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DR Congo President Étienne Tshisekedi ventured to the heart of the country's cobalt mining territory to personally deliver a warning to foreign investors (read Chinese) that unfair mining contracts are going to be re-negotiated. On Thursday, the president traveled to the city of Kowlezi in the southern province of Katanga where foreign investors run around 40 mining operations -- 30 of which are owned by Chinese entities.

That's sparked speculation that the President is setting his sights on the Chinese in particular. "I have really had enough!" the president told thousands of supporters in the city center."I am very severe with these investors who come to enrich themselves alone. They come with empty pockets and leave billionaires."

"It's not normal that those with whom the country has signed mining contracts get richer while our population remains poor... It is time for the country to readjust its contracts with miners to seal win-win partnerships," he said.

Although the President did not specifically name the Chinese, the reference to Beijing's oft-stated "win-win" slogan may be another clue about his main target in what appears to be a steadily escalating campaign.

Chinese contracts often heavily favor the Chinese and, until now, host countries have made little progress in renegotiating the terms of those deals. But the DR Congo is not a normal country and Tshisekedi has considerably more leverage over the Chinese than almost any other leader in Africa:

• COBALT: The DRC is home to the world's largest reserves of cobalt -- a strategically vital metal that is critical to China's future as an electric vehicle leader and essential to providing Beijing with geopolitical leverage over its rivals in Brussels and Washington, D.C. 

• CHAOS: The Congo is among the world's most corrupt (170 out of 180) and unstable countries on earth. It wouldn't take much for the president to create all sorts of difficulties for investors who don't agree to renegotiate those contracts.

On the same day that the President spoke to the crowd in Kowlezi, he also toured the Sino Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines) site where, at least according to Chinese state media, he spoke favorably of Chinese participation in the DRC's mining sector.

It's entirely possible that he's playing both sides at once: revving up populist sentiment in order to strengthen his position to renegotiate existing contracts and get better future deals with the Chinese.

Since it's all but certain that Chinese stakeholders will not comment on the issue, one indicator to watch is the frequency and tone of Chinese media reports on the issue. If Xinhua, Global Times, China Daily, and others ramp up their coverage of how great everything is going between Beijing and Kinshasa, then that's an indication that the President's campaign is indeed targeted at Chinese investors.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Agence France Presse: DR Congo's president says he will renegotiate mining contracts
• Radio France Internationale (French): Mines in DRC: Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative assesses "Chinese contracts" 
• Xinhua: DRC president hails mining, infrastructure cooperation with China

China is rapidly closing in on 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered domestically, at a stunning pace of 14 million per day. All those domestic vaccinations means that China has fewer jabs to export abroad. While international shipments have slowed considerably in recent weeks, Chinese vaccine production licensing deals are now ramping up in at least nine countries throughout the developing world, with more likely to come.

Other Chinese Vaccine News From Throughout The Global South:

• AFRICA: Kenya plans to buy millions of doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine now that it has received WHO approval and because jabs from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are not available due to supply constraints (aka hoarding) in the Global North. (THE STAR)

• AMERICAS: A shipment of 100,000 Sinopharm jabs donated by the Chinese government to the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad & Tobago will arrive on Tuesday. No word yet when the delivery will take place for the $25 million of vaccines that TT purchased as part of a Chinese loan agreement. (LOOP TT)

• ASIA: The fourth batch of 500,000 Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Sunday. In all, China has now provided Cambodia with 2 million doses. (KHMER TIMES)

CNN International broadcast a report over the weekend purportedly about "how big tech is expanding in Africa" yet the story only mentioned five major U.S. tech companies and not one from either Europe or Asia.

This is somewhat odd given that the U.S. tech presence in Africa is considerably smaller than that of China. Chinese companies like Transsion, Huawei and StarTimes dominate their fields on the continent.

Watch the full video on CNN's YouTube channel.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed oversaw the launch this week of Ethio Telecom's new mobile money service "Tele- Birr" which will be powered by technology from Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei.

Ethiopian officials have high expectations for Tele-Birr's future economic role.  Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio Telecom, said she expects to register 21 million users in the first year of service and 33 million before 2026. "I expect about 40-50% of Ethiopia's economic activity to be transacted on the Tele-Birr platform within a five years period," she said.

At the launch ceremony, Tamiru praised Huawei for completing the project in just five months, well ahead of the two-year schedule that was originally forecast.

The Tele-Birr launch in Ethiopia highlights the increasingly important role that Huawei is playing in Africa's burgeoning mobile payments sector. The Chinese company is also powering similar platforms in Ghana, Lesotho, Tanzania, and the DR Congo -- but none more important than the hugely popular M-Pesa mobile payment network in Kenya that serves 29 million customers and handles $66 billion in transactions.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Ethiopian Monitor: Ethio Telecom Partners with Huawei to Launch Mobile Money
• Xinhua: Ethiopia launches Chinese-developed mobile money service solution

Most of the discussion about Huawei in places like Africa or the Americas centers on the company's 5G technology that officials in the U.S., Europe, and some Asian countries believe presents a security threat. But the Shenzhen-based company isn't generating $137 billion in annual revenue just by selling telecommunications technology alone. 

More and more, Huawei is playing a critical, sometimes even indispensable role in emerging technology sectors like fintech, especially in some of the world's least developed countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Huawei Mobile Money, according to the company, is now deployed in 19 countries, serving more than 152 million users --  22% of all registered mobile money accounts throughout the entire developing world.

In Africa, Huawei Mobile Money is now operational in at least six countries. Now consider that Chinese-owned mobile phone brands like Transsion, Xiaomi, and Oppo among others dominate the device sector and then factor in China's longer-term ambitions to make its new digital yuan a global standard.

The point here is that the foundation for a robust Chinese-designed mobile financial ecosystem in Africa is taking shape.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Huawei: Introduction to Huawei’s Mobile Money solution
• The Conversation: China’s digital currency could be the future of money – but does it threaten global stability? by Daniel Broby

China's largest mobile phone maker Oppo is targeting South Africa's youth market with a new mid-range device, the A74 5G. Oppo's announcement comes less than a week after another Chinese company, Transsion's Itel division, announced that it too is targeting a similar segment of the market with the launch of the Vision1 Pro smartphone.

The CEO of the world's largest cobalt mining company issued a stern warning to U.S. and European automakers that they had better get their acts together to secure supplies of this precious metal or else risk becoming dependent on China for batteries to power their electric vehicles.

Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg told the FT Future of the Car Summit that China had "tied up" lots of cobalt supplies in the DRC and if they want to avoid similar disruptions to their supply chains as they're now experiencing due to chip shortages, they had better do something about securing supplies of cobalt. Otherwise, he said, they could become entirely dependent on China for a critical part of their new energy vehicle supply chains.

Chinese companies already control about 40% of the DRC’s output and have also signed long-term supply agreements with Glencore, the only major western miner operating in the country.

Geely, China's largest independent automaker, launched its new Coolray SUV in Nigeria in what's become a big push by Chinese auto companies to expand their presence in Africa. The SUV category is especially popular, as evidenced by the strong performance in South Africa of Great Wall Motors' Haval brand.

In Zimbabwe, Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD recently announced that it is now selling the all-electric E6 model, the first new EV to be sold in the country.

Other Chinese Automotive Headlines in Africa:

• EGYPT: Preparations are now underway to begin manufacturing electric vehicles that are slated to start rolling off the assembly line in June 2022.  Engineers from the state-owned El-Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company are working with their joint venture partners from China's Dongfeng Motors to build the new plant that will be capable of producing up to 25,000 vehicles a year. (AHRAM ONLINE)

• KENYA: Chinese auto manufacturers are responsible for creating 40,000 jobs in Kenya, according to figures from the Kenyan Ministry of Labor.  Chery and Foton are among the Chinese automakers that have assembly facilities in Kenya. (BEIJING REVIEW)

• DR CONGO:  The country representative for the Chinese auto major Chery said earlier this month that the company plans to build an assembly plant in the Maluku Special Economic Zone outside of the capital Kinshasa. Chery would be the second automaker, after Hydunai, to set up an assembly facility in the DRC. (MEDIA CONGO)

There's been widespread speculation over the past year that China wants to develop new iron ore supply chains in Africa so it can stop buying from Australia in response to steadily worsening ties between the two countries.

While there've been indications that's starting to happen with new iron ore mining projects in Sierra Leone and Guinea along with the purchase of mining rights in countries like Algeria, the reality is that China remains dependent on Australia's much higher quality and higher quantity of iron ore for its all-important steel manufacturing sector. Last year, 61% of China's. total iron ore imports came from Australia.

But Australian mining companies will probably have to find new markets because their China business will eventually disappear warned veteran China journalist Adrian Brown in an interview with Sky News Australia:

"At the moment, China is not prepared to press the nuclear button and stop imports of Australian iron ore. In the past, though, China has been prepared to cut off its nose to spite its face when it's fallen out with a country but it can't afford to do that at the moment...

But believe me, when it suits them, they will find another supplier."

Watch the video on the Sky News YouTube channel.

Senegalese President Macky Sall took to Twitter yesterday to express his gratitude to his "friend President Xi Jinping" for the donation of 300,000 COVID-19 vaccines and 300,000 syringes that landed in Dakar this week. 

The tweet provides the latest evidence that China's vaccine distribution campaign to developing countries like Senegal is producing tangible soft power dividends.

Separately, Zambia's Health Minister Jonas Chanda announced on Wednesday that China would provide a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines. The statement did not provide any details on the quantity or when the shipment would be delivered.

Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan insisted there's no link between a recent surge of COVID-19 infections and low efficacy rates of either the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine or the Covishield AstraZeneca jab imported from India.

Infection rates have doubled recently on the small Indian Ocean island state. This came as a surprise to many, given that Seychelles inoculated a higher percentage of its population than any country in the world. In an interview with the Seychelles News Agency late Monday, the president explained the recent uptick in infections and why the vaccines are not necessarily to blame:

• MORE INFECTIONS, BUT NO DEATHS = VACCINES ARE WORKING: "There were no lives lost and the patients have recuperated; this is the efficiency of the vaccine. And after this, when we take a look among the population of those between the ages of 18 to 60 who received Sinopharm. If the vaccine were not effective, people would have died when infected and there would have been many more people requiring hospitalization."

• NEWLY INFECTED ARE UNVACCINATED: "What we have seen and like I am saying, in this age group [18-60 years old] of people needing hospitalization, 80% were not vaccinated. Again this reflects the efficiency of the vaccines. And we want to say that the two vaccines, Sinopharm and Covidshield AstraZeneca have served our population very well."

COVID-19 in Seychelles by the Numbers:

• 62% of Seychelles’s population have received two doses of either Sinopharm or Covishield AstraZeneca.
• 37% of those testing positive for COVID-19 had received both doses of a vaccine.
• 57% of those who have been fully vaccinated have received the vaccine from Sinopharm.
• 43% of those who have been fully vaccinated have received the vaccine from Covishield AstraZeneca.
• 80% of those needing hospital treatment had not been vaccinated and tended to be people with co-morbidities.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Reuters: WHO reviewing Seychelles COVID-19 data after fully vaccinated people test positive
• Bloomberg: Seychelles Leader Says Most Vaccinated Nation Safe Despite Surge by Antony Sguazzin and Vidya Gappy
• Seychelles News Agency: President Ramkalawan: Seychelles remains a safe destination, vaccination campaign effective

Colm Imbert (photo), finance minister of Trinidad & Tobago (TT), revealed this week that one of the terms in a new $204 million loan contract with China permitted the small Caribbean island state to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.

The minister explained that the loan contract stipulated that a certain percentage of the deal would include TT purchases of “Chinese elements” – aka goods and services from China -- which in this case was allocated to vaccines made by Sinopharm. The minister explained that TT will allocate $25 million of the loan to acquire vaccines from Sinopharm.

The catch is that at $15 a dose, the Sinopharm jabs are three times as expensive for TT as those available through the Covax alliance.

But what's interesting here is that this type of loan arrangement may offer a preview for what China plans to do in Africa and other developing regions. Beijing has already signaled that it plans to reduce financing for large-scale infrastructure projects and instead would prefer to focus on digital and health initiatives.

So, it might be worth remembering this deal with TT during the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that's expected to take place later this year in Senegal. One outcome that we may see, and this is purely speculative, is that China will provide ample concessional financing for African governments to purchase Chinese vaccines, PPE, and other medical supplies under the umbrella of the Health Silk Road.

Read more on this story on the Newsday website.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke at the opening ceremony on Tuesday of the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum (aka the Silk Road Forum) in Xi'an where health and vaccine-related issues topped the agenda.

This is a dramatic shift from just a few years ago when large-scale infrastructure development and trade issues would have dominated the discussions. Wang's comments focused largely on vaccine development and accessibility in the Global South. It may offer a preview of China's new priorities for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that's scheduled to take place sometime later this year in Dakar, Senegal.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Wang Yi Attends the Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China
• Xinhua: Chinese FM puts forward proposals for high-quality Belt and Road development

These are good days for Africa's metals and mineral exporters, who are seeing record prices thanks to strong demand, in part, from China and international automakers that produce new energy vehicles.

The timing for this latest "commodity supercycle," as it's commonly referred to, couldn't be better for the likes of Zambia (copper), the DRC (cobalt), and South Africa (iron ore.) These countries have all been struggled to pull their economies out of the COVID-19 induced downturn.

• COBALT: Of all the ingredients used to manufacture an electric vehicle battery, cobalt is by far the most difficult to source given that the bulk of the world's supply comes from DR Congo. Supply constraints, combined with a stockpiling by China, have pushed the blue metal to record highs in 2021. (METAL MINER)

• IRON ORE: Investors are trying to get ahead of an impending cut in Chinese steel output and buying huge amounts of iron ore to meet the current surge in demand. The instability brought about by China's worsening ties with Australia is also forcing up prices, as Chinese ore buyers look to other suppliers in Africa including Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Algeria among others. (MINING.COM)

• COPPER: Copper prices climbed to record highs for the first time in more than a decade this past week, fueled by bets on a U.S.-led global economic rebound that would boost demand for metals used in manufacturing and construction. But unlike other metals, Chinese demand for copper is not the main driver. Rather it's buyers in the U.S. and Europe who can't seem to get enough. (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

Months after news broke that China had entered into the global cocoa market with an initial delivery of 500 kilograms of beans shipped to Belgium from the southern island of Hainan, Ghanaians are still trying to figure out whether they have reason to be concerned.

Ghana and Ivory Coast are the world's two leading cocoa exporters and given their huge size advantages over China, at least for now, some in the industry say Ghana doesn't have to worry about new Chinese competition.

Yet others aren't quite so sure. In a column published earlier this week on the online news site Graphic Online, Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng detailed a number of reasons why China and other Asian exporters do, in fact, present a direct threat to Ghana's primacy atop the cocoa industry:

• HAINAN LACKS THE PROPER CLIMATE: Some Ghanaian observers mistakenly thought China lacks the necessary tropical climate to grow cocoa beans. Whereas that's definitely true on Mainland China, Hainan is well-positioned within the "cocoa belt" that is defined as the narrow band 20 degrees on either side of the equator.

• HAINAN IS TOO SMALL TO COMPETE: Ghana has 13,000 square kilometers of land under cocoa cultivation. Hainan island's 33,000 square kilometers of arable land is more than enough to compete with Ghana.

• DIMINISHED GHANAIAN COCOA OUTPUT:  China is entering the market at a time when Ghana’s cocoa production has dropped mainly due to the effect of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD).  At 700,000 tons, Ghana missed its production target of one million tonnes in 2020.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Graphic Online: Ghana should worry about China’s cocoa production by Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng
• Modern Ghana: Must Ghana panic over China's first ever cocoa export to Europe? by Felix Kwame Quainoo

A new wave of COVID-19 infections is sweeping across the tiny Indian Ocean island of The Seychelles. This wasn't supposed to happen. With nearly 60% of its people vaccinated, The Seychelles has a higher inoculation rate than any other country and was widely presumed to be insulated from the outbreak that's now ravaging countries on both sides of the Indian Ocean.

But now that infection rates have almost doubled, prompting the government to reinstitute lockdowns, there are newfound concerns that the vaccines people received are not working as expected. What's most troubling, though, is that a third of the new infections are among those who've already been vaccinated -- most with the Chinese-made jab from Sinopharm that was given to 57% of the entire population.

Christina Etoile told the Wall Street Journal that her sister, a nurse, received her second dose of Sinopharm back in March but just three weeks later she developed a high fever, dry throat, and a cough -- all symptoms of being infected with COVID-19.
 

“She tested positive for coronavirus and had to be treated at the same hospital where she works,” Ms. Etoile says. “I don’t think the vaccine gave her much protection.”
Worries in The Seychelles about the effectiveness of Sinopharm vaccines echo similar concerns in the United Arab Emirates where "a very small number of people" were required to receive a third dose due to low immune response.

Why Concerns Over Sinopharm's Efficacy in The Seychelles May be Overblown

• MILD CASES ONLY: So far, most of the reported infections from people who've already been vaccinated are displaying just mild symptoms, according to the WHO. This is critical because it means they will not have to be hospitalized and burden the already strained public health system. Also, this means the risk of death is also quite low. While Sinopharm's vaccines may not be as effective as mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, they are proving to be good enough to keep people out of the medical system and from dying due to COVID-19.

• PARTIAL IMMUNITY: "Some of the cases that are being reported are occurring either soon after a single dose or soon after a second dose,” said Kate O’Brien, director of immunizations at the World Health Organization about the situation in The Seychelles. Since it takes 2-3 weeks to develop maximum immunity after inoculation, these new infections may be happening within that time frame and are therefore not necessarily the fault of the vaccine itself. WHO officials say they need more time to investigate.

SUGGESTED READING:

• The Wall Street Journal: Seychelles, the World’s Most Vaccinated Nation, Sees Renewed Covid-19 Surge by Nicholas Bariyo
• Bloomberg: Covid Cases Double in the World’s Most-Vaccinated Nation by Antony Sguazzin and Kamlesh Bhuckory

Although Chinese domestic media was noticeably quiet last weekend about the news that Sinopharm had been granted emergency use approval by the World Health Organization, that's definitely not the case with foreign facing propaganda.

The nationalistic tabloid outlet Global Times led the charge in a series of articles that used the validation from the WHO to hit back at China's critics in India, the United States, and Europe. 

The articles are clearly intended to sow doubt about India's production capacity, President Joe Biden's commitment to begin distributing vaccines overseas and waive intellectual property rights... all mixed in with a dash of bitterness and resentment:

"The US has been drastically lagging behind in fulfilling its pledge made by Biden to lead vaccine distribution around the world.

Indeed, it should be a welcome step if the US shows gesture to take the responsibility of the world's largest economy to help improve the accessibility of vaccines across the world, but it should not be just empty promises."

SUGGESTED READING:

• Global Times: China fills vaccine gap left by US, India with expanded production to reach 5b doses annually by Chen Qingqing, Liu Caiyu and Leng Shumei
• Global Times: China supports Africa’s recovery through vaccine cooperation

Kenya's National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani personally inspected the new port facilities in Lamu and gave it his blessing ahead of the first ship that is scheduled to dock there on May 20th. 

Chinese contractors have completed the first berth that the Danish shipping company Maersk will use for the inaugural docking. Two other berths in the deep water port are still under construction. When finished, the port in Lamu will have 23 berths, each 400 meters wide, which would make it double the size of comparable docking slots at the Port of Mombasa. 

Ralph Mupita, head of the largest pan-African telecom group MTN, wants his South Africa-based telco to draw inspiration and attract more investment from China. 

On the investment side, Mupita recently partnered with the Chinese state-back Silk Road Fund that funnels investment to projects along the Belt and Road as part of MTN's bid for one of Ethiopia's newly available telecom licenses.

Now, he wants to evolve MTN from being a pure-play telco operator into a full-fledged payments and communication ecosystem similar to Tencent's WeChat platform in China using MTN's Ayoba app. “We want to create a WeChat for Africa,” he told The Africa Report in a recent one-on-one interview:

THE AFRICA REPORT: Are you following Chinese app WeChat’s strategy with Ayoba?

RALPH MUPITA: Yes. Over time, we are looking to integrate mobile money onto Ayoba. We have a huge mobile-money base — 46 million subscribers — to try and create a composite of the two and create a bit of a WeChat recap. It will consist of many channels where we make some of the content available for free, and charge for others. We want to create an ecosystem of merchants where mobile commerce can take place.

To be successful in creating this type of architecture for services and channels on Ayoba, and link it to mobile money, we will create a mobile commerce system that can accelerate the growth of the app and enhance that through the concept of a WeChat for Africa.

Read the full interview with Ralph Mupita on The Africa Report website.

Chinese propaganda and highly partisan pro-Chinese columns are now being published with more regularity on the website of Kenya's state-run broadcaster KBC.

The articles adopt a stridently pro-Chinese stance, using much of the same language as official propaganda in China would to frame certain events. And there's no consistency to the sourcing of the content. Some of it is directly from Xinhua, while other stories appear to be from purportedly independent journalists (although it's often hard to tell) and there are also articles from KBC's own editorial staff.

Here's a sample from some of the stories published on the KBC website from just the past few days alone:

• XINHUA: Xi reaffirms China’s commitment to solidarity, cooperation with Africa
• AN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Attempts to force Africa to choose between US & China ill-informed by Zakia Meng (it's worth noting there is no record of any other report published in English by someone who uses this name).
• KBC EDITORIAL STAFF: Feeding the needy: Chinese charity touching lives in Mathare slums by Eric Bigeon

On sensitive political issues like Xinjiang and Hong Kong, KBC's coverage is 100% supportive of China's outlook on these issues. Search results on the KBC website for Xinjiang feature identical editorial narratives as what would be found on any official Chinese media outlet.

If you happen to know your Communist Chinese history, specifically how long the "War to Resist the U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea lasted for" then you could win a prize from the Chinese embassy in Uganda.

While this is not exactly the most conventional form of social media marketing, the post did generate considerably more engagement than the embassy's average Twitter post -- although about a third of the responses were from, well, let's just call them "haters." 

No word yet as to who the lucky winner was and what they won as a prize.

The Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Transsion is targeting South Africa's youth market with the launch of the Vision1 Pro smartphone from its Itel brand -- a 6.5-inch waterproof device that costs around $120.

Although Transsion's suite of brands dominates the African mobile phone market, they're a relatively new arrival to South Africa when they entered the market last March.

The launch of the Vision1 Pro may benefit from Huawei's difficulties brought on by U.S. sanctions that prevent the Chinese telecom maker from using Google's Android as its mobile operating system.

Read more on this story on the ITWeb website.

The World Health Organization endorsed the use of the COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm and cleared the way for the Chinese jab to significantly increase its distribution throughout the developing world. The WHO on Friday approved the vaccine for emergency use which means that it can also be included among those vaccines distributed as part of the global vaccine alliance Covax.

The WHO's ruling also provides the Sinopharm vaccine in particular, and Chinese vaccines more broadly, with a badly-needed endorsement, although the global health body did acknowledge a lack of information about the vaccine's effectiveness in some older patients.

The impact of Sinopharm's approval by the WHO will be felt most in developing regions like Africa that will likely receive hundreds of millions of doses from Sinopharm, either bilaterally (some countries are legally bound to only source vaccines from providers with WHO certification) or multilaterally through Covax. 

The Next Two Problems Confronting Sinopharm Now That It Has the WHO's Seal of Approval

• SUPPLY: China is confronting a severe vaccine shortage as it pushes hard to inoculate its own population, a campaign that has effectively brought all international distribution to a standstill. Experts believe the current supply constraints will hamper availability for at least the next 2-3 months, so it will likely be late (northern hemisphere) summer or early fall before large quantities of Sinopharm vaccines will be widely available to people in developing countries. (THE NEW YORK TIMES)

• EFFECTIVENESS: Although the WHO determined Sinopharm's jab to be safe and effective, that does not eliminate legitimate concerns about the vaccine's efficacy that are emerging from countries around the world that have implemented national vaccination drives using Sinopharm's jab. Reports that some patients in the UAE needed a third shot and resurgent infection rates in places like Chile, Brazil, and the Seychelles where both Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines were widely administered are still a cause for concern, according to experts. (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

COMMENT: The WHO decision is a huge geopolitical win for China. There's no way to overstate it. First, it strikes at one of the core criticisms of Chinese jabs levelled by Western critics, who question their efficacy. Second, it lays the groundwork for a massive distribution push of Sinopharm jabs once the current supply constraints in China are resolved. While U.S. and European governments continue to talk about stepping up their respective "vaccine diplomacy" initiatives, there's still very little action. It's going to take more than monetary donations and IP waivers to change the current vaccine narrative. The U.S. and Europe have a shrinking window of opportunity to get hundreds of millions of doses onto planes and into the arms of people in the Global South before China opens the floodgates thanks to its WHO certification.

SUGGESTED READING:

• The New York Times: China’s Vaccine Diplomacy Just Got a Big Win. But Can the Country Deliver? by Sui-Wee Lee
• The Wall Street Journal: WHO Endorses China’s Covid-19 Vaccine Sinopharm by Chao Deng and Drew Hinshaw

Kenya's High Court on Friday overturned a February 2020 government directive that outlawed the slaughter of donkeys. The court's ruling will now allow for slaughterhouses to re-open and the resumption of the animal's meat trade. 

The High Court responded to an appeal brought by the Star Brilliant slaughterhouse in the Rift Valley city of Naivasha, a Kenyan company backed by Chinese investors.

While most Kenyans appear to primarily concerned about the prospects of "buying the wrong meat at the butcher," animal rights activists say the ruling will likely lead to poaching and over-killing of the animal in order to satisfy the demand for donkey skins in China where they're used as an ingredient in the traditional Chinese medicine ejiao (阿膠).

SUGGESTED READING:

• The Star: 15% of the country's donkey slaughtered by George Murage
• The Standard: Court quashes ban on donkey slaughter by Anthony Gitonga

There was palpable anxiety across a number of African countries this weekend that pieces of a Chinese rocket that hurtled back to earth were going to land somewhere in their countries. Newspapers in Ghana, Nigeria and Namibia, among others, fretted about the prospect of falling rocket shrapnel.

Ultimately, what was left of the Long March 5B rocket landed on Sunday morning in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.

Their concern isn't without merit, given that in 2020 portions of another Long March 5B made an uncontrolled reentry and landed in the Ivory Coast.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Yen: Ghana, Nigeria could be hit from space by debris of Chinese Rocket this weekend by Nii Ayi Ayitey
• Informantes: Giant piece of space rocket might fall in Namibia by Daniel Terblanche
• Legit: Experts Say a Rocket Launched by China May Land in Abuja, Other Cities by Jerrywright Ukwu 

Egypt is entering a third wave of COVID-19 infections prompting the government to announce new lockdowns and other measures in an effort to contain the latest phase of the outbreak. The timing is especially dangerous, warn health authorities, due to festivities marking the end of Ramadan where people are close together in homes and mosques.

"The next 10 days are the most dangerous," warned Mohamed Abdel Fattah, undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Preventive Affairs.

As the second-largest recipient of Chinese vaccines in Africa, 650,000 doses so far, with another 20 million on the way, Egypt will become a key focal point in the debate over the efficacy of Chinese-made jabs as the country grapples with higher infection rates.

Egypt will also be a local production hub for Chinese vaccines with two factories expected to manufacture up to 80 million doses annually once fully operational.

The Egyptian government is also deploying the Russian Sputnik V and AstraZeneca jabs which will also provide public health officials with a benchmark to compare efficacy rates against vaccines made by Sinopharm.

Egypt has reported 232,000 cases and 14,000 deaths to date, according to COVID-19 tracking data from Johns Hopkins University.

Representatives from the Mideast's travel industry are closely watching their news feeds for any updates on the World Health Organization's impending decision as to whether or not to grant emergency use approval to Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Currently, the European Union will only permit tourists from outside the bloc who've been inoculated with an approved vaccine. Travel industry leaders in the Persian Gulf and Mideast regions are hopeful Brussels will soon extend that to also include jabs validated by the WHO as well -- and given the widespread use of Sinopharm in the region, that could potentially be the catalyst to get people traveling again between EU and GCC countries.

Read more on this story on the Arabian Business website.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama posted a tweet on Wednesday that showcased the depth of Huawei's ties in Africa's largest market and why it is going to be extremely difficult for the United States to get Nigeria or other African countries to abandon the Chinese telecom equipment maker.

It's highly unusual for a foreign minister of a major country like Nigeria to publicly endorse a private company, especially one as controversial as Huawei. But while the Shenzhen-based company faces considerable skepticism in other parts of the world, Onyeama's tweet demonstrates that is not the case in Africa -- especially in Nigeria.

Why This Tweet Is So Revealing?

• CIVIL SOCIETY ENGAGEMENT: One of the reasons Huawei's business failed so miserably in the U.S. was its lack of strong ties to the local community. Unlike other foreign companies, Huawei didn't embark on a large-scale engagement campaign to sponsor local charities and sports in the U.S. In Africa, that is not the case. Huawei, as evidenced by this tweet, dedicates considerable resources to supporting charities, educational institutions, and various civil society organizations. In some instances, as is apparently the case here, the company focuses its CSR efforts on charities with close ties to governing elites.

• ELITE CAPTURE: When scholars like Professor Lina Benabdallah from Wake Forest University talk about China's highly successful efforts capturing Africa's governing elites, this is what it looks like. Huawei has proven extremely adept at fostering close ties with Africa's political class through donations and various other forms of support. It would be very difficult for an outsider, even the U.S., to get in between that relationship.

The U.S. campaign to lobby senior-level African stakeholders to stop using Huawei equipment in their telecommunications networks tends to focus on issues like network security and privacy. But that effort is handicapped by the fact that those U.S. diplomats aren't coming to the table with a cost-effective viable alternative and, more importantly, often lack Huawei's close ties with those key decision-makers.