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

Pentagon Not Happy About South African Naval Exercises But Won’t Admit It Publicly

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh speaks during an on-camera press briefing at the Pentagon on February 22, 2023. Image via the United States Departemnt of Defense.
The United States military is staying largely quiet over the ongoing joint naval exercises in South Africa that include Russia and China. Earlier, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Chidi ...
by Cobus van Staden

Major Powers Express Ambivalence Going Into This Weekend’s Critical G20 Debt Relief Talks in Bangalore

The main conference center for the G20's finance minister and central bank leaders conference that will be held over the weekend. Handout / PIB / AFP
As major powers head into this week’s G20 talks on debt restructuring, the mood is grim. The outcome of the talks will be decisive for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process and ...
by Cobus van Staden

Sharply Contrasting Views on Whether China is Right to Demand Multilateral Development Banks to Take Losses on Their Loans

Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
The dispute between China and Western lenders about how Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) should take part in debt restructuring goes beyond current U.S.-China tensions. Rather, it relates to the fundamental question of how ...
by Cobus van Staden

DR Congo Buys Nine Chinese Attack Drones for Use in War Against M23 Rebels

The Congolese military is hoping that Chinese-made CH-4 attack drones like this one will help in the fight against rebeles in the eastern DRC. Image via Xinhua.
The Congolese government is stepping up the fight against M23 rebels with the purchase of nine Chinese CH-4 attack drones, according to a report in Africa Intelligence. The first batch of ...
by Cobus van Staden

What is Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative? New Government Document Gives Clues

Copies of the Chinese government's new concept paper on the Global Security Initiative
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Global Security Initiative in 2022, but since then, the initiative has raised more questions than answers. Now, a new concept paper has been put out by the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Sri Lanka President to Meet With Chinese Finance Minister in Bid to Unblock Debt Relief

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will personally try to persuade China to match Colombo's other creditors as part of a debt restructuring deal. Mohammed ABED / AFP
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet with Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun on Friday for what’s been described as “a last-ditch effort” to get Beijing to align with Colombo’s other creditors ...
by Eric Olander

Ghana’s Finance Minister Will Go to Beijing This Week Seeking Debt Relief

Ghanaian Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta will go to Beijing this week to try and re-negotiate $1.7 billion of outstanding debt to China. SAUL LOEB / AFP
Ghanaian Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta will head to Beijing on Friday in a bid to re-negotiate Accra’s $1.7 billion debt owed to Chinese creditors. The West African country has
by Eric Olander

South Africa’s Decrepit Railway Infrastructure is Slowing Iron Ore Shipments to China

More than a million tons of South African iron ore is blocked from leaving the country, mostly bound for China, due to SA’s failing railway infrastructure. The local unit of ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese, International Analysts Differ Markedly on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s Visit to Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during his visit in Beijing on February 14, 2023. AFP
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to China earlier this month, when he met with his counterpart Xi Jinping, drew a lot of international attention. However, Chinese experts differ sharply from their international counterparts ...
by Eric Olander

Toxic Politics to Blame if G20’s Debt Relief Efforts Fail, Says Deborah Brautigam

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Wang Yi, then China's foreign minister, attend a meeting in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on July 9, 2022. Stefani Reynolds / POOL / AFP
Vulnerable societies like Zambia could be crushed if geopolitics are allowed to hijack debt renegotiation processes. So warns the Africa-China and debt expert Deborah Brautigam in a recent article in Foreign Affairs. The ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Fleet Arrives in South Africa for Controversial Joint Exercises With Russia

File image of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy guided missle destroyer Huainan that will take part in the Mosi II joint naval exercises with Russia and South Africa. Image via the PLA Navy.
The 42nd Chinese naval escort fleet that includes the guided-missile destroyer Huainan and the missile frigate Rizhao arrived on Sunday in South Africa’s Port of Richards Bay to participate in this week’s controversial ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Weapons Manufacturers Take Part in UAE Arms Show

One of nine Chinese arms manufacturers participating in the ongoing 16th International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi. Image via China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND).
Nine Chinese arms manufacturers are taking part in the 16th International Defense Exhibition and Conference, a military technology expo in the United Arab Emirates, the first time since China’s COVID-related shutdowns. Chinese companies ...
by Cobus van Staden

Why China Must Partner With Global South Countries to Build a “New International System”

File image of Yang Ping, editor in chief of the influential Beijing Cultural Review and director of the Longway Foundation that published the Review.
China should respond to pressures from the United States and its allies by building a new global system based on coalitions with Global South countries. So argues Yang Ping, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the ...
by Cobus van Staden

IMF Considers Circumventing China for Sri Lanka’s Emergency Debt Relief

OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP
The International Monetary Fund may have found a way to unblock the impasse with China that’s blocked Sri Lanka’s $2.9 billion emergency financial package. The IMF, according to Bloomberg, is actively considering invoking a rarely ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke

When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...

China Resumes High-Level Diplomatic Visits to Africa

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlun met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Cape Town on February 16, 2023. Image via Xinhua.
Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan met late last week with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a brief visit to Cape Town. Sun’s visit comes one month after Foreign Minister Qin Gang did ...
by Eric Olander

South Africa Begins Controversial Naval Exercises With Russia and China

A general view of Russian military frigate 'Admiral Gorshkov' docked in the harbour of Cape Town on February 13, 2023 ahead of 10-day joint maritime drills being staged alongside South Africa and China. AFP
The South African navy kicked off ten days of drills in the Indian Ocean on Friday with visiting warships from Russia and China. The naval exercises, known as Operation Mosi II, have sparked ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Russian Military Frigate Docked in Cape Town, on the Way to Controversial Joint Military Exercises With China and South Africa

File image of a Chinese warship docked in Cape Town that took part in the 2018 first Operation Mosi naval exercises with the South African and Russian navies. Image via Xinhua.
A Russian military frigate has docked in South Africa’s Cape Town harbor, on the way to controversial joint military exercises with China and South Africa. Operation Mosi will take place off the coast of ...
by Eric Olander

China Sticking to Its Position That Multilateral Banks and Bondholders Must Also Take Losses on Sri Lankan Debt

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin restated Beijing's position on debt relief for Sri Lanka at the regular press briefing on February 15, 2023. Image via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Chinese government re-stated on Wednesday that it will not move forward with the Sri Lankan debt restructuring process unless both commercial creditors and multilateral development banks also agree to accept losses on ...
by Eric Olander

Malpass Resignation Could Spark New Battle Between U.S. and China Over His Replacement

File image of outgoing World Bank President David Malpass who will leave office one year ahead of schedule. Jim WATSON / AFP
World Bank President David Malpass said that he will step down in June, a year before his five-year term expires. Malpass did not provide a reason for his early resignation but speculation in ...
by Eric Olander

China Accuses Philippines of Lying About Laser Strike Against Coast Guard Ship in South China Sea

Image from the Philippines Coast Guard on February 13th that purportedly shows a Chinese Coast Guard targeting them with a military grade laser. AFP
The feud between the Chinese and Philippine governments over a naval incident in the South China Sea earlier this month intensified when Beijing accused Manila of not telling the truth about what happened. Chinese Foreign ...
by Eric Olander

Wang Yi Makes Unannounced Visit to Uzbekistan on His Way to Europe

Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Bakhtiyor Saidov, Uzbekistan's acting foreign minister. Image via Xinhua.
China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, made an unannounced stopover in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent to meet with acting foreign minister Bakhtiyor Saidov. After the meeting, Wang then traveled to Paris, where ...
by Eric Olander

Iran Leans Into Ties With China to Ease the Sanctions Burden From the U.S., Say Scholars

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Iran "Looks East," Focusing More on Its Own Domestic Development and the East
Iran’s shift away from engagement with the U.S. and Europe and towards China is the key theme of this week’s visit to Beijing by President Ebrahim Raisi, according to two of China’s leading ...
by Eric Olander

India Adds to Mounting Pressure on China to Resolve Debt Relief Impasse With IMF, World Bank

File image of Amitabh Kant, sherpa for India during its presidency of the G20 this year. CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
The Indian government called on China to stop blocking the debt restructuring process for the world’s poorest countries, adding to the pressure on Beijing ahead of a critical meeting with the World Bank ...
by Eric Olander

Philippines Summons Chinese Ambassador Over Laser Incident at Sea

Image from the Philippines Coast Guard on February 13th that purportedly shows a Chinese Coast Guard targeting them with a military grade laser. AFP
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos summoned China’s ambassador to express his “serious concern” over Monday’s alleged use of a military grade laser by a Chinese Coast Guard vessel against nearby Philippines ships in the ...
by Eric Olander

Ugandan Food Vlogger in Rural China Becomes Unlikely Social Media Star

30-year Ugandan immigrant Rose is now a full-fledged social media star on China’s TikTok equivalent Douyin. Now, with more than a million followers and almost 200 million likes, Rose (who doesn’t reveal her ...
by Eric Olander

Background: Why China-Iran Relations Are a Lot More Complicated Than They Appear

Bill Figueroa is a research associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on China-Iran relations. The analysis below is copied ...
by Cobus van Staden

FT Reporting Error Sparks Widespread Confusion Over Zambia’s Views on China’s Role in Debt Restructuring Process

Botched reporting in a Financial Times article on Zambian debt made clear how nervous China’s push for the World Bank and other multilateral financers to accept losses as part of debt restructuring is making international ...
by Cobus van Staden

FT Report Provokes Strong Response From U.S., UK Analysts Over China’s Duel With Multilateral Development Banks

Mark Sobel is the U.S. chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.
FT’s claim (subsequently walked back) that the Zambian Finance Minister rejected China’s call to include the World Bank and other multilateral lenders in debt restructuring triggered responses from prominent commentators across Twitter. The reactions ...
by Cobus van Staden

China’s Current Challenge of the Bretton Woods Institutions Has Been Years in the Making

File image of the Beijing headquarters of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, one of several multilateral development banks set up by China in recent years. Image via Xinhua.
China’s dispute with the Bretton Woods institutions dates back to at least the Obama era. The U.S. Congress refused to ratify a 2010 plan to recapitalize the IMF, which would have given large emerging economies ...
by Cobus van Staden

Lekki Port Points to New Chinese Infrastructure Model in Africa

The recently opened Port of Lekki in Nigeria is now West Africa's largest and most sophisticated port facility that is also partially owned by the China Harbor Engineering Company. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP
As China struggles with the fallout from infrastructure lending, it’s also trying out new ways of financing projects. A fascinating new paper by the prominent Africa-China expert Hong Zhang details a shift from ...
by Cobus van Staden
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