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

Preview of New U.S.-China Popularity Polling in Africa

U.S. President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 14, 2022. SAUL LOEB / AFP
The influential African polling outfit Afrobarometer has released a glimpse of new polling results among African populations of their perceptions of external powers. Afrobarometer surveys have noted consistently high (and similar) approval rates ...
by Cobus van Staden

How Far Ahead Is China in the Battery Race? Pretty Far.

A chart published in Financial Times showing the location of the global battery supply chain. Note that Chinese companies control large sections of both cobalt and nickel extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, respectively
China is sprinting ahead in the global race for critical minerals used to make batteries for electric cars, leaving Western competitors scrambling to catch up. Chinese companies’ early investment into the extraction of lithium and ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Boosted Pandemic-Era Debt Relief: Report

Source: World Bank IDS 2022 and IMF (for Angola). Note: “All China’’ includes both “bilateral” and “private” Chinese creditors. For seven debtor countries participating in only one year, the calculation includes only the participating year. The China data includes debt reprofiling by CDB and ICBC in Angola. The calculation does not include cash-flow relief provided by the IMF through the CCRT fund. “Debt service due” represents the pre-DSSI debt service originally due in 2020 and 2021.
China’s role in debt renegotiation processes has become very controversial, with U.S. officials like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen singling Beijing out as a “barrier” to resolving debt distress. However, a new report by a team ...
by Cobus van Staden

African Leaders to Kamala Harris: We’re Going to Work With Both the U.S. and China

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during a press conference in Lusaka with Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema during the last stop of her week-long, three nation Africa tour. AFP.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Washington, D.C., after wrapping up a week-long, three-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa over the weekend. Before she left, Harris held a press conference on Friday ...
by Eric Olander

Nigerian VP: “Most African Countries Are Rightly Unapologetic About Their Close Ties to China”

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo speaking at King's College in London, where he gave a forceful defense of his country's and other African states' ties with China. Image via @ProfOsinbajo
Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo pushed back against Western criticisms of Chinese engagement in Africa, saying concerns over predatory lending are “an overreaction.” The Vice President spoke at King’s College in London, where ...
by Eric Olander

Embassy Briefs Chinese Business Community in DR Congo on Worsening Security Conditions

Ambassador to the DR Congo Zhu Jing (center left) provided an update to Chinese business representatives in the DR Congo on the security conditions in the country. Image via Congo Today.
China’s ambassador to the DR Congo, Zhu Jing, hosted a briefing at the embassy for Chinese companies operating in the country about the deteriorating security conditions. Representatives from at least 50 Chinese ...
by Eric Olander

Ford Teams Up With Chinese, Indonesian Companies in Nickel Venture

Jack TAYLOR / AFP
The Ford Motor Company is teaming up with Indonesia’s PT Vale and Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to buy the Pomalaa nickel processing plant in Indonesia. The $4.5 billion venture deepens the ...
by Eric Olander

Reality Check for U.S. and EU Policymakers Planning to Decouple From China’s EV Battery Supply Chain

Source: BloombergNEF
One of the main priorities of last year’s landmark environmental legislation in the U.S. (known as the Inflation Reduction Act) is to reduce, even eliminate China’s role in the electric vehicle supply chain, ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Renewable Energy Expertise Could Help Cape Town Address Crippling Blackouts

File image of Cape Town during on one of the regular black outs, or load shedding periods, that are now common in South Africa's second city. RODGER BOSCH / AFP
As South Africa’s power woes worsen, Cape Town is seeking to double electricity supplies from hydropower from the current 200 megawatts (MW) in a desperate bid to reduce the impact of chronic power outages. ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

WEEK IN REVIEW: Brazilian President Expected to Reschedule China Visit to April 11th

Newly re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) met with his Uruguayan counterpart Luis Lacalle Pou to discuss a controversial trade pact between Montevideo and Beijing. Dante Fernandez / AFP
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong embarked on a week-long trip to China on Monday that will include meetings with both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. The visit marks the Singaporean leader’s ...
by Eric Olander

Singapore PM Meets With Guangdong’s Top CPC Official on His Way to Beijing

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets with Huang Kunming, the Secretary of the Communist Party of China Guangdong Provincial Committee. Image via @leehsienloong.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a brief stopover in China’s southern Guandong province on Wednesday during his six-day visit to China. Lee paid a courtesy call to the province’s top official, ...
by Eric Olander

Challenging Chinese Mining Contracts Isn’t About Politics, It’s About What’s Fair, Says DRC Finance Minister

Nicolas Kazadi, the Democratic Republic of Congo's finance minister, provided new details at the FT Commodities Global Summit about why the government is so determined to restructure Chinese mining contracts. Image via the Financial Times.
DR Congo Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi pushed back against the narrative that Kinshasa is specifically targeting Chinese companies over unfair mining contracts. The minister was adamant in his discussion with Financial Times ...
by Eric Olander

Zambia’s Debt Grows to $33 Billion as Restructuring Talks Stall and Interest Accrues

List of the outstanding debts and accrued interest payments owed to Zambia's creditors as of March 2023. Source: Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
The Zambian Finance Ministry released its latest debt figures this week that reveals the painful cost that delays in restructuring are exacting on the economically-distressed country. The country’s total public debt now stands ...
by Eric Olander

Hondura’s President Announces That’s She’ll be Traveling Soon to Beijing to Sign “Auspicious Agreements”

Honduran President Xiomara Castro arrives for the plenary session of the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government at the Dominican Foreign Ministry building in Santo Domingo, on March 25, 2023. Erika SANTELICES / AFP
Honduran President Xiomara Castro looked visibly pleased with her decision to switch ties from Taiwan to China last week when she announced on Twitter that she’ll soon be headed to Beijing to sign a ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

CGSP Take: How Does the Venezuela Crisis Affect China’s Relationship with the Global South?

By Cobus van Staden, CGSP Head of Research,
China has sharply criticized the Trump administration’s incursion into Venezuela and its detention of President Nicolás Maduro. 

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Harris Arrives in Zambia Where China Questions Will Loom Much Larger Than in Ghana

US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) speaks during a press conference with President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo (R) after their bilateral meeting in Accra, Ghana, on March 27, 2023. Nipah Dennis / AFP
U.S. Vice President landed in Zambia on Wednesday for the second leg of a three-nation, week-long Africa tour.  During her first stop in Ghana, the Vice President assiduously tried to avoid any reference ...
by Eric Olander

Will China, UAE’s Masdar Successfully Collaborate to Give Africa Reliable Renewable Energy?

UAE Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and chairman of Masdar, with officials from the clean energy company and the Ivory Coast at the signing ceremony. Image via Masdar.
The shift to renewable energy is gaining momentum in Africa with the Ivory Coast signing an agreement with Masdar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) renewable energy company on the exploration and development of a 50-70 ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

Georgetown University’s Ken Opalo Why the U.S. Can’t Compete With China in Africa

Nipah Dennis / AFP
Until the Biden administration released its new strategy for Africa last August, U.S. foreign policy towards the continent had been largely shaped by a longstanding desire in Washington to challenge China’s growing presence ...
by Eric Olander

After a Setback in Honduras, Taiwan’s Diplomacy Gets a Small Boost in the South Pacific

The Fijian government allowed Taiwan to reinstate the old name of its representative office in the South Pacific island country to include its official moniker “The Republic of China.” While a simple name change ...
by Eric Olander

China Should Not Compromise With Western Creditors in Zambian Debt Relief, Says Prominent Scholar

NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP
Zambia’s debt renegotiation is being delayed by barriers within China’s banking system and by Western pressure. So says Professor Tang Xiaoyang, a prominent expert on Chinese overseas development finance and the director of ...
by Cobus van Staden

New Report: China Is Now the Major Lender of Last Resort for Developing Countries

Countries marked in red have received rescue lending from China, either by making drawdowns on their RMB swap lines and/or by receiving balance of payments support from Chinese state-owned banks and enterprises. Swap drawings by non-distressed countries are excluded. Source: AidData.
China has spent $240 billion in rescue payments to 22 economically distressed Belt and Road economies between 2008 and 2021. A new report published by AidData, the research center at the College of William ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Scholars See U.S. Veep’s Africa Tour in the Context of Great Power Competition

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a three-nation Africa tour in Ghana. Nipah Dennis / AFP
One stop into her week-long, three-nation African tour, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to mention the “C” word. But China is very much on the minds of her traveling ...
by Eric Olander

Honduras Says Adiós Taiwan, Formally Establishes Diplomatic Ties With China

Xie Yongjun is a senior diplomat in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department (Public Affairs).
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina looked visibly pleased this weekend when he shook hands with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang after the pair formally oversaw the establishment of diplomatic ties. The ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Party-run Media Frames Honduras Switch as Part of Larger Struggle Against the U.S., Taiwan Independence

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Taiwan authorities have lost another country in their "diplomatic relations"! China-Honduras estbalishment of diplomatic relations is a warning against "Taiwan independence"
The Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper boasted in a series of articles over the weekend in both their English and Chinese editions that Honduras’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan is both ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Analysts, Scholars Skeptical About the Benefits to Honduras From Ties With China

Honduras Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina (L) and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang raise a toast following the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, at a ceremony in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 26, 2023. GREG BAKER / POOL / AFP
Honduran officials maintain that the decision to abandon ties with Taiwan in favor of China was an economic decision inspired by the hope of boosting Chinese trade and investment. But a number of ...
by Eric Olander

New Data Reveals Small Increase in Chinese Lending to Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

China is once again extending development finance loans to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, albeit only a small fraction of what it lent to the region a decade ago. Brazil, Barbados ...
by Eric Olander

South Africa Hosts Trade Discussions With Chongqing, One of China’s Largest Industrial Cities

Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Southwestern Chinese industrial mega-city Chongqing hosted a delegation from South Africa last week to discuss how the two sides can further increase the $600 million of trade the two sides did last ...
by Eric Olander

Egypt’s Chinese Green Hydrogen Project Could be a Blueprint for Africa

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and a group of Egyptian officials meet with representatives of the China International Energy Group (CIEG). Image via the Egyptian President's office.
Egypt and China are seeking to consolidate economic and investment cooperation in various areas of common interest, including clean energy through the China hydrogen project. The China International Energy Group (CIEG) intends to establish ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese President Xi Jinping Invites Russian President Vladimir Putin to Third Belt and Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 20, 2023. Sergei KARPUKHIN / SPUTNIK / AFP
Chinese President Xi Jinping invited Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to attend the third Belt and Forum that will take place later this year. Xi’s invitation followed a pledge to “significantly increase” trade between ...
by Eric Olander

China Pushes Back at Outgoing World Bank President’s Criticism That Beijing Isn’t Doing Enough on Debt Relief

File image of World Bank President David Malpass, who repeated his criticism this week that China isn't moving fast enough to help developing countries restrucutre their debts. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
The Chinese government clapped back on Wednesday against renewed criticisms from outgoing World Bank President David Malpass that Beijing isn’t moving fast enough to restructure debts in many of the world’s poorest countries. ...
by Eric Olander

World Bank Nominee Meets Head of China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

World Bank President-nominee Ajay Banga meets with the head of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Liqun Jin, on 22 March 2023 during his brief trip to Beijing. Image via @AIIB_Official Twitter Page
World Bank President-nominee Ajay Banga met with the head of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Wednesday during his brief trip to Beijing. The AIIB released a short statement after the ...
by Eric Olander
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