Live Feed

China has eclipsed the United States as the country with the world's largest navy, according to the Pentagon's annual report on the Chinese military that it submits to Congress. The new report warns that China is progressing steadily towards its ambition to have a "world-class" military by 2049, a benchmark American officials see as the moment when China will be sufficiently equipped and capable to challenge or even surpass the U.S. military.

This year's report took particular notice of China's enhanced military-to-military ties with African and Middle Eastern governments. Additionally, the Pentagon recognized how China is leveraging international organizations including the United Nations and its organizations it helped to create, like the BRICS, AIIB and the New Development Bank to "limit outside interference in and criticism of its initiatives" (page 132).

Although quite long, the Pentagon assessment of the current state of the Chinese military is noteworthy because of its straightforward, analytical tone rather than the polarized rhetoric used in many other U.S. government analyses of China.

Key China-Africa Highlights From the Pentagon's Annual Assessment of the PLA

• UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING: "As of December 2019, China was the tenth-largest contributor to UN PKOs [peacekeeping operations] with approximately 2,545 personnel among eight UN PKO missions in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. China’s personnel contributions have decreased slightly since 2018 from 2,634 personnel in January 2018 to 2,545 personnel in December 2019. China is the second-largest contributor to UN PKO and funded 15.21 percent of the total $6.5 billion annual UN peacekeeping budget in 2019, an increase from 10.24 percent in 2018." (PAGE 126)

• PROTECTING AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EAST SEA LANES FOR OIL: "China relies on sea lines of communication (SLOCs) such as the South China Sea and Strait of Malacca for most of its hydrocarbon deliveries. In 2019, approximately 77 percent of China’s oil imports and 10 percent of its natural gas imports transited the South China Sea and Strait of Malacca. Despite China’s efforts to diversify energy suppliers, the sheer volume of oil and liquefied natural gas imported from the Middle East and Africa will make securing strategic SLOCs a priority for China for at least the next 15 years." (PAGE 99)

Download the full report on the United States Defense Department website.

There's been a surge of media coverage in recent days about African athletes, mostly soccer players, in China. Both the men's and women's Chinese Super Leagues have spent big money in recent years to lure top-level talent from Africa and now those investments are starting to pay dividends.

Increased sports coverage in African media also helps to promote Chinese soft power on the continent by showcasing China in a field where there's no controversy over loans, trade or COVID-19. 

And now that StarTimes is broadcasting Chinese Super League matches to its 35+ million subscribers across the continent, there are clearly ambitions that these African superstars will help to build a loyal following for the CSL in Africa.

Key Highlights From This Week's China-Africa Sports Coverage

• MEN'S SOCCER: CSL: Cedric Bakambu scores four in Beijing Guoan rout, Wuhan Zall stroll to victory 
• WOMEN'S SOCCER: Malawi's Chawinga sisters: Temwa outshines Tabitha as Wuhan defeat Jiangsu Suning
• WOMEN'S SOCCER: "Zambian whirlwind" in Chinese Women's Super League
• MEN'S BASKETBALL: Basketball star Zhu Mingzhen snubs Uganda for China

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced last week that he will step down for health reasons, was an enthusiastic proponent of a robust African engagement strategy. In particular, the prime minister advocated for a trade-led foreign policy with Africa that was highlighted at the Japan-Africa (TICAD) summits that are held every five years.

One of the not-so-subtle undertones of the past two TICAD summits was presenting Japan's industry-focused development finance model as an alternative to China's state-led approach.

It'll be very interesting to see if Africa policy remains a priority in the transition period and for the next administration that will be confronted with the twin challenges of a slowing economy and a more assertive China in the Asia Pacific region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the Czech Republic's senate speaker Milos Vystrcil will "pay a heavy price" for violating Beijing's sacrosanct "One China" policy for his ongoing visit to Taiwan.

Foreign Minister Wang's sharp tone offers a preview of the kind of response that awaits Somaliland when it proceeds on September 9th to open a representative office in Taipei.

For now, the Chinese response on the issue has been rather subdued but there are indications that may not be the case for much longer. Africa Intelligence reports that China's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, has been tasked to "organize a counterattack."

New Analyses on the Implications of Taiwan-Somaliland Ties

• FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (US): "Forming unofficial—and potentially official ties—with Somaliland offers Taiwan a chance to showcase what it has to offer to other countries, particularly smaller, marginalized states. It will also open up new opportunities regionally that may not have existed and shows that Taiwan will not sit idly by as Beijing seeks to further isolate it." -- Thomas Shattuck, research associate and managing editor (READ MORE)

• OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION (INDIA): "Within Africa, various contrasting perceptions of the Taiwan-Somaliland agreement have begun to emerge. While some commentators suggest that Somaliland will become a hotspot for the emerging tensions between US and China, attract more foreign forces in the Gulf of Aden, and further complicate the political dynamics in the Horn of Africa, others appreciate Somaliland’s determination to forge ahead on a path of its own choosing, despite the looming fear of attracting retribution for defying China" -- Abhishek Mishra, a junior fellow with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme. (READ MORE)

An FT story published over the weekend injected a burst of rare optimism into the African debt relief discussion. The article by U.S.-based Markets Correspondent Camilla Hodgson reported on last Tuesday's remarks by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that Beijing had reached debt relief settlements with half of the countries who've applied for relief under the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative. "Now we have received debt relief requests from over 20 countries, and have reached an agreement with more than 10 of them by the end of July," said Zhao at his regular press briefing.

This is potentially a significant breakthrough in a process that has moved much slower than African leaders and other stakeholders had hoped. While the news that China has concluded agreements with ten countries is widely seen as progress, it's nonetheless hard to tell for sure since other than Zhao's brief, and quite general comments on the issue last week Beijing's failed to provide any other details.

Here are the important unanswered questions:

• With which ten countries China has reached agreements?
• What are the terms of the agreements and are they focused merely or suspending debt repayments per the DSSI or have the loans actually been restructured?
• What about Angola?

That last question is particularly important, given that Angola represents a disproportionate share of China's lending in Africa. Currently, the Angolan government owes $49 billion to foreign creditors with about 45% due to China alone, according to the central bank in Luanda.

Analysts like Greg Smith, an emerging markets strategist at M&G Investments, say it's critical that details of any agreement between China and Angola are revealed because it will likely set a precedent for other DSSI-eligible countries and possibly inform how the IMF responds to debt relief requests.

To date, international creditors like the IMF and the World Bank have been reluctant to finalize any large-scale debt restructuring deals with African countries until agreements with Chinese creditors have been finalized. International financial institutions want to avoid having their funds used to repay Chinese loans.

Perspectives on China's Purported DSSI Agreements

• THE LIST OF UNKNOWNS: “The issues all investors wrestle with are: we don’t know the official size, we don’t know what is ‘officially official’ and what is not, and we don’t know what the terms are going in or what the terms are going out.” -- Eric Baurmeister, head of emerging markets fixed income at Morgan Stanley Investment Management

ANGOLA IS CRITICAL: “You really can’t overstate the importance of Angola in the [DSSI], which also ties into the general international response to the impact of Covid-19 in the developing world. [Under the DSSI] a lot of the burden essentially falls on China.” -- Mark Bohlund, senior analyst at Redd Intelligence

SUGGESTED READING:

• The Financial Times: China strikes debt deals with poor nations under G20 scheme by Camilla Hodgson
• The South China Morning Post: G20 debt relief for Africa may be too little too late as coronavirus pandemic takes toll by Jevans Nyabiage 
• The Mainichi: G-20 eyes extending debt relief for poor nations until late 2021

Nigeria's Debt Management Office, once again, issued a breakdown of the country's debt to external creditors in a bid to push back against the widely-held, yet misinformed perception that the country is in debt beyond its capacity -- mostly to China.

On Friday, the DMO responded to a Freedom of Information request from a law firm that wanted to know about "external loans of $76 billion incurred by the federal government."

The $76 billion figure, however, is totally fictitious.

The DMO replied that Nigeria only owes $27.6 billion with about half of that due to Eurobond holders ($10.8) and the China Exim Bank ($3.12 billion). With a debt-to-GDP ratio of just 31.5%, many financial analysts consider Nigeria's current debt levels to be manageable.

Read more on the story on The Cable website.

The move by the United States last week to sanction the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) could have far-reaching implications that extend all the way to Africa, where the state-owned construction giant has an enormous presence.

The U.S. State and Commerce departments imposed visa and export restrictions on 24 Chinese companies, including CCCC, for their involvement in building artificial islands in the highly-contested South China Sea. Although these new sanctions were specifically targeted at Chinese entities operating in the Western Pacific, there's a real risk that African countries could become ensnared in this rapidly escalating confrontation.

Just as with the U.S. campaign against telecom giant Huawei, these new U.S. measures aim to restrict American companies from supplying U.S.-origin technology to CCCC and the other Chinese firms on the list without a license. Given that CCCC is building a number of major African infrastructure projects (see below for details), those initiatives are now potentially vulnerable to disruption since it wouldn't take a big leap for the U.S. to extend the new export control restrictions to CCCC's operations beyond Asia.

The U.S. seems to be fully aware of CCCC's presence in Africa and accused the company of engaging in a wide range of malfeasance from corruption to predatory financing to environmental destruction in a number of countries including Kenya and Tanzania.

Why These Latest U.S. Sanctions Against Chinese Companies May Not Actually Do Anything

• NO LEVERAGE: The U.S. may not have much leverage over CCCC and the other 23 blacklisted companies since in total all of these firms imported only $5 million worth of American goods over the past five years. 

• NO ALLIES: CCCC has projects in 50 African countries and a huge array of initiatives underway throughout Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Given that political leaders in these regions have a lot at stake with CCCC-led infrastructure building, they'll likely be hesitant to endorse any U.S.-led effort that could potentially jeopardize these projects.

SUGGESTED READING:

• The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sanctions Chinese Firms and Executives Active in Contested South China Sea by Kate O’Keeffe and Chun Han Wong
• Global Construction Review: Washington launches stinging attack on CCCC – but how successful will it be? by David Rogers

The China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) is Africa's largest international contractor, with a 40-year history of building some of the continent's largest infrastructure projects, according to a company promotional video.

Some of CCCC's recent projects are among Africa's most expensive, highest-profile construction initiatives ever undertaken:

• West Africa's largest container port at the Port of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast.
• The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya.
• Ethiopia's first highway that connects Addis Ababa to Adama.
• The new suspension bridge in the Mozambican capital of Maputo.

Watch the full video on the CCCC Facebook page.

China's territorial issues related to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea are becoming increasingly prominent topics of discussion when Chinese ambassadors engage with African governments and media.

While these so-called "core interests" have always been a part of the Chinese diplomatic dialogue in Africa, they seem to be generating more visibility lately as Beijing faces criticism for the internment of millions of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, the imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong, and more recently, U.S. challenges to China's dominance in the contested South China Sea. The One China Policy related to Taiwan is also an increasingly popular theme.

Every week now, we're seeing more African media coverage, official readouts from Chinese-African diplomatic exchanges, and posts on Chinese diplomatic Twitter accounts in Africa that feature comments about Chinese territorial issues.

Most likely, the Chinese are attempting to solidify already strong support among African countries on these sensitive issues at various international fora like the United Nations when confronted by critics in the U.S. and Europe.

China's Territorial Issues Raised in Egypt and Liberia

• EGYPT: Chinese Ambassador, Liao Liqiang, pushed back against well-documented accusations that China is detaining millions of Uighurs in concentration camps in an interview with the Egyptian news service Mobtada. He also answered multiple questions about China's official stance on events in Hong Kong and the South China Sea. (MOBTADA)

COMMENTARY: Based on the wording of the questions it's highly probable they were coordinated in advance with the embassy and the Chinese talking points all align with Cairo's views on the issues. What's most interesting is that Ambassador Liao and other Chinese officials have not faced any blowback in the Arab world for their position on Xinjiang and use events with Egyptian officials and media outlets as a primary Arabic-language gateway to promote their position on this issue.

• LIBERIA:  China's newly-arrived ambassador to Monrovia, Ren Yisheng, made the rounds last week to meet with various legislative leaders, ministers, and health officials. In his meeting with the Speaker of the House Representatives, Dr. Bhofal Chambers, Ambassador Ren thanked him for the legislature's support on the One-China Policy and re-emphasized that "Liberia respects China's national sovereignty and firmly adheres to the one-China principle" (强调利方尊重中方国家主权，坚定奉行一个中国原则)," according to a Chinese-language article posted on the embassy's WeChat account. The new ambassador also introduced his new hosts to China's security policy in Hong Kong. (CHINESE EMBASSY IN LIBERIA WECHAT)

COMMENTARY: What's interesting about the embassy's summary of Ambassador Ren's various meetings in Monrovia is that they emphasized the One China Policy and Hong Kong issues above all others, including COVID-19 assistance. This highlights just how important these core interests are to Chinese officials regardless of where they are. 

The news that Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno sold tens of thousands of phones infected with malicious viruses between 2018 and 2019 is now a major international story. CNN, the BBC and dozens of African news outlets have been covering it in detail and, not surprisingly given the company's enormous market share across the continent, it's also a hot topic of discussion on social media.

Sensing the potential longterm PR damage a crisis like this can do to a brand, a lot of multinational companies would react with a robust communications engagement strategy in an effort to reassure customers, regulators, and various other stakeholders. But not Tecno.

The company issued a single short statement on Wednesday that they shared with some media outlets but didn't distribute anywhere else. Neither the statement nor any mention of the crisis appeared on their corporate website or any of the company's social media channels.

Within hours of the BuzzFeed News report that set all this in motion, Tecno acknowledged that the Triada and xHelper apps were pre-installed by an undisclosed vendor in their supply chain. Then, in the statement mentioned above, the company added that this isn't actually a new issue and that it first identified the problem back in 2018 and resolved it the following year with a software update that removed the offending apps.

And it looks like, at least for now, that's all Tecno's going to say on the matter. They're clearly hoping this all just goes away.

Judged by history, that's probably a naive assumption. Back in 2015, it was discovered that Chinese computer company Lenovo shipped PCs with the malware app "Superfish" pre-installed that served up ads and exposed users' data to hackers. The damage to Lenovo's brand was enormous and lingered for years after.

There's no doubt Tecno's phones are enormously popular in Africa and will continue to sell well despite these revelations. But there's no doubt that this latest episode will further reinforce the perception among many African consumers that "Made in China" remains synonymous with low quality.

The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) responded this week to the Ghanaian government's controversial decision to renew the fishing license for the Chinese trawler Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956.

The EJF's main point of contention is that Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956 has engaged in illegal activity, has been sanctioned by regulators, and refused to pay its fines, yet still received a fishing license.

Read more on the story on the Pulse Kenya website.

Under mounting public pressure, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered an investigation into Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and its handling of the March 2020 PPE donations from the Jack Ma Foundation, amid allegations that they were illicitly sold, lost or wasted.

The president is demanding a report on the situation within 21 days.

Read more on the story on the Pulse Kenya website.

China's former ambassador to Kenya and the new head of the African Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wu Peng, laid out his agenda in a recent column published in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

There were no surprises in the essay. Wu focused largely on well-established priorities including COVID-19 cooperation, debt relief, and support for multilateralism.

It's noteworthy, though, that he didn't mention the need for Africa to reaffirm its support for China's One China Policy as that has become an increasingly prominent issue with Taiwan's new ties with Somaliland. African leaders have expressed support for China's policies in both Xinjiang and Hong Kong in the recent past.

Wu, according to Africa Intelligence, is developing a counter-attack strategy against both Taiwan and Somaliland, to challenge their new diplomatic relationship.

Key Highlights From Wu Peng's China Daily Article:

• DEBT RELIEF: "In line with the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), China has reached oral or written agreements with over 10 African countries on debt suspension. "As a market-based financial institution, the China Development Bank is participating in the debt suspension efforts and its negotiations with relevant countries are making progress. There is need to note that the debt issue, intertwined with economic and social development, can only be solved in a comprehensive manner."

• COVID-19 VACCINE: "African countries will be among the first to benefit. This great initiative could not be implemented successfully without African countries' participation and cooperation. Africa and China will work hand in hand in this new field of cooperation."

• INDUSTRIALIZATION: "China and Africa should make full use of their comparative advantages to build more special economic zones and industrial parks in Africa, transforming the outcomes of China-Africa infrastructure cooperation into Africa's real industrialization potential."

Read the full article on the China Daily website.

The Chinese embassy in Cameroon posted a short, seemingly innocuous video today that commemorated 40 years of development in Shenzhen, a once-sleepy fishing town near Hong Kong that is now one of the world's leading tech hubs with a population of 13+ million people.

There's a very important message here that resonates widely in Africa: how a city like Shenzhen in a country like China went from being as poor and underdeveloped as most of Africa is today to become one of the world's most advanced societies.

To be sure, China faces a number of challenges in Africa today and its reputation in many corners is severely diminished. But none of that takes away from the potency of this kind of message: "if we did it, you can too."

The Chinese-owned African mobile phone giant Tecno is rebutting new accusations that its W2 phones came pre-installed with malware. In a statement sent to the Nigerian tech news website Silicon Nigeria on Tuesday, Tecno claimed that the Triada malware was first discovered in April 2018 and since then the company distributed a patch that customers could use to remove the program.

The company added that if customers ran any system updates on their phones since 2018, then that would have eliminated the problem. For those who haven't yet done so the company advised: “For current W2 users facing Triada issue presently, we advise that they download the [over the air] fix on their phone for installation, or contact TECNO’s after-sales service support for assistance.”

Interestingly, the statement made no mention of the xHelper malware program that Secure-D also discovered on Tecno's W2 phones.

Secure-D, the security division of the mobile technology company Upstream Systems that identified the malware on 53,000 Tecno devices in a new report, also acknowledged that Triada/xHelper apps had been around for more than a year. "Starting in March 2019, Secure-D caught and blocked an unusually large number of transactions coming from Transsion Tecno W2 handsets mainly in Ethiopia, Cameroon,  Egypt, Ghana, and South Africa, with some fraudulent mobile transaction activity detected in another 14 countries," the company said in a blog post published this week.

Tecno blamed an undisclosed “vendor in the supply chain process” for the problem, according to this week's Buzzfeed News report that broke the story.

Key Highlights From Secure-D's Report on Pre-Installed Malware on W2 Tecno Phones

• HOW THE MALWARE WAS DETECTED: "Secure-D acquired a selection of Tecno W2 mobile phones, both used from real users and newly purchased, to analyze the nature of the software that caused the fraudulent subscription requests. The analysis was carried out using a combination of device models and firmware versions. Phones were used for different purposes and connected to different types of networks. "The investigation confirmed that Tecno W2 devices came with Triada-related malware pre-installed. Triada is a well-known and extensively investigated malware that acts as a software backdoor and malware downloader."

• HOW THE MALWARE FUNCTIONED: "As soon as the device was placed in Secure-D’s protected ‘sandbox’ testing environment and connected to the internet, Triada malware would then download a second malware called xHelper. We identified new system libraries that the malware patched in order to compromise other essential applications. These changes made the malware resilient across reboots, attempts at removal, and factory resets."

SUGGESTED READING:

• Upstream Systems: Well-Known Malware Committing Click Ad Fraud on Low-End Devices in Emerging Markets Uncovered by Secure-D
• BBC News: Chinese phones with built-in malware sold in Africa
• Silicon Nigeria: TECNO Debunks Fake Report On Mobile Security Flaw

It's been six months since the first shipment of personal protective equipment and other materials donated by the Jack Ma Foundation arrived in Kenya and still, only 24 of the 81 infrared thermometers have been distributed, according to the Ministry of Health.

It's the same story for the 12 respiratory ventilation tools, known as positive airway pressure kits, none of which have so far been put to use.

Although some of the donated materials have made it to clinics and other medical facilities that have treated the 30,000+ patients infected with COVID-19, the government nonetheless admitted that some of the rest is still sitting in warehouses.

These latest revelations come on the heels of a damning NTV investigation that uncovered widespread fraud related to the donated PPE and that a considerable portion of the materials was sold on the black market to buyers in Tanzania and, in some cases, back to the Kenyan Ministry of Health at inflated prices.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations now is now investigating at least two separate theft reports related to the donated PPE, according to a report in the Daily Nation newspaper.

And amid all of this, Kenya's health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, announced earlier this month that all future acquisitions of Chinese PPE would be blocked due to quality concerns. It was not clear if those quality issues were specifically related to the PPE donated by the Jack Ma Foundation or other materials acquired separately. 

Other COVID-19 Corruption News in East Africa:

• KENYA: Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak spoke out for the first time about the ongoing investigation into illegal PPE sales by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority. He said it's going to take time before any arrests are made given the complexity of the case. (KENYANS.CO.KE)

• SOMALIA: TheDirector-General of Somalia's Health Ministry, Abdullahi Hashi Ali, and 3 others, were sentenced to jail after they were found guilty of stealing COVID-19 funds. (KENYANS.CO.KE)

Protests turned violent this week in eastern Kenya's Kitui County, where local activists blocked the road to a Sinohydro construction site where they claim the Chinese contractor is polluting the local water supply.

Sinohydro is building the new Kibwezi-Kitui–Migwani Road that will create a direct route from the port of Mombasa to Ethiopia without having to pass through Nairobi.

Protestors say that the Chinese construction has drained much of the water from the local Kalundu river and replaced it with sewage. They're also complaining that Sinohydro's heavy construction equipment is damaging their community's other roads.

Read more on the story and watch video of the protest on the Kenyans.co.ke website.

In a highly unusual move, the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe published a detailed rebuttal on the Bulawayo24.com website against allegations that they were involved in the return of the controversial Anjin diamond mine.

The spat began on Sunday when The Standard columnist Tawanda Majoni published a scathing article that implied the Chinese government played a role in revitalizing Anjin after it was banned from the country in 2016.

Majoni's comments clearly irked the embassy because they came at him with the type of rhetoric usually reserved the likes of Mike Pompeo and Beijing's other "tier 1 critics." They described his column as filled with "unfounded accusations, conjectures, and sheer lies, proving nothing but an appalling lack of common sense and self-confidence."

What's interesting here what issues provoke the Chinese to respond so quickly and forcefully? It's odd because when there are often legitimate issues that necessitate a Chinese embassy statement or comment, they're usually reticent. But from time to time, someone at the embassies gets irked and we see these full-throated denunciations of issues that would largely go unnoticed had they not said anything. 

There was a similar situation in Liberia earlier this month when the Chinese embassy in Monrovia published a passionate 1600 word rebuttal to a rather standard U.S. warning about the dangers using Chinese technology.

SUGGESTED READING:

• The Standard: Why have they brought back Anjin? by Tawanda Majoni
• Bulaway24.com: China won't interfere in Zimbabwe's internal affairs by the Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe

Other China-Zimbabwe News:

• SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES: Zimbabwe takes notes from China SEZs model (BULAWAYO24)
• ECONOMIC PLANNING: Chinese experts to conduct virtual workshop with Zimbabwean officials to develop five-year national development (XINHUA)

Ghanaian fishing authorities have reportedly renewed the permit for the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 956, a Chinese vessel operated by Rongcheng Ocean Fishery Co. Ltd., even though the company has so far refused to pay a $1 million fine it incurred last year for using illegal nets.

Even after it was fined, the trawler was caught again fishing illegally. The trawler was impounded and fined a second time this year in May.

Ghana is well known for its weak enforcement of fishing laws and its inability or refusal (it's not clear) to collect fines.

News of the Lu Rong Yuan Yu's permitting comes just one day after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the government was committed to cracking down on the illegal fishing practice known as "Saiko" where catches are illegally transferred at sea. It's well documented that Chinese vessels similar to the Lu Rong Yuan Yu engage in Saiko fishing.

Last week, the non-governmental organization Friends of the Nation warned that Saiko and other forms of illegal fishing "had depleted the marine fishery resources of Ghana and as a result, many fisher folks and their dependents wallowed in abject poverty."

Read the full article on the Seafood Source website.

The Chinese embassy in Pretoria published a detailed statement on Monday in which it openly expressed concern about the safety of the Chinese diaspora in South Africa following the brutal murder of 7 Chinese nationals in the past 50 days.

Embassy officials, according to the statement, met with local law enforcement leaders to convey their concern about the safety of both Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese South Africans.

The statement appears to be an effort to reassure the local Chinese population in South Africa as it was only published on the Chinese-language section of the embassy's website, rather than in English or on social media channels as is often the case with similar statements.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Independent Online: We’re being slaughtered by criminals, says Chinese community in SA after brutal killing of couple by Anna Cox
• Independent Online: Chinese community demand justice over couple who were gunned down in Joburg CBD by Sheree Bega

Read the full statement (in Chinese) on the Chinese embassy's website.

An investigation by the mobile security firm Secure-D confirmed that some Tecno phones sold in Africa and other parts of the world came pre-installed with malware.

The infected phones would secretly download apps and attempt to trick users into subscribing for paid services without their consent.

Transsion, the Chinese company that owns Tecno, acknowledged the presence of the Triada and xHelper programs on the phones and attributed the problem to an unidentified “vendor in the supply chain process," according to a report published by Buzzfeed news.

A spokesperson said Transsion did not profit from the malware, and they declined to say how many handsets were infected.

Why the Infected Tecno Phones Represents a Huge Problem

• LOW PRICES = LOW SECURITY: Companies like Transsion are able to sell phones at rock bottom prices to low-income consumers in places like Africa in part because these devices don't include the same kind of robust security features that are standard on more expensive handsets.

• CUSTOMERS ARE POWERLESS: These phones came with the two malware apps preinstalled, so there was no way for customers to delete the apps. These aren't like apps downloaded from app stores that can easily be removed. Many users weren't even aware that they were hiding in a remote folder gobbling up data, compromising privacy and fooling people into spending money.

Read the full report on the Buzzfeed News website.

Investors in Africa's most valuable public company, Naspers, breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after hearing that any White House measures against WeChat and its parent company Tencent won't be as broad as initially feared.

A Naspers subsidiary is Tencent's largest shareholder, owning 31% of the company, so any U.S. sanctions against Tencent would likely impact the African media giant as well. (BLOOMBERG)

Other China-Africa Tech News:

• E-COMMERCE: Chinese phone maker Vivo on Monday announced a partnership with Africa's largest online retailer Jumia to expand its footprint in the Kenyan market. (XINHUA)

• SATELLITE TV: The Director-General of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Mallam Mohammed Ibn Yakubu, revealed on Monday that a joint venture to transmit the broadcast signal of Chinese-owned pay-TV company StarTimes has not generated any profit in its 11-year history. (DAILY POST)

• SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: Huawei South Africa has added online training in Artificial Intelligence to a portfolio of free training it offers to South African ICT students. (GADGET)

PDP opposition legislators from the House of Representatives took to the media on Monday to voice their concerns that a three-week postponement will jeopardize the investigation into Chinese loans. 

The House of Representatives last week suspended all investigations, public hearings, and committee meetings until September for its annual recess.

That has legislators like Mark Gbillah concerned that the controversial inquiry into the validity of various Chinese loans will be compromised. “We are still in the realm of allegations and speculations, but when a three-week break has been allowed, compromises can be made; people can be appealed to, offers, overtures can be made to those carrying out those investigations," he said in an interview on Channels TV. 

"This is Nigeria," he added.

Read more on the story and watch the full interview with Representative Gbillah on the ChannelsTV website.

Latest News & Commentary on the Chinese Loan Probe in Nigeria:

• PUNCH: Reps panel member faults Chinese loan probe by Leke Baiyewu
• PREMIUM TIMES: Why the Chinese Loan Probe Must Continue by Ebere Onwudiwe
• PUNCH: China: Generous lender or loan shark? by Tayo Oke

Julie Lechanteux, a conservative French MP in the European Union parliament and a member of Marine Le Pen's right-wing Rassemblement National party, channeled the growing unease across wide swathes of French society about the country's declining influence in Africa and the rise of China on the continent.

TWEET TRANSLATION: While some accuse France of all sorts of bad things, the cutting up of the African continent by the Chinese continues. 

Why do those who say they defend Africa never talk about it? Because their hatred of France comes first?

W. Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. and the former minister of public works in Liberia, wrote another provocative article on U.S.-China-Africa relations that ricocheted across the internet over the weekend.

As U.S.-China relations rapidly deteriorate, seemingly by the day, Moore is emerging as a forceful voice calling on African governments "to chart a new course" and avoid becoming entangled in this latest great power rivalry.

What sets Moore's analysis apart from that of other analysts in Washington and Beijing, is that's he willing to bluntly say what others won't, sharply criticizing both sides for policies that undermine African economic growth and political agency. "Both China and the West benefit from a global system that confines Africa’s role to being a source of unprocessed natural resources and a market for finished products," he wrote in the column published on the South African news site Mail & Guardian.

Moore warns that if African governments do choose to take a side between the U.S. and China, the continent's relative weakness, especially in the COVID-19 era, "will deliver sub-optimal outcomes for Africans."

Key Highlights From Gyude Moore's Latest Essay on U.S.-China-Africa Relations

• U.S./EU CRIES OVER CHINESE DEBT TRAPS "RING HOLLOW": "The Western argument of Chinese debt-trap diplomacy, inferior loan terms and an insidious, covert campaign to seize African national infrastructure assets rings hollow in the absence of a like-for-like Western alternative."

• INEQUITY IN THE CHINA-AFRICA RELATIONSHIP: "Although China has no racist colonial past in Africa, the experience of Africans in Guangzhou during the COVID-19 outbreak there does not bode well for our long-term relationship. China now hosts the largest number of Africans studying outside the continent but has not created legal means for any of those Africans to make their home in China. Meanwhile, about one million Chinese now live on the continent, engaging in trade and commerce freely."

Moore concludes by calling on African governments to chart their own course and "sit out the coming Cold War" but he doesn't articulate what exactly that entails. This won't be easy for most African countries, given their relative weakness, so it'll be interesting to hear how Moore and other analysts frame an African agenda (either at the national, regional, or continental levels) that simultaneously asserts agency while not alienating one or both of these feuding great powers.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Mail & Guardian: A new Cold War is coming. Africa should not pick sides by W. Gyude Moore
• Twitter thread: Africa's position in the New "Cold War" by W. Gyude Moore
• Twitter thread: Why China is not Africa's partner of choice by W. Gyude Moore

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

China's General Administration of Customs published a list of 46 meat processing plants around the world that have halted exports to China due to COVID-19 outbreaks among their workers. But Namibia, so far, is not on the list.

That's important because Namibia's state-run meat processing company Meatco has sold 973,412 metric tons to Chinese buyers this year despite the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent slow down in trade. If Namibian meat processing facilities can remain COVID-free, sales are poised to increase further.

China is importing record amounts of pork and beef to make up for the devastating loss of as much as 60% of the country's pig livestock due to an outbreak of African Swine Fever. Now, the Chinese government appears to be eager to restock its pork reserves in an effort that also appears to be having ancillary benefits on the beef market as well.

Namibia's been selling beef to China only since last May. Namibia and South Africa are, to date, the only African countries that export beef to China. 

Other China-Africa Agricultural Trade News:

• COCOA: Ghana's ambassador to China, Edward Boateng, wants the Chinese government to eliminate tariffs on cocoa, just as it has on imported cashews and coffee. The ambassador's comments follow last week's opening of a new Africa Cocoa Centre in the southern Chinese province of Hunan. (MODERN GHANA)

• COFFEE: With Chinese ports now open again, Rwandan coffee exports to China are beginning to rebound, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). After a hugely successful live stream promotion with Alibaba in May, where 1.5 tons of Rwandan coffee sold out in seconds, the RDB is hoping more Rwandan producers will develop online direct-to-consumer outlets in China. (XINHUA)

Chinese businesses are coming to Africa for "what they need" and are not challenging local enterprises in Nigeria and Africa more broadly, according to the founder and president of the Dangote Group, Alika Dangote, in an interview with the Nigerian business TV program "Moneyline with Nancy."

Dangote, who also happens to be Africa's wealthiest person, brushed aside complaints that Chinese imports and businesses are undermining competition at the local level. 

That assessment, though, would not be well received among many of Kenya's small merchants, who are calling on the government for help against Chinese importers who are unscrupulously and, in their view, illegally "importing sub-standard goods and imitations and selling the wares at throwaway prices."

“The Chinese are the manufacturers of goods back in their country where we import from but they are now not manufacturing but also exporting them to Kenya and sell them here at a lower price below the market price,” explains Peter Kamanga, a local trader in Nairobi who deals in shoes, bags and apparel.

Read more on this story on The Star website.

The Chinese government will add 2,000 tons of cobalt to its strategic commodity reserve in a move that is expected to further bolster prices of this vitally important mineral that largely comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa, according to a report in Bloomberg.

Cobalt is an essential material used in batteries for electric vehicles which is emerging as a key industry in China and part of the government's controversial “Made in China 2025” industrial plan. 

Cobalt prices may also get a lift from increased raw-supply from the DR Congo after the government on Saturday announced that it would suspend its requirement that cobalt and copper concentrate be first processed in the country before export.

Chinese companies stand to benefit from Kinshasa's latest decision given that they play a dominant role at almost every stage of the cobalt mining-to-processing supply chain.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Bloomberg: China Plans to Buy 2,000 Tons of Cobalt for Strategic Reserve
• Business Day: Miners get relief after DRC makes exceptions to export ban by Hereward Holland
• Argus Media: EVs could squeeze US-China cobalt spreads

Other China-Africa Extractive News:

• CHROME: Local chrome miners in Zimbabwe depend on Chinese investors for machinery and a market for ore. In theory, the partnerships are mutually beneficial. But in practice, miners say, the relationships are exploitative. (GLOBAL PRESS INSTITUTE)

• COPPER: LockdownsinBotswana and South Africa due to the COVID-19 pandemic have hit Zambia's copper exports hard, according to Sokwani Chilembo, chief executive officer of the Zambia Chamber of Mines. The slowdown in copper exports has been devastating for Zambia's national finances given that it makes up about 80% of the country's foreign exchange earnings. (XINHUA)

China and Somalia both turned up the volume of their anger about Monday's opening of a new Taiwan representative office in the self-declared state of Somaliland.

After a subdued reaction on Monday following the inauguration of the new office in Hargeisa and only a mild statement issued on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian yesterday unleashed the characteristically bombastic rhetoric that is often used to condemn Taiwan's diplomatic initiatives:

"Here is a word of advice for whom it may concern: don't make the mistake of seeking wiggle room where there is none," he warned the two nations at the regular press briefing in Beijing. "Those going against the trend to challenge the one-China principle will get burned and swallow the bitter fruit."

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and Somalia does not recognize Somaliland for similar reasons.

Now that Zhao has set the tone for Beijing's response, China's state-run media outlets will likely follow up with a wave of critical stories about Taiwan, Somaliland, and why the world should isolate the two.

Somalia and Somaliland Exchange Condemnations and Warnings

• SOMALIA: "The Federal Government of Somalia condemns Taiwan's reckless attempts to infringe on the Sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia and violate its Territorial Integrity. The Federal Government of Somalia repudiates such misguided endeavors that seek to sow discord and division among its people." (SOMALIA'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS)

• SOMALILAND: "The Government of the Republic of Somaliland sees Somalia's reaction towards Taiwan's Representative Office in Somaliland as astonishing and mystifying to the world nations... the Government of Somaliland again warns the Somalia administration to refrain from the repeated groundless and uninformed statements amid [sic] to mislead the world." (SOMALILAND MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS)