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

Diplomatic Jousting Escalates After Dangerous China-Philippines Quarrels in South China Sea

A China Coast Guard ship fires a water cannon at a vessel from the Philippines fisheries department. Video via the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
China and the Philippines are amplifying their criticism of each other after a weekend of dangerous run-ins in the South China Sea. Incidents on Saturday and Sunday were among the most confrontational in ...
by Han Zhen

China Hosts Saudi Investment Event as Oil Buys Slump

File image of Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih addressing the 10th Arab-China Business Conference in Riyadh on June 11, 2023. Fayez Nureldine / AFP
China is hosting an investment conference focusing on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The event will coincide with a visit to Beijing by Saudi Arabia’s Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The event will focus on ...
by Cobus van Staden

Examining New Data on Chinese Foreign Direct Investment across the Wider Mediterranean Region

File image of a 2023 launch of a new Huawei cloud data center in Saudi Arabia. Although Chinese FDI in the Kingdom fell in 2022, analysts say it's since rebounded. Image via Huawei.
Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Mediterranean region grew by 5% in 2022 but differed by region. While the Middle East accounted for the bulk of the increase, southern Europe and North ...
by Cobus van Staden

Ethiopia To Default on Bond Payment

A shop owner counts Ethiopian Birr in his stall at the Shola Market in Addis Ababa on December 4, 2023. Michele Spatari / AFP
Ethiopia is set to join Zambia, Sri Lanka, and Ghana on the debt chopping block following the announcement that it can’t pay a $33 million bond coupon due on Monday. The country will officially ...
by Cobus van Staden

China: U.S. is Hypocritical When It Claims to Care About the People in Gaza, Yet Vetos Ceasefire Resolutions at the UN

Chinese envoy to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, criticized the United States for blocking a Security Council resolution to call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war. Image via the Chinese mission to the United Nations.
Chinese diplomats and Communist Party (CPC) media outlets blasted the United States for what it calls a double standard of claiming to be concerned about the welfare of Palestinians in Gaza while at ...
by Eric Olander

Ships Collide and China Fires Water Cannon at Philippines Vessels as Spat Escalates in South China Sea

A China Coast Guard ship fires a water cannon at a vessel from the Philippines fisheries department. Video via the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea hit their most dangerous point of the year this weekend, with Chinese ships using water cannons and colliding against smaller Filipino ...
by Han Zhen

China’s ‘Aggression’ Against Philippines in South China Sea Stokes Rare Response From State Department

Via @USEmbassyPH
China-Philippine run-ins in the South China Sea over the weekend stoked a much sterner response than usual from Washington, a treaty ally of Manila and the main bulwark against Chinese expansion in the ...
by Han Zhen

China Lashes Out at Philippines’ House Resolution and Blames Manila for South China Sea Conflict

China blamed the Philippines for maritime conflicts over the weekend, and said Manila must stop "hyping" such run-ins between the two countries.
Social media this weekend was awash with footage of Chinese vessels spraying water cannons at smaller Filipino boats and collisions between the two countries’ vessels in the South China Sea. And the U.S. ...
by Han Zhen

Chinese Mining Companies Digest New U.S. Rules Aimed at Cutting Them Out of EV Supply Chain

Chinese mining executives at privately owned companies are breathing a sigh of relief that new U.S. regulations aimed at cutting them off the American EV supply chain aren’t as stringent as expected. Earlier ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Vietnamese Officials Preparing for Chinese President Xi Jinping Visit Next Week

China's President Xi Jinping announcing new BRI priorities at the Belt and Road Forum in October. Image: Pedro Pardo / AFP.
Vietnamese officials are preparing for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Hanoi next Tuesday and Wednesday, well-placed sourced told Bloomberg. This will be Xi’s first trip to Vietnam since 2017 and follows Hanoi’s recent ...
by Eric Olander

Top U.S. and Chinese Diplomats Talk Israel-Hamar War, Bilateral Ties

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed ways to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza from spreading and agreed to build on recent progress in bilateral ties. “The ...
by Han Zhen

G7 Virtual Meeting With Zelensky Turns Focus to Beijing and South China Sea

U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken participate in a virtual G7 leaders meeting hosted by Japan on December 6, 2023. Image via The White House.
The G7 on Wednesday issued a clear warning against China’s military buildup in the South China Sea and stressed that member countries will divest and diversify from China when needed to keep their economies ...
by Han Zhen

China Hasn’t Used Economic Coercion Even As Philippines Ramped Up South China Sea Strategy: Analyst

Chinese Trade (as Percentage of the Philippines’ Total Trade), February to September 2023. Source: Philippine Statistics Authority
Concerns that China might use economic coercion against the Philippines, particularly as Manila ramps up its strategy of showcasing Chinese “aggression” in the South China Sea, have not been borne out, a noted ...
by Han Zhen

Vietnam’s Biggest Export Market U.S., Import Source China

Chart from VN Express.
The U.S. was Vietnam’s biggest export market in the first 11 months of 2023 at $88 billion, down 13% year-on-year. China was second at $56 billion. Meanwhile, China was Vietnam’s largest import market ...
by Eric Olander

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

How to Lure Chinese Financing Back to the Global South: Report

Global South countries face increasing financing pressure, endangering their ability to keep developing while also implementing measures to deal with a growing climate crisis. The disruption of global trade is coupled with a larger megatrend: flows of international capital to the developing world have turned negative. This means that countries are now routinely paying more to service loans than they receive in disbursements.

The vast majority of Global South borrowers ...

Beijing Hosts 8th Lancang-Mekong Foreign Ministers Meeting

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets counterparts in Beijing. Images via Xinhua.
Beijing hosted the 8th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Thursday, jointly led by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Myanmar’s Deputy Prime Minister U Than Swe. Wang met individually with ...
by Han Zhen

China-Angola Meeting As Luanda Navigates Great Power Competition

Angola’s Foreign Minister Téte António met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday. Image via @WuPeng_MFAChina
Angola’s Foreign Minister Téte António met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday. He also signed a bilateral investment protection measure with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. China has sometimes struggled ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Cuts Tariffs for Six African Countries

Aerial view of cranes and shipping containers at Lianyungang port in China's eastern Jiangsu province on November 7, 2023. STR / AFP
China’s customs authorities announced that goods from six least-developed African countries will be exempt from tariffs. 98% of imports from Angola, Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mali, and Mauritania will be ...
by Cobus van Staden

Sino-French Collaboration on South African Power Plant

The signing ceremony of Sungrow's new collaboration with France's EDF in South Africa. Image: Yicai
Sungrow Power Supply, a Chinese maker of solar components, will partner with EDF Renewables, a French green power company, on a new combined solar and wind power plant in South Africa. Sungrow ...
by Cobus van Staden

South Africa’s Ruling Party Praises “Great Progress” In Xinjiang

Dakota Legoete, ANC national executive committee member addressing a seminar at the Embassy of China in South Africa. Image via the Chinese embassy in South Africa.
Senior members of South Africa’s African National Congress praised China’s “remarkable achievements” in alleviating poverty in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, saying the country is drawing inspiration from China. The officials took part in 
by Cobus van Staden

PLA Navy Closes Part of the South China Sea for Live-Fire Exercises

File image of a Chinese PLA Navy Type 055 guided-missile destroyer accompanying the aircraft carrier Shandong during recent live fire exercises in the South China Sea. Image via the China Ministry of Defense.
The Chinese Navy blocked off a large swathe of the South China Sea on Tuesday for two days of live fire exercises, according to a statement by the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA). Neither the ...
by Eric Olander

PLA Navy Warships Make First Port of Call in Cambodia’s New Chinese-Built Port

Officers from the Chinese navy and the Cambodian military gather aboard the deck of a PLA Navy warship during a first-ever port of call at the newly-built Ream navy base. Images via the Cambodian Ministry of Defense.
A small flotilla of Chinese warships that includes a destroyer, a frigate and a supply vessel docked at Cambodia’s newly upgraded Ream naval base on Tuesday in the southwestern province of Sihanoukville. Defense ...
by Eric Olander

Ford’s Nickel Deal With Huayou Cobalt Exposes the Limits of U.S. Influence to Counter China

JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP
The Ford Motor Company is moving forward with a massive $3.8 billion three-way nickel deal with Brazilian miner Vale and Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. Nickel is one of the key metals ...
by Eric Olander

Fentanyl, Trade and Relief Supplies Top Mexican Foreign Secretary’s First Official Visit to China

Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena Ibarra met with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on December 5, 2023. Image via the Mexican Foreign Ministry.
Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena Ibarra met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday in Beijing, her first official visit to the Chinese capital. The trip was framed as a follow-up from ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Media Reaction to Aisha Huang’s Sentencing Focuses on the Lack of Effective Governance in Ghana

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: China’s “gold mining queen” jailed! Faces four-and-a-half years in prison for illegal mining
Online media reaction to this week’s sentencing of Chinese national Aisha Huang, aka “The Galamsey Queen,” by the High Court in Ghana to four and a half years in prison for running a vast ...
by Eric Olander

Bahrain’s Top Climate Negotiator Jokes With Chinese Counterpart That He’s Been “Busy Finding Oil”

Bahrain's chief climate negotiator Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina was caught making an off-color joke about "finding oil" with his China's special envoy for climate Xie Zhenhua. Image via Sky News.
China’s Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua was caught in an uncomfortable situation at the COP28 conference in Dubai when a reporter from Sky News recorded him in what appears to be ...
by Eric Olander

China Excoriates U.S. as Culprit in Philippine Tensions in South China Sea

One of several catroons published by Chinese tabloid Global Times this week depicting the U.S. as the instigator behind tensions in the South China Sea. The stick stirring the waves is wrapped in the national flag of the Philippines, a U.S. ally. Illustration by Liu Rui/Global Times
Chinese media and official channels shifted into overdrive this week in condemnation of U.S. hegemony as the true source of tensions in the South China Sea, despite the friction ostensibly being a China-Philippines ...
by Han Zhen

What the U.S. Needs to Do to Better Compete With China in Development Finance

Lê Thị Thu Thủy, global CEO of the Vietnamese automaker VinFast, at a loan signing ceremony in Dubai with Scott Nathan, head of the U.S. government's International Development Finance Corporation. Image via @DFCgov.
There’s a growing sense of anxiety in Washington over what the U.S. can do to better compete with China to finance infrastructure in developing countries around the world. For much of the past ...
by Eric Olander

Ghanaian Court Jails the Notorious Chinese “Galamsey Queen” for Illegal Mining

Convicted illegal miner Aisha Huang (aka the "Galamsey Queen") was escorted by police from the High Court in Accra, Ghana on Decembert 4, 2023. Image via JoyOnline.
Aisha Huang will spend the next four and a half years in a Ghanaian jail cell after the Accra High Court handed down a ruling on Monday that dominated the news in the West ...
by Eric Olander

Popular ‘Chinese Savior’ Drama Set in Africa Now Available to Watch With English Subtitles

A hugely popular television drama series set in a fictitious African country that depicts the tireless work of a Chinese medical team is now available to view on YouTube with English subtitles.
by Eric Olander

Argentina Will Not Join BRICS, Says Incoming Foreign Minister

An unnamed official hides behind flags at a recent BRICS event. Wu Hong / AFP
Argentina will not join the China-led BRICS group when President-Elect Javier Milei takes office, the incoming foreign minister said, emphasizing the many possible shakeups to come under the new administration. “We will not join ...
by Han Zhen
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