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

China’s Role in the Complex, Brutal History of Cobalt Mining in the DR Congo

The New Yorker magazine published a sweeping long-form article in its latest edition that delves into the painful history of Congolese cobalt — a metal that is now indispensable for any ...
by Eric Olander

China Controls 90% of the World’s Manganese Market, Another Strategic Ingredient for Electric Vehicle Batteries

Governments and automakers in the U.S., Europe and Asia have become steadily concerned in recent years over China’s dominance of the strategic minerals and metals supply chains that are used to ...
by Eric Olander

With Iron Ore Mines in Guinea and Sierra Leone Now Coming Online, China is Making It Clear That It Wants to End Its Dependence on Australia

File image of the Pilabra iron ore mine in Western Australia.
The Chinese government is signaling both through its actions and propaganda messaging that the days of being overly reliant on Australian iron ore are coming to an end. When precisely? Well, no one ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Officials and Environmentalists Exchange Fire Over That Controversial Fish Port in Sierra Leone

Screenshot from a video produced by environmentalists who oppose the development of a new Chinese-financed fishing harbor in Sierra Leone.
China’s ambassador to Sierra Leone, Hu Zhangliang, paid a visit on Monday to the Foreign Ministry to rally support with the government for a controversial development project to build a fish port in the ...
by Eric Olander

New CSIS Report Examines Huawei’s Burgeoning Cloud Services Business in Emerging Markets

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP
While so much of the attention about Huawei’s role in emerging markets like Africa focuses on the company’s 5G technology, the reality is that the Chinese telco equipment giant is now expanding far ...
by Eric Olander

Be Wary of All Those “Hyperbolic” Reports Warning of the Dangers of Chinese Technology

The fear that China is going to export digital authoritarianism and repression to Africa is way overblown and oversimplified in Western media reports and think tank analysis cautions Iginio Gagliardone, 
by Eric Olander

With One Eye on the U.S., Xi Jinping Pledges $3 Billion in New COVID Aid for Developing Countries

Chinese President XI Jinping addressing the G20 Health Summit via video conference from Beijing. Image via Xinhua.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a new $3 billion aid package to help developing countries in their battle against the health and economic impact of COVID. The President made the announcement ...
by Eric Olander

Egypt Poised to Begin Vaccine Manufacturing After First Batch of Raw Materials Arrived From China

TWEET TRANSLATION: "China and Egypt are true partners and friends. The love and friendship between the two countries is the main motive for supplying Egypt with vaccines."
Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed and Chinese ambassador Liao Liqiang were at Cairo’s international airport on Friday to witness the arrival of 1,400 liters of vaccine components that will be used to produce 2 ...
by Eric Olander

Ghanaian Lands Minister Assures Chinese Ambassador Rights of Chinese Nationals Arrested in Mining Crackdown Will be Respected

Chinese ambassador Lu Kun speaking with Ghanaian Lands and Natural Resources Minister Samuel Abu Jinapor. Image via Graphic Online.
China’s ambassador to Ghana, Lu Kun, went to the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry on Friday to express his concern directly to the minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, about the fate of ...
by Eric Olander

Ghana’s Defense Minister Is Sending the Military Back to the Countryside to Crack Down on Illegal Gold Mining

Ghana Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul
Facing a surge of public pressure that the government isn’t doing enough to stop small-scale illegal gold mining (a practice known as galamsey,) Ghana’s Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul announced that ...
by Eric Olander

The Head of a Major Chinese Mining Company Flew to Sierra Leone Just Days After Parliament Cleared the Way for Expanded Iron Ore Shipments

President of Kingho Energy Group, Colin Ding, upon arriving in Freetown. Image via Sierra Leone Telegraph.
Colin Ding,President of Kingho Energy Group, landed in Freetown this week, just days after Sierra Leone’s parliament voted to ratify a port and rail lease agreement that will facilitate the ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Ambassador to Sierra Leone Pays a Visit to the Anti-Corruption HQ, Donates Equipment

Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone Hu Ziangliang paid a visit on Wednesday to the headquarters of the SL’s Anti-Corruption Commission. He met with Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala and participated in a handover ceremony ...
by Eric Olander

China Presented a Four-Point African Peace and Security Proposal in an Open UN Security Council Debate

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chairs the United Nations Security Council open debate on "Peace and Security in Africa: Addressing Root Causes of Conflict in Post-Pandemic Recovery in Africa" via video link on May 19, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired an open debate at the UN Security Council on Wednesday to discuss a four-point proposal on African peace and security in the post-COVID-era. The meeting “Peace and ...
by Eric Olander

The U.S. and China Face Off Against One Another in Latin America Over Vaccine Distribution

An elderly man on a car is inoculated against COVID-19 at the Parada Marte military camp in Tegucigalpa on May 19, 2021. Orlando SIERRA / AFP
No news today from Africa about Chinese vaccine distributions but lots of action unfolding in Latin America where the United States and China are squaring off against one another, particularly in countries that ...
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 ...

China Backs Reallocation of IMF Funds to African Countries

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng speaking via video conference from Beijing to attendees of a Franco-African leaders summit in Paris on Tuesday. Image via Xinhua.
China answered France’s call to support the reallocation of billions of IMF funds that will come from an issuance of $650 billion in new Special Drawing Rights, according to a ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Ambassador to the DRC Hints the Country May Once Again Be at the Center of a Great Power Struggle

Chinese ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhu Jing, posted a somewhat cryptic tweet earlier this week that suggested the DRC may once again be at the center of a great ...
by Eric Olander

Ghana President Akufo-Addo Calls For the Cancellation of All African Debts

Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo poses before the opening session of the Summit on the Financing of African Economies on May 18, 2021 in Paris. Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP
Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo issued an urgent call for immediate economic relief, including the total cancellation of all debts owed by African countries, during his address on Tuesday at the Summit on Financing ...
by Eric Olander

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum Criticizes “Western Complaining” About Chinese and Turkish Investment in His Country

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum poses before the opening session of the Summit on the Financing of African Economies on May 18, 2021 in Paris. Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP
Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum criticized the media for creating the impression that the west African country is beset by security challenges and not a safe place to invest. H
by Eric Olander

The U.S. and China Trade Barbs Over Who’s More Righteous in Distributing COVID-19 Vaccines to Poor Countries in the Global South

Nicholas Kamm / AFP
United States President Joe Biden took aim at China on Tuesday in remarks about Washington’s plan to begin sending tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries. The President implied that ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Senator Blasts China For Selling Countries “Garbage Vaccines” and Prompts a Furious Media Backlash From Beijing

While U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian took swipes at one another on Tuesday over global vaccine distribution, another dispute broke out — this one between a prominent ...
by Eric Olander

Linda Thomas-Greenfield is Worried About Africa’s Relationship With China

Linda Thomas-Greenfield appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on her nomination to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 27, 2021. Greg Nash / POOL / AFP
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield (photo), said the Biden administration’s new policy for Africa will contrast sharply not only with Donald Trump’s but also China’s engagement on the continent.  ...
by Eric Olander

Conservatives in the U.S. Say Biden’s Energy Policies Would Expose the U.S. to Become “Dependent Upon China and Its Client States in the Congo”

Apparently, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a “client state” of the Chinese government, or at least according to the latest meme to emerge on conservative U.S. media sites like Fox News. China’s ...
by Eric Olander

Ghanaian MP Sparks Furore by Accusing Members of His Own Ruling Party of Protecting Chinese Illegal Miners

Outspoken Ghanaian Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, issued a stunning warning this weekend when he appeared on national television to accuse members of his own ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of supporting illegal ...
by Eric Olander

Uganda Announces Breakthrough Deal to Link Its Railway With Kenya’s SGR

File image of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway that China financed and built as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Simon Mania/AFP
The Ugandan government on Monday signed a $46 million (Sh5 billion) deal with the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to revamp a 260-kilometer railway that will connect to Kenya’s Standard ...
by Eric Olander

Compared to Other Regions, Africa Lags Far Behind in China’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Although more countries in Africa have received Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, the total quantity of jabs delivered remains a fraction of what’s going to other regions, especially in Asia and the Americas, according to ...
by Eric Olander

Batch of COVID-19 Vaccines Donated by the PLA Lands in Zimbabwe

The People’s Liberation Army shipped a donation of 100,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to their counterparts in the Zimbabwe Defence Force. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and ZDF Commander General ...
by Eric Olander

Anti-Colonialism Remains a Central Tenant of China’s Engagement in Africa

TWEET TRANSLATION: China and Africa were victims of colonialism and imperialism. Today, China and Africa together defend their rights and fight together against political demonization and foreign interference.
Colonialism and imperialism are the kinds of subjects that students in the U.S. and Europe study in school, framed within the assumption that they have very little applicability in contemporary geopolitics. But for ...
by Eric Olander

China Just Gave Kenya Two Luxury Buses and a New Foreign Ministry HQ

Kenya’s new Foreign Ministry building will be built and paid for by the Chinese government. Ambassador Zhou Pingjian made the announcement late last week during a visit with Foreign Affairs ...
by Eric Olander

$25 Billion of Deals Signed During Annual Silk Road Forum in China

An exhibitor at the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Bowen)
The Fifth annual Silk Road International Exposition ended on Saturday in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an where officials announced that $24.6 billion worth of investment deals were reportedly signed during the five-day event. ...
by Eric Olander
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