a train laden with Chinese products departed Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province, bound for Casablanca in ...
by Cobus van Staden

Ghana’s Ex-President Calls for Africa-China Trade Development

Former Ghanaian president John Mahama recently outlined his priorities for how to handle relations with China if re-elected. Image via @JDMahama.
Ghana’s former President (and possible future election contender), John Dramani Mahama, called for Africa to close its trade gap with China and to move up the value chain, away from ...
by Cobus van Staden

Long Awaited Debt Restructuring Talks Between China and Sri Lanka Get Underway

Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe attends the 156th Sri Lanka Police Day celebrations in Colombo on September 3, 2022. Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed that after months of inaction, debt restructuring talks with China have finally begun.  The President said in a statement on Sunday that he personally spoke with Chinese Finance Minister ...
by Eric Olander

Indonesian President Joko Widodo Does Final Site Inspection of New Chinese-built High Speed Railway

Indonesian President Joko Widido during a site inspection of a new Chinese-built high speed railway.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo got his first look at Southeast Asia’s only high-speed railway that will cut travel times between Jakarta and Bandung from three hours to just 40 minutes. The 142km railway, now 90% ...
by Eric Olander

China Moving to Expand CCP’s Legal Influence Abroad, Says Report

“Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” a selection of speeches by the Chinese leader. ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to expand its legal influence overseas, both in pursuit of its own objectives and as part of a broader effort to blunt the impact of U.S. ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Mining Giant CMOC Bats Back Fresh Rumors Its TFM Cobalt Mine in the Congo Has Been Suspended

CMOC statement published on its WeChat account that refuted new allegations about a suspension of operations at its TFM mine in the DRC.
Chinese mining giant CMOC (previously known as China Molybdenum) denied new rumors that Congolese authorities had shut down operations at its massive TFM copper and cobalt mine in the southern DRC. “At present, TFM’s ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: A Massive Strike in South Africa Threatens to Cripple the Country’s Logistics Sector, Jeopardizing Vast Amounts of China-Bound Exports

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his State of the Nation (SONA) address at the opening of the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, 10 February 2022. Nic BOTHMA / POOL / AFP
A massive strike is now underway in South Africa that threatens to cripple the country’s logistics sector, jeopardizing vast amounts of China-bound exports including strategic resources like cobalt. 76,000 workers at SA’s state-run port ...
by Eric Olander

Xi’s Agenda Troubled by Miscalculations: Top Singapore Diplomat 

One of Singapore's most prominent international affairs scholars, Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, listed Xi Jinping's 'no limits' partnership with Russia as one of three critical Chinese foreign policy mistakes. Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik / AFP
As strategic competition between China and the United States intensifies, Beijing enters its momentous 20th Party Congress (kicking off on Sunday) saddled with three big foreign policy mistakes.  So argues Singapore’s former top diplomat, ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Releases Climate Plan Focusing Heavily on Global South

AFP
China has released a new concept note  on climate cooperation in the runup to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (known as COP27) taking place in Egypt in November.  The document suggests areas ...
by Cobus van Staden

Morocco Buys Chinese Drones

Participants walk past a Chinese-made Wing Loong drone displayed during the Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates. KARIM SAHIB / AFP
Morocco bought an unspecified number of Chinese-made Wing Loong II drones. The remote-controlled planes have both reconnaissance and strike capability and are an upgrade of the earlier Wing Loong drone. Morocco already owns ...
by Cobus van Staden

Ethiopia Debuts New Chinese-Built Science Museum

The domed interior of the new Chinese-built science museum in Addis Ababa. The facility also features a research center and hosted a pan-African conference on artificial intelligence this week
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed inaugurated a new Chinese-built museum of science in Addis Ababa last week. He said the museum “offers both the young and old a place to inquire, explore, innovate and ...
by Cobus van Staden
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