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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Yellen Defends Bretton Woods Institutions Against Challenge From China, Accused Beijing of Acting as “Roadblock” in Zambia

U.S Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized China's slow pace of debt relief in countries like Zambia during a conference hosted last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Image via CSIS.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen forcefully defended the primacy of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in response to China’s demand that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also take losses on their loans ...

Cambodia PM: If We Don’t Rely on China for Development Assistance, Then Who?

Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a three-day visit to Beijing in February 2023. Image via Xinhua.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wrapped up a three-day visit to Beijing on Friday that included meetings with his counterpart Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping. The Cambodian leader went to Beijing with a big ...

Chinese Scholar on Why Railway Financing Makes Sense for Beijing, Despite Criticism

File image of Indonesia's high speed railway that was built and financed by China. TIMUR MATAHARI / AFP

Chinese-financed railways in Asia and Africa have sparked enormous controversies over whether it was wise for countries like Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria and Laos to put themselves in so much debt for infrastructure that ...

WEEK IN REVIEW: First Shipment of Australian Coal in Two Years Will Soon Be Offloaded in China

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

The first shipment of Australian coal in two years will soon be offloaded in China, offering evidence that trade ties between the two countries are thawing. The shipment is anchored off the Chinese port ...

Chinese Search and Rescue Teams Now on the Ground in Turkey with Dozens More on the Way

Frantic rescue efforts are underway in Türkiye

An 82-person Chinese search and rescue team is on the ground in earthquake-hit Türkiye after arriving at Adana airport on Wednesday. The team brought 20 tons of medical supplies, rescue equipment, and four sniffer dogs. ...

What U.S. Policymakers Should Know About Chinese Basing Ambitions in Africa

File image of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy base in Djibouti. STR / AFP

U.S. military commanders regularly raise concerns about a possible second Chinese military base in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, despite rumors about possible footholds in countries like Equatorial Guinea, China’s strategic interest in Africa is relatively low, especially when ...

“We’re Not Competing With China” in Africa Says Linda Thomas-Greenfield

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations speaking with CNN anchor Abby Phillip at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Image via the Atlantic Council.

The United States’s people-to-people ties in Africa make it impervious to Chinese competition, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in an interview with CNN. It’s interesting to compare it with remarks by her ...

China Leverages African Media Outlets to Hit Back on Debt

Article written by China's official Xinhua news agency published on Wednesday in the privately-owned Independent newspaper in Uganda.

Emerging Chinese government messaging on debt is now showing up in African publications via state-owned media outlets like Xinhua. This comes as Beijing is increasingly focusing on the role of Western lenders in ...

New Copper/Cobalt Trade Corridors Take Shape to Serve as Alternative to South Africa

A map of the recently-agreed three-country logistic corridor

Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola will set up an agency to manage a logistics corridor linking them to Angola’s Lobito port. The move comes as South Africa’s Durban port has faced repeated ...

Hunan Province Launches New China-Africa Digital Services Hub

China's central Hunan province has been among the most ambitious in launching new services and facilities to promote trade with African countries. Image via Xinhua.

China’s Hunan province has set up a digital logistics hub supporting Chinese companies’ trade with Africa. It’s focused on cross-border communications support and data-sharing between Chinese companies working in Africa. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Hunan is ...

Paris Club Calls Out China Over Sri Lankan Debt Relief

The Paris Club of wealthy creditor states turned up the pressure on China to resolve the current impasse that’s blocking debt relief for Sri Lanka and other developing countries. “The Paris Club members as well ...

Chinese Tourist Flight Given Hero’s Welcome in Cambodia

Image via Xinhua.

In a sign of how eager Southeast Asian countries are to welcome back Chinese visitors, the first flight from China since outbound travel resumed was given a ceremonial welcome when it landed on ...

Africa is Now a VERY Popular Destination For Western Ministers and High-Ranking Diplomats

TWEET TRANSLATION: #Niger @CZacharopoulou with counterparts 🇪🇺 at the photovoltaic power plant of Gorou Banda. Supported by 🇪🇺 & @AFD_France it will soon supply nearly 500,000 homes. The 🇫🇷 and 🇪🇺 alongside the 🇳🇪 to improve access to electricity, including for small businesses.

For years, China was largely alone in regularly dispatching its foreign ministers and high-ranking diplomats to tour Africa. That is no longer the case as U.S., European and Russian diplomats are fanning out across ...

South Africa Turned Down Invitation for Join Naval Exercises With U.S., Choosing Russia and China Instead