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

Taiwan Was on Wang Yi’s Mind When He Reached Out to Three African Foreign Ministers

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with three of his African counterparts via three separate phone calls this week. The Foreign Minister spoke with Nigeria’s Geoffrey Onyeama, Kenya’s Raychelle Omamo and Nasser Bourita from Morocco.  ...
by Eric Olander

China Issues First Public Statement on Mali Coup

Malian soldiers parade as they arrive by military vehicle at Independence Square in Bamako on August 18, 2020, after rebel troops seized Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse in a dramatic escalation of a months-long crisis. AFP
The Chinese government offered its first response to the recent coup in Mali. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian addressed this issue at his regular press briefing in Beijing yesterday: Beijing ...
by Eric Olander

UPDATE: Officials Confirm Chinese Mine At the Center of a Water Pollution Controversy Wasn’t Licensed to Mine in the First Place

Quick update on a story that we’ve been following for the past couple of weeks, focusing on allegations of pollution from a Chinese mining project in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, on the outskirts ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Medical Team Arrives in South Sudan

An eight-member Chinese medical arrives in Juba, South Sudan to assist local authorities with COVID-19 mitigation.
Although Chinese officials and media don’t showcase COVID-19 relief efforts in Africa that much anymore, especially compared to the hype these activities received a couple of months ago, medical teams and PPE donations ...
by Eric Olander

Six Months After the Discrimination Crisis in Guangzhou, a Group of Chinese High School Students Goes to See If Anything Has Changed

Shocked by the news of widespread anti-black discrimination back in April in Guangzhou, a group of five high school students from across the country went to the southern Chinese city to see if ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Foreign Ministry Issues First Statement on Taiwan Opening a Rep Office in Somaliland

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded on Tuesday to Taiwan’s opening of a new representative office earlier this week in the self-declared state of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. At his regular press ...
by Eric Olander

9 Nigerians Killed, 1 Chinese Kidnapped in Violent Assault on a Road Construction Site in Niger State

A group of heavily armed Muslim Fulani bandits raided at a road construction site on Monday in the central Nigerian state of Niger. The assailants apparently targeted expatriates and began shooting. ...
by Eric Olander

Claims of a Cover-Up and Intimidation Cloud Investigation of Labor Abuse by Chinese Steel Company in Nigeria

Anonymous accusations of widespread labor abuses at a Chinese-owned steel company in the Nigerian state of Abia have sparked a heated controversy, as the company and its allies rebut the charges. Last week, ...
by Eric Olander

The Maritime Implications of Growing China-Iran Strategic Ties

Abhijit Singh, a former Indian naval officer and now a senior fellow who heads the Maritime Policy Initiative at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation explores the implications of a China-Iran strategic partnership ...
by Eric Olander

After Years of Enduring Painful Racist Attacks, Zhong Feifei is Now Having a Moment

The biracial Chinese-Congolese model/popstar/beauty blogger/social media influencer/reality TV star Zhong Feifei endured years of vicious racist attacks online for her skin tone, curly hair, and, well, because she’s far outside of ...
by Eric Olander

Tempers Flare in Nigerian House Hearing on Chinese Loans

Three weeks of steadily building tensions over Chinese loans to Nigeria erupted in a House committee hearing on Monday. Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, ...
by Eric Olander

With an Eye on China, G7 Finance Ministers Call on G20 Bilateral Creditors to Keep Their Debt Freeze Promises

US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis / POOL / AFP
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hosted a teleconference with his fellow finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries on Monday and the burgeoning debt crisis in the world’s poorest countries was ...
by Eric Olander

Deborah Brautigam on Whether the Burgeoning U.S.-China Conflict Will Complicate Debt Relief for Africa

Creditors’ debt stock in Africa’s DSSI-eligible countries, 2018. Graphic by CARI using World Bank data.
Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. reflected on the “war of words” between the World Bank, led by longstanding China-hawk David Malpass and ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s Health Chief Denies Accusation Jack Ma’s Donated PPE Was Illegally Smuggled to Tanzania

A consignment of masks, testing kits and protective gear, a donation from the Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, are unloaded from a cargo plane operated by Ethiopian airlines on March 24, 2020 after it arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi to help enhance capacity at the COVID-19 coronavirus infection testing centres in Kenya. TONY KARUMBA / AFP
Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe came under fire on Monday from members of a parliamentary health committee, who demanded that he respond to allegations that the bulk of PPE ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Plugging into African Agency

After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...

China’s Doing More But Spending Less in Africa

China is engaged in more Belt and Road-related projects in Africa but spending far less than it is in the Middle East and South Asia, according to new data from the Washington, D.C.-based ...
by Eric Olander

Africa’s Largest Publicly Traded Company Now Squarely in the U.S.-China Crossfire

The stock price of Africa’s largest and most valuable publicly traded company has been on a roller coaster ride since U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to ban Tencent-owned WeChat from U.S. app ...
by Eric Olander

Labor Abuse Allegations Against Chinese Company in Nigeria Explodes Into a Full-Blown Scandal

The Chinese factory at the center of an increasingly bitter dispute over allegations of gross abuse of its workers is pushing back against its accusers and the government. Over the weekend the Inner ...
by Eric Olander

Nigerian Ministers Take Press on Tour of Lagos-Ibadan Railway Construction Site to Show Them Chinese Loans Are Being Put to Good Use

In a bid to push back against critics, two ministers invited the news media to visit a construction site along the Lagos-Ibadan railway to show them firsthand that money borrowed from China is ...
by Eric Olander

Nigeria’s Transportation Minister Renews Plea For Legislators to Stop Questioning Loan Agreements With China

Nigerian Transportation Minister Chibuike Rotimi speaking with legislators in the National Assembly about Chinese infrastructure loans.
Nigerian Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi renewed his appeal to the National Assembly to stop questioning the $5.3 billion Chinese loan to build the Ibadan-Kano standard gauge railway. This is the second time the ...
by Eric Olander

The U.S. and Chinese Embassies in Liberia Go at Each Other Over Huawei

The U.S. and Chinese embassies in Liberia are engaged in a social media squabble over whether it’s safe for African countries to use Chinese technology. The feud began on August 9th when the ...
by Eric Olander

Pragmatism Not Politics the Focus of High-Profile China-Africa Online Conference

A number of prominent African ambassadors to China joined scholars, business leaders, and think tank analysts this week for a wide-ranging online discussion on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting ties between the ...
by Eric Olander

Nigerian Government to Investigate Allegations of “Slave” Conditions at a Chinese Factory in Abia State

Exterior of the Inner Galaxy Group factory in Abia state that is accused of widespread labor abuse.
A representative from Nigeria’s Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission said the agency is going to call in the Ministry of Labor and other authorities to investigate allegations of widespread abuse at ...
by Eric Olander

Scuffle Breaks Out When a Chinese Construction Manager Blocks Kenyan Minister From Conducting a Surprise Site Inspection

When Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Administrative Secretary Wavinya Ndeti showed up with a delegation of senior officials for an unannounced site inspection of the Sh1.7 billion Likoni floating footbridge construction project in Mombasa, the ...
by Eric Olander

Which Way Somaliland: Taiwan or China?

Somaliland is the middle of a tense courtship between China and Taiwan, leading to conflicting signals about which way the self-declared nation in the Horn of Africa is leaning. On the one hand, ...
by Eric Olander

There’s Growing Excitement That a New Ugandan-Chinese Smartphone Will Help to Stop the Spread of COVID-19

Bloomberg’s Quick Take team showcased the new G507 smartphone made by the Chinese company SIMI and manufactured locally in Uganda. The phone comes equipped with a body temperature scanner that the company claims ...
by Eric Olander

CITES Under Pressure to Crack Down on Elephant Trade and Loosen Restriction on Ivory Sales

Seized ivory elephant tusks are displayed during a press conference at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound in Hong Kong on February 1, 2019. Hong Kong customs officers unveiled a record seizure of pangolin scales on February 1, the latest huge haul to underscore the city's central role in the lucrative and booming illegal wildlife trade. Anthony WALLACE / AFP
Wednesday marked World Elephant Day (yes, apparently elephants also have their own day) and that sparked a heated discussion over the African ivory trade and Zimbabwe’s controversial sales of young elephants ...
by Eric Olander

Lin Songtian: The U.S. “Maliciously Disrupts China-Africa Relations”

Former South African ambassador and current President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Lin Songtian, was the keynote speaker at an online event this week organized by ...
by Eric Olander

New China-Africa Trade Data Shows Mixed Results (And That’s Really Good News, All Things Considered)

A number of countries across Africa this week are reporting trade figures for the first half of the year and they’re surprisingly mixed given the enormous disruption brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. ...
by Eric Olander

How COVID-19 is Messing Up Lucrative Africa-Asia Trade Routes

SABC Correspondent Richard Kimber reports from Hong Kong’s main cargo terminal on how new quarantine regulations for container vessels is further slowing African trade with China, and Asia as a whole.
by Eric Olander
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