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

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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. ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...
by Cobus van Staden

“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 ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...
by Eric Olander

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

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.
South Africa is apparently not interested in conducting joint naval exercises with the United States, opting instead to proceed with controversial exercises later this month with both Russia and China. U.S. Navy Rear ...
by Eric Olander

China Confirms It Has a Balloon Floating Somewhere Over Latin America

Selina Wang is a China-based correspondent for CNN.
China’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed Pentagon allegations that a second Chinese surveillance balloon is floating over Central and South America. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said the balloon is non-military and used for flight tests. She said it ...
by Cobus van Staden

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 Updates 2022 Africa Trade Figures

File image of workers at the port of Qingdao in eastern China load vehicles aboard a cargo ship bound for Africa.
Chinese customs authorities are slowly releasing new trade data for individual African countries following its January announcement that trade with the continent rose by 14.5% to $276.8 billion. Country data is similarly higher than in 2021.
by Cobus van Staden

China’s High-Profile Envoy to the DR Congo to Leave This Week

Zhu Jing, China's high-profile envoy to the DR Congo will leave Kinshasa this week as part of a normal diplomatic rotation. Image via @AmbCHINEenRDC.
Zhu Jing, China’s outgoing ambassador, is making the rounds of Kinshasa to say goodbye before leaving the country later this week. He is vacating his post as part of a routine rotation. Zhu was a ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Contractor Completes 105km Railway Upgrade in Namibia

China Gezhouba Group Corp (CGGC) finished a 107.5km upgrade of a rail line between the Namibian harbor Walvis Bay and the central logistics hub of Arandis on time, despite materials shortages and COVID-related delays. The ...
by Cobus van Staden

African Ambassadors Tour Xinjiang to See “Happy Life of Local Residents”

Zhou Li is a Beijing-based Counsellor in the Information Department at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China’s use of diplomatic junkets to justify its anti-Uyghur measures in Xinjiang to the Global South are ratcheting up again. Ambassadors and other senior diplomats from Senegal, Benin, Mali, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho ...
by Cobus van Staden

Germany’s Finance Minister Singles Out China in Debt Relief Appeal for Ghana

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner met with Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday in Accra. Image via @GhanaPresidency.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is the latest high-ranking Western official to pressure China to do more to help relieve the burgeoning debt crisis in a growing number of African countries. “I remind ...
by Eric Olander

How Much Ghana Owes China Depends on Who You Ask

At first glance, Ghana doesn’t owe China that much when measured against its outstanding debts to both multilateral development banks like the IMF and the World Bank and, more importantly, bondholders. $1.7 billion in the ...
by Eric Olander

China-IMF Impasse in Sri Lanka “Has to be Broken, One Way or Another,” Says Debt Expert

Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a noted sovereign debt expert, wrote a brief analysis of why the China Exim Bank’s offer of a two-year debt moratorium ...
by Eric Olander

China, World Bank Spar Over Who’s to Blame For Delays in Zambia Debt Relief

David Malpass, World Bank President. Photo: AFP
A major philosophical difference is emerging as a hold-up to Zambia’s much-needed debt relief. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning recently said the key to easing Zambia’s debt burden “lies in the participation of multilateral financial ...
by Cobus van Staden

WEEK IN REVIEW: Kremlin Announced Chinese President Xi Jinping Will Visit Moscow

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
The Kremlin announced Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Moscow, although the Chinese Foreign Ministry hasn’t confirmed it yet. The visit will partly aim to deny growing distance between the allies on the Ukraine ...
by Eric Olander

Why Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Hot Take on Chinese Debt in Africa Is So Problematic

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke with Bloomberg's Margaret Collins about her recent trip to Africa. Image via Bloomberg.
In a recent interview, the U.S. ambassador to the UN (and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa) weighed in on China’s role in African debt distress in terms that could be ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Blocked Kenya From Getting Competitive Bids to Build Costly Railway, Supreme Court Told

File image of the Kenyan Supreme Court in Nairobi. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP
Kenya’s Supreme Court hearings into the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) deal are revealing a deal tainted by collusion between Chinese and Kenyan actors. The account emerging from testimony shows that the deal defied oversight ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Ramps Up Brazilian Corn Imports

For the first time, a Brazilian bulk carrier loaded with 51,000 tons of corn docks at a Chinese port in Jiangsu province.
A ship carrying 51,200 tons of corn became the first Brazilian vessel to dock at Jiangyin Port on the Yangtze River, with ships from the agricultural giant delivering 2.4 million tons of grain ...
by Cobus van Staden

Angolan Police Arrest 8 in Raid on Chinese-run Bitcoin Mining Operation

Angolan authorities in Kwanza Norte Province seized dozens of servers used by a Chinese expatriate group to mine bitcoin. Image via TPA News.
Eight Chinese nationals were arrested and servers and other equipment were seized by Angolan authorities during a raid on a Chinese-led illegal bitcoin mining operation hidden in a brick factory in Kwanza Norte ...
by Cobus van Staden

China-Argentina Call Reveals Closer Ties

TWEET TRANSLATION: "Argentina considers it important to advance with China in financing projects for infrastructure works, which will allow greater territorial integration. That's why I had a phone conversation with the new Foreign Minister Qin Gang."
China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang held a phone conversation with his Argentine counterpart Santiago Cafiero, the newest sign of the two countries’ increasing closeness. Argentina is a champion of closer cooperation between China and Latin ...
by Cobus van Staden

U.S. Panic About Chinese Land Grabs Echoes Africa

A recent Fox News article claiming that China is buying up U.S. farmland
Recent reports in the right-leaning press in the United States claim that China is escalating purchases of American farms. This drumbeat is partly in support of the proposed Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) act. ...
by Cobus van Staden

Africa’s Largest Mining Conference Set Against Backdrop of Rising Competition Between China and the West

File image of the The Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa on May 9, 2022. Image by Fearghal Kearney/@KearneyFA.
Attendees at next week’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Africa’s largest mining conference that gets underway on Monday, say they’re expecting a new sense of urgency from U.S. and European stakeholders who are ...
by Eric Olander
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