Live Feed

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

World Bank: Don’t Blame the Pandemic For the Global South Debt Crisis

Two leading World Bank economists issued a stinging rebuke against policymakers in developing countries who have blamed the worsening debt crisis on the pandemic.  “The seeds were sown long before COVID-19,” wrote Marcello Estevão and ...
by Eric Olander

Construction of the Chinese-financed Parliament Building in Zimbabwe is Done

The new Zimbabwe parliament building located on Mount Hampden outside of Harare.
After almost five years and $140 million, the new Chinese-financed and built parliament building in Zimbabwe is now ready for use. The building was almost entirely paid for by the Chinese government and ...
by Eric Olander

No Surprise, Chinese State Media Didn’t Think Much of PGII, But They Actually Raised a Few Interesting Points

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "The G7 is going to raise $600 billion for a major project to "counter China." Where will the money come from?"
The Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times was among the first to launch broadsides against the G7’s latest effort to challenge the Belt and Road. Predictably, the paper interviewed several scholars who all discredited ...
by Cobus van Staden

PGII Will Channel a Lot of Private Capital to Developing Countries But What About the Debt?

US President Joe Biden speaks next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the first day of the G7 leaders' summit held at Elmau Castle, southern Germany on June 26, 2022. JONATHAN ERNST / POOL / AFP
Even as the G7 was unveiling its new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), protesters in the Alpine town hosting the summit were calling for more action on infrastructure-related debt. This ...
by Cobus van Staden

Prominent China Scholar Maps a Way Out For Beijing’s Global South Debt Crisis

Exterior of the China Development Bank Tower in Shanghai.
With the global economy steadily sliding towards recession, a growing number of Chinese bankers are no doubt becoming increasingly nervous about whether they’ll ever see again the tens of billions of dollars they lent ...
by Cobus van Staden

Tuvalu Minister Pulls out of U.N. Ocean Conference After China Blocks Its Taiwanese Delegates

File image of Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofe. AFP.
Simon Kofe, the foreign minister of Tuvalu, pulled out of the United Nations Ocean Conference opening in Portugal on Monday after China blocked the participation of three Taiwanese included in the tiny Pacific ...
by Cobus van Staden

Communist Party of China Reaches Out to Nigerian Political Parties

An announcement of the meeting between the CPC and Nigerian political officials on the Chinese embassy in Abuja's Twitter feed
Nigeria’s Inter-Party Advisory Council, an umbrella organization representing all the country’s registered political parties, held a joint seminar with the Chinese embassy and the International Department of the Central Committee of ...
by Cobus van Staden

B3W 2.0: The $600 Billion “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment”

US President Joe Biden speaks next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the first day of the G7 leaders' summit held at Elmau Castle, southern Germany on June 26, 2022. JONATHAN ERNST / POOL / AFP
G7 leaders unveiled their latest effort to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative with the announcement of the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII).” The new plan was revealed on Sunday at the leaders’ ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Forms Coalition to Break China’s Hold on Critical Mineral Supply Chains

File image of cobalt processing facility in the DR Congo city of Lumbubashi. SAMIR TOUNSI / AFP
The United States, along with partner countries in North America, Europe, and Asia unveiled a new Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) pact earlier this month that aims to challenge ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. and Its Allies in Asia Form New Group to Counter China’s Rising Influence in the South Pacific

File image of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at a joint press conference in Fiji's capital city Suva. Leon LORD / AFP
The United States formed yet another coalition with a catchy tagline intended to push back against China’s growing clout, this time in the South Pacific.  The ...
by Eric Olander

USAID Emails Reveal Anxiety Over China’s Solomon Islands Security Pact

U.S. government emails accessed via a Freedom of Information request that reveal unease over China's security pact with the Solomon Islands. Image via USAID.
Newly-released emails obtained by Al Jazeera through a Freedom of Information request highlight U.S. unease over China’s recent security agreement with the Solomon Islands. “Yikes! This is very troubling,” 
by Eric Olander

China, Iran Aim to Boost Trade Through New Railway

TWEET TRANSLATION: The first international cargo "crossing the Caspian Sea" departed from Yinchuan in the northwest to the port of Anzali. The train is scheduled to arrive in the port of Anzali in northern Iran in about 20 days.
A new railway cargo line connecting the southwestern Chinese province of Ningxia with the northern Iranian port city of Anzali is now operational.  The new 8,500-kilometer route is supposedly twice as ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: The United States To Re-launch B3W at Next Week’s G7 Conference

U.S. President Joe Biden tours the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Arvada, Colorado, on September 14, 2021, before delivering a speech on the infrastructure deal and the Build Back Better agenda. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The United States will re-launch the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative at next week’s G7 conference with a new program that aims to provide an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing in the Global South. National ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China-Led Study Proposes Global Energy Network

A globally connected network of solar and wind energy could provide three times the global energy demand by 2050 at a lower cost than independent national power systems. This is the finding of a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the United States and Denmark.
The study focused on how areas with high solar and wind capacity (such as deserts) can be linked ...

BRICS Summit Raises Questions About Shared Agenda

File image of the five leaders from the BRICS countries who will convene virtually this week. Sergio LIMA / AFP
This week’s BRICS summit sets the stage for renewed wrangles around the bloc’s future role. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will meet virtually on Thursday to discuss cooperation on issues like ...
by Eric Olander

Israel’s Shakshuka Diplomacy in China

Israel's Consul General in Guangzhou appeared on a Chinese cooking show, and the occasion was packaged for the press back home by the Israeli foreign ministry.
China’s efforts to promote itself to foreign audiences frequently take the form of stiffly-produced TV inserts on traditional cuisine and historical festivals.  But China isn’t alone in this game – sometimes, it goes ...
by Eric Olander

COVID Lockdowns Hit Cobalt Prices

File image of cobalt processing facility in the DR Congo city of Lumbubashi. SAMIR TOUNSI / AFP
Chinese cobalt prices fell about 13% from a peak in May as China’s ongoing COVID lockdowns hit demand for electric vehicles.  The dynamic reveals a gap between the Chinese domestic price for the metal ...
by Eric Olander

Corruption Documentary Rocks China-Guyana Relations

Guyana’s ruling party faces controversy following a documentary by the U.S. media outlet VICE alleging that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo took bribes from a Chinese businessman. President Irfaan Ali rejected calls by opposition parties in the ...
by Eric Olander

Despite Controversy, the Video Industry Exposed by the BBC’s Racism Documentary Is Thriving

A still from the BBC documentary "Racism for Sale," showing the producer Runako Celina with stills from the hundreds of "well-wishing" videos featuring African children.
Even as Chinese diplomats scramble to distance themselves from the trade in videos featuring African children coached to repeat demeaning phrases in Mandarin, the “well-wishing video” industry exposed by the recent BBC documentary ...
by Eric Olander

Life at the Heart of Africa-China Trade 

File image of an African trader negotiating with a Chinese merchant in Yiwu. Image via Xinhua.
COVID and government crackdowns have hollowed out Guangzhou’s once-thriving African community. While many of these traders have left China, some are relocating to Yiwu. The city, in Zhejiang province, is one of the ...
by Eric Olander

UK’s New Special Envoy Signals Contrast to China’s Approach in the Horn of Africa

Sarah Montgomery is the UK's newly appointed Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea.
The United Kingdom has announced that it’s appointing a special envoy to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region. Sarah Montgomery has experience in the Persian Gulf, Iran and Yemen.  She will ...
by Eric Olander

Worsening Criminal Attacks on Chinese in DRC 

Attacks against Chinese nationals in the DRC’s mining provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga are worsening. Chinese community groups have listed ten violent incidents in the region since late May.  The city of Lubumbashi has seen ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Top Diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa Visits Tanzania

Chinese ambassador to Tanzania (far left) Chen Mingjian with Director-General Wu Peng (left) and Tanzanian Foreign Minister Liberata Mulamula (in pink). Image via @WUPENG_MFA.
Wu Peng, the Director-General for Sub-Saharan Africa in China’s Foreign Ministry, continued his African tour with a visit to Tanzania. He tweeted that he met with Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East ...
by Eric Olander

What Transsion Did in Africa’s Mobile Phone Market, Chinese Device Maker Realme is Doing in India

Chinese smartphone maker Realme has jumped to number three in India's massive and hugely competitive mobile phone market. Image via Realme.
The Chinese brand RealMe isn’t well known in China, but it managed to zoom to the number 3 position in India’s notoriously competitive mobile phone market. With a 16% market share, the company is now ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Censors Catch Up with Discussions of BBC Racism Expose

Chinese censors are tightening up the discussion surrounding the controversial BBC documentary Racism for Sale by banning any screengrabs from the program to be displayed on social media.
China’s censors are now cracking down on online discussions sparked by the BBC documentary “Racism for Sale.” The program exposes the trade in online videos in which African children are tricked into repeating demeaning phrases in ...
by Cobus van Staden

Who is behind China Molybdenum in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Aerial view of the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the country's largest cobalt and copper mines that is now at the center of a bitter dispute among its owners.
Who exactly is controlling the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tenke Fungurume Mine (TFM), one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, remains a mystery. Officially, the Chinese mining giant ...
by Christian Geraud Neema Byamungu

Chinese Scholars Map the Future of Africa-China Relations

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "As "decoupling" intensifies, Africa is increasingly critical for China: reflections from a closed-door meeting"
How are Africa-China relations changing in response to crises like Ukraine? Few are more preoccupied with this issue than China’s Africa scholars. The Africa Research Group of the Eurasia Systems Science Society, which ...
by Cobus van Staden

“New” Poll Reaffirms China Far Less Popular Than the U.S. as World Leader

Data: Eurasia Group Foundation; Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios
The same week that a pan-African survey revealed that China, for the first time, outperformed the United States in overall favorability, another poll comparing the two major powers, this time by the geopolitical risk ...
by Cobus van Staden

Reports: Man at the Center of the Racism for Sale Controversy Arrested in Zambia

Lu Ke, the Chinese national alleged to have filmed exploitative videos of African children in Malawi as documented in the BBC Africa investigative report Racism for Sale.
According to Chinese news reports, the Chinese national at the center of a brewing controversy over the exploitation of young children in Malawi in the production of viral videos for the Chinese market ...
by Eric Olander

Solomon Islands Assure Australia on Chinese Base, Leaves Some Wiggle Room

File image of China's ambassador to the Solomon Islands Li Ming and Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare cutting a ribbon during the opening ceremony of a China-funded national stadium complex in Honiara. Mavis PODOKOLO / AFP
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands assured Australia’s visiting Foreign Minister Penny Wong that China won’t be allowed to build a permanent military base there.  Wong told journalists: “I welcomed Prime Minister Sogavare’s ...
by Cobus van Staden
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