Live Feed

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

Rwanda’s Ambassador to China is Becoming an Innovative Pitchman for His Country’s Coffee Industry

Rwandan ambassador to China James Kimonyo delivering a package of Rwandan coffee to a customer in Beijing. Image via CGTN Francais.
If African countries are going to close their gaping trade deficits with China they’ll have to find new ways to sell more of their goods to Chinese consumers. And James Kimonyo thinks he knows ...
by Eric Olander

Anzetse Were Has Something to Say to the International Media About Its Coverage of China-Africa Relations

Chinese President Xi Jinping (on the screen) delivers his speech during the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on November 29, 2021. SEYLLOU / AFP
Longtime Africa-China analyst and Nairobi-based development economist Anzetse Were is exasperated from the international media’s shoddy coverage of China’s engagement with Africa. “The narrative on Africa-China relations in global media has been persistently ...
by Eric Olander

Join Two South African YouTubers For Brunch And a Candid Discussion about the Experience of Black Africans in China

Two South African expatriates living in China sat down for brunch last Sunday to share some straight talk with their YouTube subscribers over what it’s really like to be Black in China. The ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Total Global Trade Passed $6 Trillion For The First Time Last Year With Africa’s Share Set to Remain At Around 4%

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash
For the first time, China’s external trade in 2021 surpassed $6 trillion in a single year, up 21% compared to the previous year, according to new data from the General ...
by Eric Olander

Ghana Tries to Defend Itself Against Debt Critics

The Ghanaian Finance Ministry is angrily refuting recent reports by Bloomberg News reflecting the increasingly widespread perception in the global financial community that the country is now over-extended and facing debt distress. ‘There ...
by Eric Olander

China and the Burgeoning Debt Crisis in Africa

With more than 20 African countries now approaching or confronting debt distress, according to the IMF, a trio of scholars at the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House mapped ...
by Eric Olander

Meet the CityBug: The Newest Chinese-made EV to Go On Sale In South Africa

The Eleksa CityBug, a newly available EV in South Africa. Image via Eleksa.
South Africa lags far behind other middle-income countries in the availability of electric vehicles but Chinese brands like Eleksa are hoping to change with the introduction of new cars like the $15,000 Citybug. ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Auto Majors See South Africa as a Key Market to Compete Head-On With Global Rivals

The Chery Tiggo 8 Pro SUV. Image via Chery.
South Africa’s intensely competitive car market may provide a glimpse into the future of global automotive trade with Chinese brands successfully competing with rivals from the U.S., Germany, Japan, and South Korea. In ...
by Eric Olander

6 Chinese Nationals Arrested in Kenyan Crackdown on Illegal Immigration

Kenyan immigration arrested six Chinese nationals last week as part of a broader crackdown against foreigners illegally living and working in the country. The six range in age between 25 and 30 years ...
by Eric Olander

Two Robbers Promptly Arrested After Attempting to Break Into Chinese UN Peacekeeping Base in the DRC

One of the suspected robbers who tried to break into a Chinese UN peacekeeping compound in the eastern DRC.
Two suspected robbers were quickly arrested after they scaled the security fence surrounding a Chinese UN peacekeeping base in the South Kivu city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
by Eric Olander

From British Cotton to Zanzibar Pepper — The Promise of Huge Fortunes From the China Market is Still Alluring

Centuries ago early British imperialists recognized the vast potential of the China market. They fantasized that if every Chinese man added just one inch to their shirts, it would have the cotton mills ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: It’s Now Possible to Transport Cargo From Uganda to Kenya’s Port of Mombasa

A train at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot in Kenya's Rift Valley transferring cargo from standard gauge to meter gauge railways connecting Kenya and Uganda.
The long-held dream of transporting goods between Uganda and the Port of Mombasa became a reality on Monday with the inauguration of a new rail line that connects Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) with ...
by Eric Olander

Citing National Security, Kenya (Again) Refuses to Release SGR Contracts With China

File image of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway that China financed and built as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Simon Mania/AFP
Kenya’s transportation minister Joseph Njoroge reaffirmed the government’s longstanding refusal to make public the $3.9 billion contract with the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to build the Standard Gauge Railway. Njoroge’s ...
by Eric Olander

Global Times Isn’t Happy With the FT’s Report on Chinese Lending in Africa

This week’s Financial Times story by Africa Editor David Pilling and Greater China Correspondent Kathrin Hille on the slowdown in Chinese infrastructure lending in Africa provoked a largely ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

BRICS Announces Numerous New Initiatives

The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...

African Governments Need to Prepare For a New Era of Chinese Lending That Will be Smaller and More Targeted, Says Analyst

Damilola Akinbami, the Lagos-based head of research at Financial Derivatives Company.
The recent pullback in Chinese lending for African infrastructure development makes sense, given debt sustainability problems in more than a third of the countries across the continent, explained Damilola Akinbami, the Lagos-based head ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese, Nigerian Security Officials Meet to Discuss How to Better Protect Chinese Expats in the Country

Yin Guohai from China's Ministry of Public Security along with Ambassador Cui Jianchun held talks with the Director-General of the State Security Services, Yusuf Bichi in Abuja.
High-level Chinese and Nigerian security officials met on Monday in Abuja to discuss how to reduce crime and violence against Chinese nationals residing in Nigeria. Yin Guohai from China’s powerful Ministry of Public ...
by Eric Olander

Small-scale Miners in Northeastern DR Congo Protest Against Chinese Mining Companies’ Use of Heavy Machinery

Protestors against Chinese mining companies march in the northeastern province of Haut-Uélé.
Protests erupted this week in the far northeastern Congolese province of Haut-Uélé where small-scale miners rallied against the growing presence of Chinese mining companies in the region. The marchers, mostly young men, are upset ...
by Eric Olander

Hunan Province Approves a Raft of New Measures Aimed at Boosting Trade With Africa

Members of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth People's Congress of Hunan Province met in Changsha and approved new measures aimed at boosting trade with African countries.
Provincial lawmakers in the southern Chinese province of Hunan approved a set of new measures this week that are designed to boost the province’s already sizable trade with Africa. 
by Eric Olander

Three Down, Three to Go: Wang Yi Meets With Mideast Foreign Ministers and Representatives

Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds talks with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani in the eastern city of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province. Image via Xinhua.
Like a high-stakes version of speed dating, Persian Gulf foreign ministers and the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) met one after the other with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Delicate Mideast Balancing Act on Display This Week

With the visits by Iranian and Saudia Arabian foreign ministers book-ended this week, China is demonstrating how it navigates the Persian Gulf’s bitter rivalries. Although Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang ...
by Eric Olander

Professor Ding Long on Why the Gulf Foreign Ministers Visit is So Important

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: What does it mean for this group of Gulf countries to visit China?
Professor Ding Long, a well-known Mideast scholar at Shanghai International Studies University, reflected on the significance of this week’s landmark visit to China by four foreign ministers from Persian Gulf countries.  Writing for ...
by Eric Olander

HRW: Saudi Arabia Preparing to Deport Two Uyghur Men Back to China

Two Uyghurs currently detained in Saudi Arabia that now face the risk of deportation back to China.
Two Uyghur exiles currently jailed in Saudi Arabia have reportedly been told to prepare for their deportation back to China, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). It’s not ...
by Eric Olander

Singapore Study Provokes New Concerns Over Chinese-made Vaccines’ Ability to Combat Omicron Variant

The Singaporean Health Minister, Ong Ye Kung, revealed new findings this week on the efficacy of different COVID-19 vaccines that are once again sparking concerns over the use of Chinese-made vaccines that are predominant in ...
by Eric Olander

Popular Hong Kong YouTuber Crime-Baits Joburg

Popular Hong Kong YouTuber Torres Pit托哥 walked through Yeoville, one of Johannesburg’s neighborhoods known for street crime, to see if he could make it to the McDonald’s and buy a Big Mac without getting ...
by Eric Olander

Fresh From His Africa, Indian Ocean Tours, Wang Yi Hosts Four Persian Gulf Foreign Ministers For Unprecedented Visit

File image of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and GCC Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A delegation of four foreign ministers from Persian Gulf countries began a landmark week-long visit to Beijing on Monday for extended talks on energy issues and, possibly, a free trade ...
by Eric Olander

When You See This Chart You’ll Understand Why This Week’s Gulf Diplomacy in Beijing is So Important

Source: Reuters
Charts listing China’s top sources of imported oil used to look very different. In 2008, according to David Shinn from George Washington University, three suppliers from African ...
by Eric Olander

Financial Times Explores the Current State of Chinese Lending in Africa

Last year’s controversy surrounding the fate of the Entebbe International Airport in Uganda and the (incorrect) allegation that it risks being seized by Chinese creditors is the subject of a 
by Eric Olander

Brace Yourself, You’re Going to be Inundated With Pictures of Chinese Infrastructure in the DRC

Now that the contentious contract disputes between the DRC government and the major Chinese mining companies appear to be settling, at least for now, expect to see a torrent of ...
by Eric Olander

Armed Chinese and Ugandan Commandos Conduct Rare Joint Operation

New details are emerging of a rare joint operation that took place last month between armed Chinese and Ugandan commandos. The operation led to the arrest of half of an eight-member criminal gang ...
by Eric Olander
Page 126 of 1981…125126127…198

Most Read

1
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
Chinese Cargo Planes Secretly Ferrying Supplies to Iran, Claim Online Sleuths
4
Indonesia Goes Nuclear, Taps China and Russia for Modular Reactors
5
Thailand in Last-Minute U.S. Talks as 36% Tariff Looms
6 Trump’s Contradictory Iran Strategy Leaves U.S. Weaker After War’s End, Says Chinese Commentator

CGSP Intelligence

Special Report

Indonesia’s China-Backed Nickel-to-Battery Ambition

Special Report

Data Tool

Track cobalt mining and processing in the DRC

Data Tool

Data Tool

The CGSP China-Africa Energy Tracker : trace Chinese energy projects by type

Data Tool

Introducing CGSP Intelligence

CGSP Intelligence gives you the information advantage on Chinese activities in the Global South. CGSP Intelligence is launching in Summer 2025, with analysis and a full set of data tools designed for corporate and enterprise leaders.