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

China More Popular than the United States Across MENA: Poll

A breakdown of public approval of the U.S. and China across the MENA region. Graph by Arab Barometer.
The United States is markedly less popular than China in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to a new poll by Arab Barometer. The Princeton University-based 
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Phone-Makers Chafe Under Indian Pressure

The intense localization of Chinese phone companies in India seemed like a winning strategy. Now Indian government pressure is changing that. Image via AFP.
The Indian government’s apparent move to ban cheap Chinese-made smartphones is causing much unhappiness among Chinese companies that have worked hard to localize their presence there.  Some Chinese companies are now contemplating leaving ...
by Cobus van Staden

Long Read: Is Great Power Competition in Africa a Problem? Not Necessarily

A billboard in the Democratic Republic of Congo marking the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Africell is a U.S.-supported mobile phone company. Image via AFP
As geopolitics become more polarized, the idea that both the U.S. and China have something to offer Africa has fallen out of vogue in both Washington and Beijing.  However, the prominent Africa-China researcher ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Refines Its Rebuttal to Persistent Debt Trap Accusations

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "Western private lenders are the cause of Africa's heavy debts"
No matter how often the Chinese debt trap narrative is refuted by leading scholars around the world, policymakers in the U.S. and Europe seem unable to resist using the trope ...
by Eric Olander

Sri Lanka Relents to Indian Pressure and Requests China to Defer Military Ship’s Arrival

Chinese surveillance ship the Yuan Wang 5
Sri Lanka said on Monday it had asked China to defer the planned visit of a Chinese ship to the island country after initially approving its arrival this week, yielding to diplomatic pressure ...
by Eric Olander

New Chinese Electric Vehicles Roll Off the Assembly Line in Indonesia

TWEET TRANSLATION: This morning, together with the Minister of Industry, we attended the launch ceremony for Wuling's first electric vehicle production in Indonesia. Wuling Indonesia has created more than 10,000 jobs locally and is actively responding to the Indonesian government's green economy plan!
China’s ambassador to Indonesia, Lu Kang, led a launch ceremony on Monday for the new Wuling Air EV that began to roll off a billion-dollar local assembly in the central industrial city of Cikarang. ...
by Eric Olander

Even Before Blinken Unveiled the New U.S. Strategy For Africa, China Didn’t Like It

Hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new U.S. strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, China’s nationalist tabloid newspaper began publishing stories that attacked the U.S. for “attempting to bring the continent back ...
by Eric Olander

Many Chinese Netizens Are Framing the Blinken Visit and the New U.S. Strategy in the Context of Great Power Competition

The Blinken visit to Africa and the unveiling of the new U.S. strategy for the continent were not widely covered by Chinese media on Monday but a few online commentators, some with sizable ...
by Eric Olander

Blinken’s Comments on Taiwan Spark Furious Response From Chinese Embassy in South Africa

Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken triggered an uproar by the Chinese embassy in Pretoria over comments that he made about Taiwan in an interview with South African television news channel eNCA: ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Foreign Ministry Claps Back at Latest U.S. Debt Trap Accusation

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaking at the regular press briefing in Beijing. Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The seemingly never-ending dispute over supposed Chinese debt traps in Africa flared anew on Monday when Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying launched a lengthy rebuttal to the latest accusation on the issue by ...
by Eric Olander

China Keeps Mobilizing African Leaders Against the U.S. on Taiwan

Chinese officials are not pulling back from the large-scale media campaign they launched last week to gather support in Africa against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan. China continued a ...
by Eric Olander

Why the Taiwan Crisis Resonates in Somalia

While a number of African countries over the past week have telegraphed their support of Beijing’s One China Policy, few have reached Somalia’s level of enthusiasm. For Mogadishu, the Taiwan issue hits closer to ...
by Eric Olander

Blinken Didn’t Want to Talk About China During His African Visit. Good Luck with That.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg on August 7, 2022. Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off a three-nation African tour on Sunday in Johannesburg in what State Department officials had hoped would be a chance to reset Washington’s ties with the continent and ...
by Eric Olander

China Posts Double Digit Trade Growth in First Half of 2022

China's General Administration of Customs released lastest global trade figures released on Sunday.
China’s total global trade jumped 10.3% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to new figures released on Sunday by the General Administration of Customs. ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

Dozens of Diplomats From Muslim-Majority Countries Tour Xinjiang

Cao Li is a Counsellor in the Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Chinese government organized another tour of Xinjiang for dozens of diplomats from Muslim majority countries in Asia and the Middle East. In all, 32 diplomats visited three cities (Kashgar, Aksu, and Urumqi) last week ...
by Eric Olander

A Picture Many Thought They’d Never See

Kenyan avocados are finally available to local distributors at the Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market. It took years and years of negotiations for this to happen. (PRODUCE REPORT)
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: China will Remove Import Duties From 98% of Products Imported From 16 Low-Income Countries

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering his keynote address at FOCAC 8. Image via Xinhua.
China will remove import duties from 98% of products imported from 16 low-income countries from the beginning of September, according to the Ministry of Finance. They include African countries like Togo, Mozambique, Chad, and Rwanda, ...
by Eric Olander

At 29 years old I travelled to Africa, After a Year I Decided to Go Back Home

One of vlogger Daxue’s youtube videos documenting his experience buying groceries in a local market in Zambia with his secretary and his bodyguard.
Chinese vloggers in Africa have a mixed track record. On the one hand, some vloggers contribute to dissolving Chinese misconceptions towards Africa/Africans by illuminating what daily life is like in many African countries. ...
by Han Zhen

Taiwan Firestorm Makes Clear Why the Global South Avoids China’s “Red Lines”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi commented on Nancy Pelosi's visit this week to Taiwan from the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phenom Penh. Image via CGTN.
In a week of strident warnings from Beijing, one stood out. China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that:  “Those who play with fire will ...
by Cobus van Staden

How a Major Shift in Chinese Lending is Backfiring Across the Global South

Chinese lending is increasingly shifting from boosting development to helping indebted countries keep the lights on. This is now adding to debt distress across the developing world. AidData, a research group at the College ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Reactions to Zambia’s Debt Deal

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Zambia to test China's ability to manage debt relief
Zambia’s debt restructuring, in which China played a key role, is raising concern among ordinary Chinese, judging by WeChat conversations.  Recent grassroots discussions on WeChat communities of Chinese in Africa quoted unnamed sources worrying that the ...
by Eric Olander

Tanzania and Zambia to Revive TAZARA Rail Line

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan welcomes her Zambian counterpart Hakainde Hichilema for an official state visit. Image via @HHichilema.
The leaders of Tanzania and Zambia have agreed to find the money to refurbish the Chinese-built TAZARA rail line. The line, built at great financial and human cost by China in the early ...
by Eric Olander

No, Nigeria Didn’t Ship 7,000 Human Penises to China

Nigerian social media is aflame with a rumor that a container of human penises was sent to China from the West African country.  The rumor originated last year. It caused consternation in the Nigerian ...
by Eric Olander

Global South Media Reactions to Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan

Visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (C) waves to journalists during her arrival at the Parliament in Taipei on August 3, 2022. Sam Yeh / AFP
Congo: On August 2, Jean-Claude Gakosso, the foreign minister of the Republic of Congo, said that adhering to the one China principle is the consistent policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Congo, ...
by Han Zhen

After Zambia’s Successful Debt Restructuring, Sri Lankans Hope China Will Also Take the Lead to Help Resolve Their Crisis

Arun SANKAR / AFP
Now that Zambia’s Creditor Committee reached a landmark debt restructuring deal with its bilateral lenders, there’s new optimism that the same will happen in Sri Lanka.
by Eric Olander

Angola Set a New Standard For Infrastructure Contracting With the Lobito Corridor Concession (Which China Lost)

Angola's colonial-era railway linking the copper and cobalt belts in Zambia and the DRC to the Atlantic port of Lobito is set to get a major upgrade.
Angola’s Ministry of Transport is receiving high praise for the way it handled the bidding for the $333 million concession to re-build and operate the colonial-era Lobito Corridor railway that connects ...
by Eric Olander

Hunan Province is Fast Becoming a Major Hub for China-Africa Trade and Logistics

Wu Peng is the Director-General of the Department of African Affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ethiopian Airlines launched a new cargo route between Addis Ababa and Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, the latest China-Africa aviation trade link. The first flight took off last week ...
by Eric Olander

It’s the West’s Fault, Not Russia’s There Are Food Shortages in Africa, According to Chinese State Media

Chinese state media is promoting the narrative that the worsening food crisis in Africa is due to Western sanctions against Russia rather than because Moscow invaded a sovereign country.
by Eric Olander

Nigerian Automotive Magnate Diana Chen Wants to Assemble Cars in the DR Congo

File image of Diana Chen, chair of the Nigeria-based CIG Motors, who now plans to expand her automotive assembly operation to the DR Congo.
Diana Chen, head of the Nigeria-based automotive group CIG Motors Limited, together with the DR Congo’s Minister for Trade Julien Paluku announced a new deal to assemble cars in Kinshasa’s Maluku Special ...
by Eric Olander

The Zhou-Kenyatta Road Show in Kenya

Chinese ambassador Zhou Pingjiang together with President Uhuru Kenyatta at the commissioning of the Karimenu II Dam in central Kenya. Image via @StateHouseKenya.
China’s ambassador to Kenya, Zhou Pingjian, has spent a lot of time with President Uhuru Kenyatta recently, commissioning one new infrastructure project after another. On Monday, the ...
by Eric Olander
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Developing Countries’ Debt Servicing Costs to China Are Significant, but Nowhere Near as Much as Other Creditors
2 Chinese Military Fans Discuss Why Indonesia Bought Rafale Instead of J-10C
3 From J-10C to Kaan? Indonesia’s Fighter Jet Deal With Turkey Shocks Chinese Military Fans
4
Indonesia Goes Nuclear, Taps China and Russia for Modular Reactors
5
Chinese Cargo Planes Secretly Ferrying Supplies to Iran, Claim Online Sleuths
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Thailand in Last-Minute U.S. Talks as 36% Tariff Looms

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