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

Following Its Rather Dismal Coverage of FOCAC, the BBC Goes Back to Basics For Wang’s Africa Tour

The BBC used the occasion of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s three-nation African tour last week to reset its coverage of China-Africa relations. This follows a dismal performance during last December’s FOCAC conference, ...
by Eric Olander

China Wants to Play a Bigger Diplomatic Role in the Horn of Africa, Setting Up Potential Confrontation With the U.S.

It was a remarkable coincidence that both the United States and China announced the appointments of special envoys for Ethiopia… on the same day. The State ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Mounting Anxieties About the Security of Chinese Personnel in Nigeria

Officials from China's Public Security Bureau in Beijing meeting virtually with Chinese diplomats in Nigeria and representatives of the expatriate business community.
Officials from China’s powerful Ministry of Public Security met last week with Chinese diplomats in Nigeria and expatriate business leaders to discuss how to better protect Chinese personnel and enterprises operating in the ...
by Eric Olander

Debt, Trade, and Infrastructure Expected to Top the Agenda For Wang Yi’s Visit to Kenya

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was greeted by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa. Image via the Kenya Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Kenya late Wednesday afternoon, the second stop on his three-nation Africa tour. He left Eritrea to fly directly to the port city of ...
by Eric Olander

This Will Likely be the Last Time Wang and Kenyatta Meet in Their Current Roles, Ending a 9-Year Professional Relationship

File image of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Thursday’s meeting between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the State House in Mombasa will likely be their last in their current roles, bringing to a close ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Share of Kenya’s Total Debt Shrinks as Borrowing Surges

Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP
Kenya’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is forecasting the country’s total public debt will reach $78 billion this June and $86 billion by the same time in 2023. Meantime, China’s share of ...
by Eric Olander

Wang Yi’s Visit to Eritrea Was Symbolically Important But Produced Few Tangible Outcomes

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh (right) signed a joint statement in Asmara. Image via Xinhua.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) wrapped up his brief visit to Eritrea on Wednesday by signing a broadly-worded joint statement with his counterpart Osman Saleh (right). The statement was largely boilerplate, ...
by Eric Olander

One of China’s Top Africa Scholars Tries to Explain How Wang Yi Chooses What African Countries to Visit and Also Responds to Debt Trap Accusation

File image of He Wenping, one of China's most well-known Africa scholars at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
For 32 years, Chinese foreign ministers like Wang Yi have made it a priority to go to Africa for their first overseas trip of the year but little is known about what goes ...
by Eric Olander

Was a Chinese Mine in the DR Congo Looted After the President Paid a Visit? The Mining Minister Says No, But Video Says Otherwise

DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi visited the Anhui Mining Investment Company (SACIM) that was later purportedly looted. Image via @Presidence_RDC.
The DR Congo’s Mining Minister Antoinette N’samba is trying to quell accusations that the Chinese-owned Anhui Mining Investment Company (SACIM) was ransacked by looters last week after she and President Félix Tshisekedi visited the facility ...
by Eric Olander

Wang Yi Begins Week-long Africa Tour in Eritrea But You Wouldn’t Know It From Chinese State Media

Yemane Meskel is Eritrea's Minister of Information.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi landed in the Eritrean capital Asmara on Tuesday evening to kick off a three-nation, four-day Africa tour that also includes stops in Kenya and the Comoros Islands in ...
by Eric Olander

Rare Praise For China From One of Beijing’s Most Outspoken Critics in Washington, D.C.

Peter Pham, the former Trump administration diplomat in Africa and one of China’s most vocal critics in Washington, surprised even a few of his own followers on Tuesday when he posted rare praise ...
by Eric Olander

Infographic Details Three Decades of Chinese Foreign Ministers’ New Year Tours to Africa

Wang Yi’s current visit to Africa is the continuation of a 32-year tradition where the first overseas trip of the year by a Chinese Foreign Minister is always to Africa. This custom didn’t ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Scholar Identifies Three Pillars of Great Power Competition in Africa

It’s a relatively recent phenomenon for China to frame its relations in Africa within the larger context of great power competition with the United States and the European Union. Prior to the Trump ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Propaganda Still Fuming Over Pentagon Claim that Beijing Wants to Build an Atlantic Military Base in Africa

It’s been exactly a month since the Wall Street Journal published the Pentagon’s latest claim (albeit not a new assertion) that China plans to build a new ...
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 ...

Conservative Think Tank Analysts in DC Want the White House to Formally Recognize Somaliland as a Challenge to China

There are growing calls among prominent conservative foreign policy analysts in Washington, D.C. for the United States to extend formal diplomatic recognition to the self-declared state of Somaliland as a way to confront ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Zero-COVID Policy and Travel Restrictions Leaves Thousands of Young Africans in Limbo

With China’s borders all but sealed and no prospect of reopening soon as long as strict COVID-19 mitigation protocols are in effect, tens of thousands of African students are left wondering what’s going ...
by Eric Olander

East Africa’s New Year’s Resolution: Borrow More Money

Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are starting 2022 with an eye on borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to fund new infrastructure development and to help close the finance gap created by the ongoing ...
by Eric Olander

Unlike Many Other African Currencies, the Zambian Kwacha Had a Great 2021, Buoyed by Hope for a Debt Deal

While currencies like the Kenyan shilling and the Nigerian naira lost value in 2021, the Zambian kwacha enters the new year with some serious momentum. The kwacha surged 27% last ...
by Eric Olander

Why This Photo May Indicate That China’s Mining Contracts Problem in the DR Congo Has Been Resolved

DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi meeting with China Molybdenum President Sun Ruiwen in Kinshasa. Image via the DRC Presidency.
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi’s office published a photo of a Christmas Eve meeting with Sun Ruiwen, president of China Molybdenum (aka “China Moly.”) The company controls the massive Tenke Fungurume cobalt and copper mine ...
by Eric Olander

Ghana Approves Homegrown Smart Cities Solution That Will Use Both Chinese and U.S. Tech

File image of Ghana's National Communications Authority headquarters in Accra.
Ghana’s National Communications Authority (photo) granted local internet services provider Celltel approval to build the $300 million Ghana Smart Cities Project that will provide national wireless internet coverage. The company said it plans ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Vaccines Still Slowly Trickling to Africa, No Uptick in Deliveries Since Xi Speech

Only been five weeks have elapsed since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would distribute one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa, so it’s still a bit early to ...
by Eric Olander

Former Ambassador’s Column in Le Monde Highlights the Negative View of “Chinafrique” Among Political & Media Elites in France

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: China's presence in Africa is harmful.
Generally speaking, the widely-held narrative among media and political elites in France about the Chinese in Africa is very similar to that in the United States where the Chinese presence on the continent ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Explains Why Big Projects All Go to Chinese Contractors

File image of Kenya's Transport Minister James Macharia. Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP
Kenya’s straight-talking Transportation and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macheria (photo) bluntly explained why the government consistently awards major infrastructure projects to Chinese contractors: For any project, we go through a ...
by Eric Olander

Two Leading International Development Finance Heads Single Out China For the Ballooning Debt Crisis in the Global South

Emmanuel Moulin, head of the Paris Club (left) and World Bank President David Malpass (right). Images via AFP.
Two of the world’s most prominent development finance leaders, Emmanuel Moulin (left), chair of the Paris Club, and World Bank President David Malpass (right), separately named China as one of the key factors in ...
by Eric Olander

When France Builds a Train in Africa, the International Media Coverage is Very Different Than When China Does

TRANSLATION: In Senegal, train service between Dakar and Diamniadio is finally in service.
Senegalese President Macky Sall launched a new 40-kilometer commuter railway last week that will link the industrial city Diamniadio with the capital Dakar. The debut of the new Regional Express marked an ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Kenya’s Monetary System Struggling Under the Weight of Chinese Debt Servicing Obligations

Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP
The demands of servicing debts, largely to China, are weighing heavily on Kenya’s monetary system. The shilling dropped again in Monday trading and the central bank reported that foreign exchange reserves have plunged ...
by Eric Olander

In a Potentially Troubling Development for Africa, Sinovac Did Not Perform Well in Early Test Against Omicron Variant

A healthcare worker holds up a SINOVAC Covid-19 vaccine before administering it on a minor during the Numolux/SINOVAC Peadiatric Covid-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial at the University in Pretoria, on September 10, 2021. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) found that people inoculated with two doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine did not produce sufficient detectable levels of antibodies needed to fend off ...
by Eric Olander

Sinovac’s Limited Distribution in Africa May End Up Being a Blessing if Omicron Spreads

Source: Bridge Consulting
Distribution of Sinovac’s CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine remains relatively limited in Africa, according to data from Bridge Consulting’s weekly vaccine tracker report. So, if the vaccine is not able to effectively counteract ...
by Eric Olander

Even Though More Countries Have Received Chinese Vaccines, Distribution Remains Highly Unequal

There does not appear to be any pattern to the inconsistent distribution of Chinese vaccines in Africa over the past 12 months. For much of the year, North African countries accounted for the ...
by Eric Olander

Iranian Security Service Buys Advanced Video Surveillance Technology From China

One of China’s largest video surveillance companies, Tiandy, is reportedly selling large quantities of sophisticated AI-enabled cameras with facial recognition technology to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and other Iranian security services, 
by Eric Olander
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Developing Countries’ Debt Servicing Costs to China Are Significant, but Nowhere Near as Much as Other Creditors
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