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

The DRC Wants to Renegotiate Some of Its Chinese Contracts. Hopefully, for Their Sake, They Read the Fine Print.

DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi apparently wants to renegotiate some of the contracts that his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, signed with the Chinese, according to a report by Africa Intelligence.  Argentina too, ...
by Eric Olander

Ghanaian Rosewood is Showing Up in China But No One’s Really Sure How It’s Getting There

Ghana’s former Lands Minister, Inusah Fuseini, acknowledged that despite the ban on rosewood exports that he imposed when he was in office, large quantities of the precious timber are being smuggled to China, ...
by Eric Olander

China Tops the Agenda at G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting

G7 foreign ministers meet in London for their first face-to-face talks in more than two years. Stefan Rousseau / POOL / AFP
China topped the agenda at Tuesday’s G7 foreign ministers meeting in London, the first time envoys from the world’s seven wealthiest countries have met in person since the COVID-19 outbreak. The ministers spent ...
by Eric Olander

Lull Continues in Chinese Vaccine Deliveries Around the World Ahead of Key Rulings From the WHO and EU

Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
Although Chinese vaccine distributors did make a few deliveries on Tuesday, the quantities remain significantly lower than in previous weeks. It’s not entirely clear what’s behind the slowdown but it’s likely that it ...
by Eric Olander

As Zambia’s Presidential Election Campaign Heats Up, China Isn’t an Issue…Yet

Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema. AFP.
Zambia’s presidential election campaign is now shifting into high gear following last weekend’s nomination of President Edgar Lungu as the ruling Patriotic Front’s candidate. Meantime, the country’s main ...
by Eric Olander

A New Chinese-Built Road in Nigeria Highlights Why Infrastructure is So Important For Local People and, More Importantly, Politicians

Both truckers and workers are celebrating the opening of a new, modern road that leads to the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade zone in western Nigeria. The recently opened road has dramatically improved transport times ...
by Eric Olander

Why This Chinese Factory Video is Causing Quite a Stir on Social Media in West Africa

A Chinese factory video where a young woman demonstrates how to convert raw cassava into fully processed gari has created quite a bit of buzz in Nigeria and Ghana where gari is a ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Global Vaccine Distribution Drive Appears to Have Come to a Halt… At Least For Now

People line up to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 coronavirus, outside a residential compound in Beijing on April 8, 2021. LEO RAMIREZ / AFP
China’s once frenetic global vaccine distribution drive appears to have come to a grinding halt, at least temporarily, amid a push to gets jabs into the arms of its own people (photo). 
by Eric Olander

Most G7 Countries Really Do Want to Challenge China’s BRI, They Just Can’t Agree How

A Chinese worker carrying materials for the first rail line linking China to Laos, a key part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative across the Mekong, in Luang Prabang. Aidan JONES / AFP
It looks increasingly likely that infrastructure development in the Global South is going to be quite high on the agenda at the upcoming European Union and Group of 7 (G7) meetings in May ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Embrace of Iran is Making Israel Very Nervous

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, pose for a picture after signing an agreement in the capital Tehran, on March 27, 2021. AFP
Israeli politicians and foreign policy analysts are becoming increasingly alarmed over China’s burgeoning ties with Iran, particularly after the signing of a 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement between Beijing and Tehran. But Israel’s ...
by Eric Olander

New Report Highlights China’s Indispensable Role in Building African Infrastructure

African infrastructure financing is in freefall, plummeting from $100 billion annually in 2014 to just $31 billion last year, according to a new report published by the global law firm ...
by Eric Olander

As Nigeria’s Debt Steadily Grows, China’s Share Shrinks — Yet Somehow Lots of People Still Worried About “Debt Traps”

Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) announced late last week that the country’s external debts will increase to $83 billion due to $2.5 billion of new loans provided by the World Bank ...
by Eric Olander

While Ghana’s Governing Elites Call For Deeper Economic Engagement With China, Civil Society Groups Fume

The Majority Chief Whip in the Ghanaian parliament, Frank Annoh Dompreh, meeting with Zhu Jing, China's deputy head of mission in Accra. Image via GhanaWeb.
The yawning gap between China’s successful courtship of ruling elites in Africa and Beijing’s difficulties in soothing concerns about debt, environmental sustainability, trade, immigration, and other contentious issues among civil society stakeholders has ...
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 ...

Production Constraints Limit Chinese Vaccine Exports Abroad Ahead of Critical Decision From the WHO

Chinese pharmaceutical companies are struggling to keep pace with surging demand at home and abroad for COVID-19 vaccines. “The problem is that it currently does not have enough production capacity to satisfy both ...
by Eric Olander

Kenyan Regulators Approve a Chinese Herbal Treatment Linked to COVID-19 Even Before They Fully Tested It

Kenya’snational drug regulator, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), granted certification to a Chinese herbal product that it hasn’t fully tested and that the company insinuates, without proof, can be used to help protect ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. General Predicts China Will Deploy More Military Forces to Protect Its Interests in Africa and the Americas

Chinese engagement in Africa is becoming an increasingly popular topic of conversation on Capitol Hill among U.S. lawmakers who, raised the issue again last week during testimony by Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, head ...
by Eric Olander

The Man Who Came Up With the Now-Debunked Chinese “Debt Trap” Theory Still Trying to Convince Official Washington that It’s a Thing

Commentator and author Brahama Chellaney is determined to keep his Chinese “debt trap” theory alive regardless of whether or not there’s any credible evidence to support his assertion.
by Eric Olander

South Africa Turns to Russia and China to Jumpstart National Vaccine Campaign

A healthcare worker holds the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus before administaring it to another healthcare worker. Phill Magakoe / AFP
The South African government confirmed that it will place large orders for COVID-19 vaccines from both Russia and China in an effort to finally gets its faltering vaccination campaign underway.
by Eric Olander

Morocco, Egypt, and Zimbabwe Are the Top Recipients of Chinese Vaccines in Africa

Africa is the second-largest recipient of Chinese vaccine donations worldwide but remains the lowest in terms of quantities delivered, according to the latest data from the Beijing-based consultancy Bridge Consulting. But ...
by Eric Olander

Economist Intelligence Unit: “Western Powers Have Lost the Vaccine Diplomacy Battle”

The battle over vaccine distribution between the U.S./Europe and China or Russia is over before it even started, declared a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. “It is likely that the damage ...
by Eric Olander

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Responded to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Webinar Where He Talked China-Africa

Antony Blinken probably did not expect that an informal Q&A with alumni of the U.S.-government sponsored Young Africa Leaders Initiative would spark yet another international spat with China. On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry ...
by Eric Olander

Two Chinese Nationals Arrested in Ghanaian Army Crackdown on Illegal Mining

Two suspected illegal gold miners arrested in Ghana. Image via Modern Ghana.
Ghanaian army troops fanned out across the country on Wednesday in a nationwide crackdown on illegal mining in river areas, arresting dozens, including at least two Chinese nationals. The pair ...
by Eric Olander

Conflicting Views in Ghana Over China’s Entrance Into the Global Cocoa Trade

Image by David Greenwood-Haigh from Pixabay
A spirited debate is underway in Ghana over the implications of China’s entrance into the global cocoa market. Various commentators, cocoa industry officials, and political leaders have all expressed concern ...
by Eric Olander

Blinken Warns of Chinese Debt Traps and Imported Labor in Q&A With African Youth

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken resuscitated widely debunked theories about debt traps and imported labor to warn African countries about the dangers of working too closely with Beijing.
by Eric Olander

Maybe Antony Blinken Thinks China Uses Debt Traps in Africa After Reading Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal

It’s not surprising that a lot of people, including the U.S. Secretary of State, remain mistaken in their belief that the Chinese seize physical assets in the event of a loan default, ...
by Eric Olander

Debunking the Chinese Unskilled Labor Myth in Africa

Antony Blinken is just the latest U.S. Secretary of State to accuse China of bringing over large numbers of unskilled workers to build infrastructure in Africa, presumably at the expense of local labor. ...
by Eric Olander

Transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Q&A Exchange About Chinese Engagement in Africa

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking with Wazam Ibanor from Nigeria during a video conference Q&A.
WAZAM OBANOR: Considering the growth of the Chinese in Africa, will the U.S. be competing with China in Africa — especially as it pertains to Africa’s growth over the next few years? U.S. ...
by Eric Olander

The U.S. Tries to Repackage What’s Effectively a Zoom Call Into Secretary Antony Blinken’s “Virtual Travel to Africa”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will “embark on his first virtual trip to Africa” on Tuesday as part of an effort to reach out with young people in ...
by Eric Olander

Why African Energy Exporters Should Be Concerned About CNOOC’s Interest in a Massive Qatari Gas Deal

File image of the headquarters building of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in Beijing. STR / AFP
One of China’s three major oil and gas companies, CNOOC, is reportedly interested in joining the world’s largest natural gas project in Qatar. The company’s CFO Xie Weizhi said CNOOC is ...
by Eric Olander
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