The News Feed is curated by CGSP’s editors in Asia and Africa.
Eric Olander
World Cup organizers in Qatar appear to have reversed a decision to list ticket holders from Taiwan as being from China.
Earlier this week, the Foreign Ministry in Taipei said it was "unacceptable" that its residents would be listed in the Gulf country's Hayaa identity app as hailing from China rather than Taiwan.
But by Wednesday, they updated the app from "Taiwan, Province of China" to just "Taiwan" in a move that will very likely upset China.
China often pressures companies and countries, often with threats of retaliation, to not list Taiwan as a separate entity from China.
Neither World Cup organizers nor the Qatari government have commented on the controversy.
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Eric Olander
Eric Olander
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Eric Olander
Just as the algorithms on U.S. digital media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are all optimized to display the most outrageous, inflammatory content in pursuit of higher engagement, the same is true in China.
The so-called "blessing videos" featured in the recent BBC Africa documentary that show how Chinese online merchants exploit Africans and others by getting them to perform demeaning acts on camera may be offensive, but they generate a lot of views, likes, and shares.
Nairobi-based journalist Alexandria Williams knows this firsthand from her experience working in a Chinese short-form video company. On Tuesday, she explained in a 12-part Twitter thread why this practice will continue unless the government moves to ban them.
The following is a transcript of Williams' thread, republished here with her permission:
There’s a huge financial aspect to all of this for the short video company itself. Chinese short video apps earn money from ads, tips, and live stream gifts given to creators. Back in 2018, their Chinese user base was their bread and butter. Proof of engagement and revenue from the user base in China helped add credibility for a global expansion.
These companies were aware of these videos and the potential backlash. But, I believe that because it was only happening on the Chinese version of the app, and everyone wanted to expand quickly, they didn’t take it as seriously.
The company I worked for took a bunch of these videos down and they promised to ban others like them. But, I think they just wanted to wait for the anger to die down because they allowed them back on.
I also don’t think they ever thought these videos would get global attention because most of these apps are segmented by region.
The videos have changed over time from being problematic videos of Black people saying greetings in Chinese, to videos of young women posing for the camera, to what we saw in the doc.
I think what is important to remember here is that there’s a huge money-earning, machine behind this. It’s not just an individual, it’s a whole company. And it's connected to other short video apps that are popular outside of China.
The people that these companies actually listen to are the relevant authorities, censors, whatever you want to call them in China. They tell them what they can and can’t get away with. If they say a video needs to be taken down, it will happen immediately.
I think they will after this documentary. It’s an embarrassment, it makes China look terrible and they should have been dealing with this a long time ago.
I just think it’s ironic that we now have to look to the censors for justice.
Eric Olander
Joseph Yun, the Biden administration’s special envoy to the Pacific Island States, is in the region for a visit to the Marshall Islands. The visit, from 14 to 16 June, will focus on renewing the U.S.’s Compact of Free Association (COFA) economic agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia, amid heightened attention to China’s growing influence in the region. (CNBC)
?? Australia’s Defense Minister, Richard Marles, is concerned about China’s rapid and “opaque” military expansion, calling it “the biggest military buildup that we've seen since the end of the Second World War.” He met with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on Sunday, the first such meeting in two years. (NIKKEI ASIA)
?? China’s bid for a security pact with South Pacific countries should be considered collectively by the states in the region, said Samoa's prime minister, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa. The comments, made at a joint news conference with her New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern, were seen as aimed at the Solomon Islands’ recent agreement with China. (REUTERS)
Following a BBC Africa investigation, Malawian ministers condemned the practice of using young children to produce highly exploitative videos that are then sold on Chinese social media platforms.
"We are feeling disgusted, disrespected, and deeply pained," said Foreign Minister Nancy Tembo during a press briefing on Monday in Lilongwe.
Tembo's sentiments were echoed by her colleague, Patricia Kaliati, minister for gender, children, and social welfare, who said that the practice of choreographing young Malawian children to say demeaning things in Chinese is an "insult to the Malawian children and the nation" and the "government will not tolerate abuse against children."
The BBC documentary, "Racism for Sale," highlighted the well-established practice of producing so-called "blessing videos" that feature people in low-income countries in Africa, Central Europe, and elsewhere saying things in broken Mandarin and holding up signs in Chinese for customers in China who pay $15-$30 dollars for each clip.
Many of the videos are quite benign -- birthday greetings, holiday messages, and the sort... but many of them are not.
BBC journalist and founder of the online community BlackLivity China, Runako Celina, and her colleague Henry Mhango traveled to Malawi for the investigation to identify the people allegedly responsible for creating highly exploitative, demeaning videos that included phrases like "I'm a Black monster (黑鬼), my IQ is low."
They also uncovered reports that the Chinese producers of these videos physically abused some of the children.
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Eric Olander
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Eric Olander
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, one of China's fiercest critics in Washington, D.C., leveraged the revelations uncovered in the BBC documentary to launch a broadside against the Chinese Communist Party.
It's important to note that while Rubio implicates the Communist Party with these videos, there is no evidence at this time that either the party or the government is complicit in these videos.
Eric Olander
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe met with top defense officials from Saudi Arabia over the weekend to discuss closer security and military relations between the two countries.
The timing of Saturday's meeting is significant. It occurred just one month before U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to fly to Riyadh to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The U.S. has become increasingly concerned over Saudi Arabia's steadily improving ties with China. (ALARABIYA)
Saudi Aramco informed its customers in China they will not get as much crude as they ordered for July due to heightened demand from other buyers in Asia, namely in Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. China may offset lower deliveries from Saudi Arabia with increased purchases of Russian or Iranian crude. (BLOOMBERG)
Chinese construction major China Railway 18th Bureau Group won a nearly-billion dollar contract to build five kilometers of tunnels in the western holy city of Medina. (ARAB NEWS)
Eric Olander
Few debt crises have triggered as much disinformation as Sri Lanka’s. The country is currently grappling with a complex debt restructuring process amid its worst economic crisis since independence. The role of Chinese debt has drawn much attention and many false narratives - not least the allegation that Hambantota Port was seized in a Chinese ‘debt trap.’
Now two Sri Lankan economists, Umesh Moramudali and Thilina Panduwawala, provided a detailed timeline of the crisis and China’s part in it. Their account is a great resource for those tracking the Sri Lankan crisis and for viewers of similar situations in Zambia and elsewhere.
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Sri Lanka is currently scrambling for support amid its worst economic crisis since independence. But the crisis could provide a rare opportunity for cooperation between China and the United States. Qi Zhenhong, China’s ambassador to the South Asian island state, met with his U.S counterpart Julie Chung this week.
Following the meeting, the Chinese embassy tweeted that “China and the United States could work together to help Sri Lanka overcome current difficulties.” Chung also confirmed that the two discussed "ways to support Sri Lankan efforts to ensure political stability & economic growth."
While no details have been released, crises like Sri Lanka’s could (theoretically) provide an alternative space to work together, one relatively untouched by broader geopolitics.
A flurry of high-level Chinese diplomacy is underway in Africa in the run-up to next week's Horn of Africa conference that Beijing is co-hosting with the Ethiopian government.
On Sunday, Wang Di, China's top diplomat for the Middle East and North Africa, arrived in Algeria (top photo) after spending last week hopscotching through the Persian Gulf with stops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. While he was in the Saudi capital, Wang also paid a visit to the HQ of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Meanwhile, Wu Peng, Beijing's lead diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa, embarked on a seven-nation tour last week in South Africa, where he met with senior DIRCO officials and visited Chinese companies operating in the country.
Zambia is on Wu's itinerary this week, sparking some speculation that his visit was timed to coincide with the ongoing debt restructuring talks that seem to have stalled. Although China, together with France, is co-chair of Zambia's Creditor Committee, there's no indication that Wu's visit is specifically intended to jump-start the debt talks.
In fact, the Foreign Ministry often does not play a central role in debt talks as those issues are typically handled directly by the creditors themselves.
In addition to South Africa and Zambia, Wu will go to Malawi, Tanzania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Togo.
Eric Olander
Eric Olander
Two years of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and slowing economies in Africa finally caught up with Shenzhen-based African mobile phone giant Transsion. The company released its first-quarter results earlier this month that revealed drops in revenues (1.8%), profits (7.6%), and smartphone sales (7%) compared to the same time last year.
But the news wasn't all bad. Transsion's downturn in Africa was offset by strong performances in the Middle East and Asia.
To be sure, though, while sales of Transsion's three brands in Africa (Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) did fall slightly last quarter, the company remains dominant in both the smartphone and feature phone segments.
Eric Olander
Transsion's Tecno brand is expanding its new mobile money service to Kenya this week. “The wallet has pilot launched in Nigeria in May, and roll-out to Kenya in middle of June," the company said in a statement.
A mobile payment option from Tecno will likely pose formidable competition for Safaricom's M-Pesa, the current market leader, given that the new service will come pre-installed on all new Tecno smartphones. (BUSINESS DAILY)
?? Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) completed the first cross-border settlement of Kenyan shillings when Nairobi-based Chinese-owned e-commerce company Kilimall repatriated the equivalent of $20,400. The funds were sent to the cross-border currency center in Hunan province and converted to RMB. (XINHUA)
?? The Congolese state-run mining company Gécamines is trying to reassure everyone that it has not taken control of the Chinese-run Tenke Fungurume Mine, contrary to reports on Friday. Sage Ngoie Mbayo said on Friday, "TFM is run by me. It is not run by Gecamines or by CMOC (China Moly)," but both Gecamines and CMOC later denied that. (REUTERS)
Eric Olander
China, for the first time, will convene a Horn of Africa (HoA) conference between June 20th and 22nd in Addis Ababa. China's new Special Envoy for HoA, Xue Bing, announced during a tour in March that Beijing would organize such a conference in the first half of the year but since then there've been no details. The Chinese conference comes just as the U.S. appointed former ambassador to the DRC, Mike Hammer, to be HoA Special Envoy -- the third such appointment in 18 months. (SUDAN TRIBUNE)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up his 10-day South Pacific tour on Saturday in Timor-Leste, Southeast Asia's youngest nation. Wang signed four standard agreements with Timorese counterpart Adaljiza Magno on agriculture, media partnerships and economic and technical cooperation. Unlike other stops on his tour, no military or security matters were raised in Dili. (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE)
The State Department's #2 diplomat Wendy Sherman embarked on a 9-day Asian tour on Sunday with stops planned in South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos. Sherman's visit comes just weeks after President Joe Biden was in the region and unveiled Washington's latest effort to counter China with the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. “It goes without saying that China is the main issue," said Deepa Ollapally, a professor at George Washington University. (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called on the other four members of the BRICS group to work together to offset the economic damage from Western sanctions. Siluanov made the appeal during a minister and central bankers meeting on Monday in the latest effort by both Russia and China to position the BRICS group as a partial alternative to the Western-led financial system. (REUTERS)
Fresh off his South Pacific tour, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is now in Central Asia to attend the "China+Central Asia" (C+C5) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Kazakhstan. Wang will be in Nur-Sultan through Thursday where he'll also meet with leaders from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. This is the third meeting of the C+C5 since 2020 and the first in-person since last May. (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
The U.S. government announced a two-year tariff suspension on solar panels made in four Southeast Asian countries as part of an effort to help ease a supply crunch in the U.S. Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam were all swept up in the Trump administration's decision to sanction solar panels manufactured in Xinjiang, allegedly using forced labor. Washington was later concerned China was transshipping parts and panels through these four countries to circumvent the sanctions. (NIKKEI ASIA)
Sri Lanka is calling on China to renegotiate a $1.5 billion yuan-swap agreement from last year in order to free up money to buy food and other necessities. Per the original agreement, the funds in that swap can only be used if Colombo maintains reserves equivalent to three months of imports which is just not possible in the current crisis. No word from Beijing yet if they've agreed to restructure the deal. (REUTERS)
Kenyan lawmakers approved a measure on Tuesday to increase the country's debt ceiling to a record $85.7 billion (Sh10 trillion). The move allows the government to borrow an additional $7 billion to plug the budget deficit when the fiscal year begins on July 1 and it also reduces China's share of the overall debt from around 10% to 8%. Various Kenyan borrowers owe Chinese creditors (mostly the China Exim Bank) around $6.92 billion. (BUSINESS DAILY)
China's top diplomat for the Middle East and North Africa, Wang Di, is making the rounds through the Persian Gulf for what's being described as a policy coordination tour. On Monday he met with the UAE's Minister of State Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh and then traveled to Riyadh on Tuesday for talks with Saudi Arabia's Deputy Foreign Minister Abdulrahman Al Rassi. The two sides reportedly discussed "ways to coordinate all areas of cooperation and joint coordination." (SAUDI GAZETTE)
Islamic Al-Shabaab militants launched a series of attacks on Wednesday in Kenya's northeastern Garissa county that included an assault on a construction truck carrying two Chinese nationals. The militants forced the truck off the road and later burned it. No one was injured in that attack but one soldier was wounded in an earlier incident involving militants from the same group. (THE STAR)
West Africa's endangered rosewood trees are finally getting protection from the international convention on endangered species, CITES. On Wednesday, the group announced a landmark decision to ban the rosewood trade from 16 African countries. Rosewood is the world's most trafficked wildlife commodity, predominantly between West Africa and China. At least 3 million tons (worth more than $2 billion) have been illegally smuggled since 2017.(ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY)
The head of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala expressed cautious optimism that "crunch talks" with China over fishing subsidies and intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 vaccines will be finalized ahead of next week's ministerial summit in Geneva. It's “within the realm of the possible,” she said about the prospects of an agreement. Okonjo-Iweala needs to close these deals in order to bolster the WTO's ailing status as a credible international forum. (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
Eric Olander
The Chinese media reaction to the Washington Post report about the PLAN's purported desire to build a navy base in Cambodia closely adhered to an often-used template used to challenge unfavorable stories:
Here's a sample from a story published on Wednesday in the popular nationalist tabloid Global Times:
Peng Nian, executive director of the SAARC National Research Center of Hainan Normal University, explained in an interview with a reporter from the Global Times on Tuesday that such behavior by the United States is part of an effort to create a rift between China and Cambodia and other countries with friendly relations, by exaggerating the so-called China "threat" in Southeast Asia.
Peng Nian added that U.S. anxiety about China is going up because of the increasing strength of the Chinese navy and China's expanded military ties with other countries.
Other examples of this commonly-used media tactic:
Eric Olander
China's reported desire to build a navy facility in Cambodia is prompting careful scrutiny from analysts in rival nations, notably the United States and Taiwan.
Ryan Ho Kilpatrick, a reporter at the Taiwan-government-funded media outlet TaiwanPlus, spoke with Michael Mazza, a defense analyst at the conservative U.S. think tank American Enterprise Institute:
KILPATRICK: What does China seek to gain by having a naval facility in Cambodia?
MAZZA: One, they simply gain more experience operating bases in foreign countries. At this point, they just have the one (in Djibouti) and adding a second, even though it's relatively close to home gives them more experience in maintaining effective military-to-military relations and maintaining good relations with surrounding communities -- they just don't have experience doing that overseas and doing that in a friendly country is a good way to gain that experience.
KILPATRICK: This naval facility is less than one square kilometer in its footprint. So, how much of a threat could a base of that size reasonably pose?
MAZZA: This is not going to be a base for multiple aircraft carriers or anything like that. It's a small piece of land. It's not going to be a game-changer and so we need to be careful about not overstating the threat but it does give the Chinese navy a new location from which to operate and allows them to reach places and threaten places from a different angle, or a different way than they otherwise might have.
Eric Olander
The Washington Post story is playing nicely in the United States, where suspicions about China's military ambitions are already quite pronounced.
It's notable, however, that Senator Hagerty would consider the small base that the PLAN is purportedly building in Cambodia a "threat" to the United States military, which has at least 750 much larger bases spread across 80 countries.
Eric Olander
Eric Olander
U.S. President Joe Biden opened the three-day Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles with a new economic plan and a promise to re-engage countries in the Western Hemisphere... that is, friendly countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The White House also unveiled the "Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity," a similar initiative to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework the President announced last month in Asia. But just as with the Asian proposal, this is not a trade pact, does not offer any tariff relief, and has no preferential market access.
Much of this effort is aimed at rolling back the significant inroads that China has made in both Central and South America in recent years. China has long been South America's leading trade partner but now Reuters revealed that is also the case for every country in Central America, except Mexico.
Even within the administration, there's a growing sense there isn't much they can do to slow this trend. "As long as China is ready to put its cash on the table, we seem to be fighting a losing battle," one official quoted by Reuters said.
Eric Olander
Supply chain disruptions and inflation are driving Chinese shopkeepers out of Argentina’s major cities to the countryside and even to neighboring countries. An Asian business association said rising rents and staff costs mean owners are increasingly considering moving to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, or Paraguay.
Few Chinese supermarkets reportedly remain in Buenos Aires’s central neighborhoods, and they’re rapidly disappearing from other major cities too. Contracted annual rent increases are contributing to narrowing margins.
Eric Olander
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