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

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa Scheduled to Receive First Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine Tomorrow

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will head to the resort city of Victoria Falls tomorrow to receive his first injection of a COVID-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac and kick off the second phase of ...
by Eric Olander

Egypt Poised to Become First African Country to Manufacture Chinese Vaccines

Ozan KOSE / AFP
Talks between China and Egypt to launch a new manufacturing facility have reportedly reached “an advanced stage.” The planned facility will produce COVID-19 vaccines made by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, according to Egyptian Health ...
by Eric Olander

Qatar and Saudi Arabia Both Place Long Term Bets on China

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who is also the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and Mr. Zhang Yuzhuo, the Chairman of Sinopec Group, participate in a virtual ceremony attended by senior officials from both sides.
With oil and gas demand in the U.S. and Europe expected to fall dramatically in the years ahead as both regions embrace a post-carbon economy, two of the world’s largest energy exporters, Qatar ...
by Eric Olander

Favorable Views of China, France Both Fall in 12-Nation African Survey

Opinion leaders in 12 French and Arabic speaking African countries look less favorably upon France and China, according to the findings of the third annual survey conducted by the French Council of Investors ...
by Eric Olander

One French Scholar’s Widely Published Article This Week Encapsulates Every Anxiety About China’s Influence in Africa

NICOLAS ASFOURI / POOL / AFP
The popular perception of China’s steadily growing presence in Africa has long been viewed with skepticism among France’s political, media, and academic elites who have historically regarded the continent, particularly francophone countries, as ...
by Eric Olander

China Cranks Up the Campaign to Lobby African Stakeholders on Xinjiang

Photo from a recent conference in Beijing where ambassadors from Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan all enthusiastically endorsed China's policies in Xinjiang. Image via @WuPeng_MFAChina.
With Xinjiang now emerging as a core dividing issue in the increasingly acrimonious U.S.-China relationship, it appears that Beijing is leaning even more on its ties in Africa and other ...
by Eric Olander

John Magufuli Took a Lot of Inspiration From the Chinese Communist Party in Shaping Tanzania’s Ruling Party

The late Tanzanian President John Magufuli. ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP
Late in John Magufuli’s life, some observers mistakenly came to see the former Tanzanian President as a budding China hawk for his high-profile rejection of a $10 billion deal with China Merchants Holdings ...
by Eric Olander

China’s COVID-19 Vaccine Donations Align Suspiciously Close to Beijing’s Geopolitical Priorities in the Global South

The latest tracking data of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine sales and donations around the world by the Beijing-based consulting firm Bridge reveal an interesting distribution around the world that appear to align closely with ...
by Eric Olander

Hundreds of Thousands of Chinese Vaccines Landed in Egypt, Benin, and Niger Over the Weekend

Niger's President Issouf and Prime Minister Brigi Rafini pose together with Chinese ambassador Zhang Lijun at Niger Capital International Airport to mark the arrival of vaccines from China.
Large shipments of vaccines imported from China landed in North Africa over the weekend, providing some countries with their first jabs needed to kick off national inoculation programs in the region: ...
by Eric Olander

Namibia’s State TV Channel NBC to Broadcast 4-Part Series Produced by CCTV

TV viewers in Namibia will be able to watch a four-part documentary series produced by China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV beginning on Monday at 17:20 local time.  The show, Glamorous Namibia, will be aired on ...
by Eric Olander

One Week Later, Burundi Shows the Statement That It Published in Support of China’s Controversial New Election Law in Hong Kong

Burundi’s official press agency published a flurry of tweets today in both English and French that provide new details on a statement that the government released one week ago in support ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Medical Team, Vaccines Land in the Comoros Islands

A team of Chinese medical staff from China's Guangxi Autonomous Region landed yesterday in the capital of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean. Image via Xinhua.
A 12-member medical team from China’s Guangxi Autonomous Region landed in Moroni on Wednesday, capital of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean. The team is there to help with COVID-19 mitigation and also ...
by Eric Olander

Data Reveals Africa’s Inefficient Distribution of Road Building Projects Financed by China and the World Bank

Source: Tilman Graff, “Spatial Inefficiencies In Africa’s Trade Network,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, 2019. Note: Circle = project site; size of circle = logarithmic disbursement value of project in U.S. dollars
The Brookings Institution today showcased some of the findings from an earlier working paper by Harvard doctoral student Tilman Graff who studied the spatial inefficiencies of Africa’s transportation industry and its impact on ...
by Eric Olander

Ugandans Unhappy That Chinese-Built Road is Falling Apart Soon After It Was Built, But the Contractor May Not Be To Blame

Potholes on the Chinese-built Gulu-Atiak-Nimule highway in Uganda. Image via The Dispatch.
Residents in northern Uganda are expressing disappointment that a $25 million, 106-kilometer Chinese-built road is pockmarked with dangerous potholes just six years after it opened. The Gulu-Atiak-Nimule highway is a key transport link ...
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 ...

Chinese Jabs Land in Namibia as Beijing’s Global Vaccine Distribution Drive Shows No Signs of Slowing

Namibia kicked off its national vaccine campaign on Tuesday following the arrival of 100,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 jabs. The shipment came aboard an Air Zimbabwe flight that dropped off 344,000 doses in ...
by Eric Olander

Why Chile’s Growing Trade Dependence on China Provides a Cautionary Tale to Other Small Countries in the Global South

Chile, in recent years, has been very successful in attracting large amounts of Chinese investment in the country’s copper and lithium mining sectors, agriculture, and more. So, successful in fact that it’s sparked ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s Treasury Chief Refutes Media Reports that the Port of Mombasa is at Risk of Forfeiture to China

Kenya’s Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani denied, again, on Monday that the Port of Mombasa could be handed over to China in the event that Kenya Railways is unable to repay its ...
by Eric Olander

The Star Editorial Board: SGR Needs to Go Regional to Repay Its Chinese Creditors

Kenya needs to invest even more money into the embattled SGR if the railway has any chance of becoming financially self-sufficient to the point where it can repay its Chinese creditors, according to ...
by Eric Olander

MP: Rampant Corruption, Poor Planning and “Pooh Pooh” Leadership to Blame for SGR’s Woes (Not China)

Kenyan Member of Parliament for Kitutu Chache, Richard Onyonka, gave a very entertaining assessment of why the Standard Gauge Railway is facing so many difficulties which all, more or else in his view, relate ...
by Eric Olander

With Chinese Engineers Back on Site, Zimbabwe’s New International Airport is Almost Half Done

File image of Chinese construction of the international terminal at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare. Image via Bulawayo24.
Construction of the new international terminal at Harare’s main airport is now 46% complete according to Zimbabwean officials who credit the return of Chinese engineers for the recent progress.  Chinese staff on the ...
by Eric Olander

While Everyone Focuses on Vaccine Distribution, China Appears to Be Ramping Up Donations of Medical Supplies Again

Chinese donations of PPE and other COVID-19-related medical supplies to African governments appear to be picking up again. In recent months China shifted its focus away from shipping masks, ventilators, and other materials ...
by Eric Olander

A Chartered Air Zimbabwe Jet Took Off From China to Harare With a “Full Tummy” of Vaccines

344,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines landed in Harare this morning on a charter flight from China. This latest shipment is part of 1.2 million doses purchase made by the Zimbabwean government. In ...
by Eric Olander

Two Events in China and the DR Congo Illustrate Why the Race for Cobalt Supplies is So Important

Soaring demand for electric cars and trucks is sparking a buying frenzy for the critical ingredients used to make the batteries in those vehicles, namely cobalt. Prices for the metal ...
by Eric Olander

BlackLivity’s Láikàn (来看) Series Portrays a Nuanced, Complex View of Black Life in China

BlackLivity, the independent community-based media platform dedicated to showcasing Black life in China, launched a new video this week that highlights the site’s compelling Láikàn series that provides first-person stories about the African diaspora ...
by Eric Olander

Asia, Not Africa, Will Soon be Awash in COVID-19 Vaccines Thanks to China’s Worsening Ties With Rivals

Leaders of the four-nation Indo-Pacific coalition known as “the Quad” (short for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) announced a new initiative after a virtual summit on Friday to distribute one billion doses ...
by Eric Olander

Second Batch of Chinese Vaccines to Arrive Today in Zimbabwe

A chartered Air Zimbabwe flight is scheduled to land at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare with the second batch of Chinese-made vaccines. The fact that Ambassador Gao Shaochun mentioned in a Tweet ...
by Eric Olander

China Donates Vaccines to UN Peacekeepers and International Olympic Committee

China will donate COVID-19 vaccines to the United Nations for use by peacekeepers stationed around the world, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at the regular press briefing in Beijing on ...
by Eric Olander

With a Reference to Africa, Comedian Bill Maher Warns Fellow Americans “We’ve Lost” to China

U.S. comedian and political commentator Bill Maher issued a scathing indictment of the U.S. and failure to keep pace with China in the 21st Century. “We’re not losing,” he said on his show ...
by Eric Olander

Two Fascinating Documentaries on How Chinese Money is Changing Africa

Free Documentary, the independent documentary film distributor, published a pair of very interesting programs on YouTube that explore how Chinese money is changing Africa. The two films were both produced by the South ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Transsion Holds Firm to the Top Spot in Africa’s Smartphone Market

An online ad for one of Tecno's new phones. Tecno is part of the Transsion suite of brands that have propelled the company to the largest mobile device brand on the continent. Image via Tecno Nigeria.
Transsion’s dominance of the African mobile phone market remains fully intact despite last year’s major economic disruption brought on by the pandemic, according to new data released by the research ...
by Eric Olander
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