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

Chinese Media Noticeably Quiet on Zambian Debt Deal

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: [Global Finance] Zambia reaches debt settlement agreement with official creditors
Most major financial news outlets in the U.S. and Europe featured prominent coverage of Friday’s landmark Zambian debt restructuring deal but the story was barely mentioned in China. The official state-run Xinhua news ...
by Eric Olander

Hichilema Refutes Western Accusations China Was to Blame for Delays in Zambia’s Debt Restructuring

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema listens during the closing session of the New Global Financial Pact Summit, in Paris on June 23, 2023. Lewis Joly / POOL / AFP
Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema rejected longstanding accusations by Western governments and institutions that China was to blame for how long it took to reach a debt restructuring agreement. The president told Bloomberg ...
by Eric Olander

Vietnam PM Arrives in China for Visit as a U.S. Aircraft Carrier Arrives

The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, accompanied by two cruisers USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS Robert Smalls (CG-62), docked in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang on Friday. Image via VTC News.
Vietnam’s legendary great power hedging strategy was on full display this weekend when the massive U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan arrived in the central city of Da Nang for a rare port of call ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Insists Modi’s Visit Wasn’t About China… Except That It Was

US President Joe Biden and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wait for a meeting with senior officials and CEOs of American and Indian companies, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
The United States rejected suggestions that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three day visit to the United States last week was about leveraging New Delhi in Washington’s rivalry against China. Although China was ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: China’s Special Envoy to UN Expressed Support for Argentina’s Claim on Falklands Islands

Argentinian President Alberto Fernández met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Image via Xinhua.
China’s special envoy to the UN, Geng Shuang, expressed support for Argentina’s claim on the Falklands Islands (known as the Malvinas in Argentina) and for a UN resolution calling on the UK and ...
by Eric Olander

Backgrounder: Why China Matters So Much at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives in France on 21 June to kick off an official visit. He is also scheduled to attend the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. Image via @globaltimesnews
In Paris, all eyes are on Chinese Premier Li Qiang, representing the People’s Republic at this week’s Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. China’s rise is perhaps the most important mega-trend that ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese State Firm’s Growing Presence in South Africa’s Renewable Energy Sector as Coal Power Disappoints

File image of a solar power facility in Frankfort on May 11, 2023. Shiraaz MOHAMED / AFP
Pinggao, a subsidiary of the world’s largest power company, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), is investing in South Africa’s renewable energy sector as circumstances push the country towards renewable energy options from its ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

Vietnam Takes Delivery of Two New Warships From India While U.S. and Japanese Carriers Make Ports of Call

The Japanese helicopter carrier JS Izumo made a port call in Cam Ranh, just a few days before the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier is expected to visit Da Nang. Image via @duandang
India announced that it will provide two domestically-made warships to Vietnam that will help bolster the Southeast Asian country’s coastal defense capabilities, presumably against incursions by Chinese maritime forces. The donation was the highlight ...
by Eric Olander

Abu Dhabi Places Big Bet on a Struggling Chinese EV Automaker

A Nio ES6 is displayed during the 20th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai on April 18, 2023. Hector RETAMAL / AFP
Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio was recently near bankruptcy but is now on the rebound, helped in part by a sizable investment from CYVN Holdings, a smart mobility-focused investment fund majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi ...
by Eric Olander

Indian PM Modi Arrives in the U.S., China Expected to be High on the Agenda in Talks With Biden

Flags of India and US adorn the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 20, 2023 ahead of a state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Daniel SLIM / AFP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New York on Tuesday for a quick stopover before heading to Washington for a high-profile state visit that will include talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. Modi ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Maritime Incursions Prompt Palau President to Call on U.S. for Assistance

File image of Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. SARAH SILBIGER / POOL / AFP
Recent breaches of Palau’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) prompted President Surangel Whipps, Jr. to call on the United States to increase the frequency of navy patrols near the small Pacific Island Country’s maritime ...
by Eric Olander

The Truly Ridiculous Fox News Conspiracy Theory About Bill Gates, China and Africa

Jesse Watters is host of Fox News' 7pm daily show.
Philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates met with Xi Jinping last week, the first time in years that the Chinese president had held a one-on-one session with a Western business leader. The meeting ...
by Eric Olander

Map of the Day: Why China’s Economic Clout in the Indian Ocean Will Be Hard to Beat

China is a key trade partner with every country on the Indian Ocean rim, where the only distinction is whether China is a big trading partner or the biggest trading partner. Image: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Indian Ocean region is home to some of the world’s most important trade routes. It is also rife with choke points and conflict zones that put the region at the center of ...
by Cobus van Staden

Kenya’s High Court Rules Contract for Chinese-Financed Railway Can Remain Secret

File image of the Kenya's Supreme Court ruled the government does not have to publish the contract with the China Road and Bridge Corporation that was used to build the Standard Gauge Railway. Simon Mania/AFP
Kenya’s highest court ruled the government does not have to reveal the contract for the controversial Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Friday’s ruling overturned a 2020 Appeals Court ruling that claimed the government had indeed flouted ...
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 ...

Little Consensus Over Veracity of Ex-Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Comms Director’s Accusation of CPC Influence

Jade Gao / AFP
Bob Pickard, the former head of communications at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing, is now back home in Vancouver after he accused the Communist Party of China (CPC) of secretly interfering in ...
by Eric Olander

WSJ: Shanghai-Based New Development Bank “Fighting For Its Very Survival”

File image of New Development Bank President Dilma Roussef speaking at the bank's annual meeting on May 30, 2023. STR / AFP
The Chinese-initiated New Development Bank (aka “BRICS Bank”) is reportedly facing a severe liquidity crisis as Wall Street has backed away from supporting a bank that’s 20% owned by Russia, according to a ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese President Xi Jinping Expressed Support for South Africa to Remain Host for BRICS Summit in August

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaking remotely to leaders at the seventh Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Image via Xinhua.
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed support for South Africa to remain host for the upcoming BRICS summit in August. Xi’s comments during a call with his SA counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday indicate he ...
by Eric Olander

China Offers Solar Help to Blackout-Ridden South Africa

South Africa's aging coal-powered infrastructure makes the country prone to constant blackouts while also pushing the country's emissions to harmful levels. Image: Paul Botes / AFP.
China has offered to donate solar panels and generators to South Africa to keep the lights on at key facilities like hospitals. The offer comes as green energy is increasingly emerging as a ...
by Cobus van Staden

Backgrounder: China’s Global South Climate Diplomacy

A group of foreign ambassadors being shown around a green energy facility in China's Qinghai Province. Image: CGTN
China passed a notable milestone recently: for the first time, more than half of its installed electricity capacity came from renewable sources. This puts China far ahead of other global powers, despite the fact ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Commits to Palestinian Statehood

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) meeting with China's President Xi Jinping. Image: Jade Gao / AFP
China committed to playing ‘a positive role’ in trying to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian dispute following the meeting on Wednesday between President Xi Jinping and the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The ...
by Cobus van Staden

Graph of the Day: Where Does China’s Coal Come From?

Finland’s Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air recently published a fascinating report on recent fluctuations in China’s coal imports.  Imports have spiked due to politics-inflected resumptions of imports from Indonesia and ...
by Cobus van Staden

Messi Shouts Out Chinese Fans on Taobao

Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi at a training session in Beijing before a demonstration match against Australia. Image: Pedro Pardo / AFP
Argentinian football phenom Lionel Messi appealed to his Chinese fans in the most Chinese way possible: via a live appearance on the giant e-commerce platform Taobao.  Flanked by Chinese e-commerce influencers, Messi wished ...
by Cobus van Staden

New Chinese-Backed Refinery Could Help Angola Shift From Importing Petroleum Products to Becoming an Exporter

The Angola story is good to go. Caption: File image of the headquarters of the Angolan state-run oil company Sonangol that recently signed a deal with a Chinese company to build a new refinery. Rodger BOSCH / AFP
Flush with petroleum, Angola is one of the world’s largest oil producers yet still starved for energy. The problem is that the country lacks sufficient refining capacity, forcing it, like other African oil-exporting countries, to ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

White House Pressed to Explain Muddled Response to Report About Chinese Spy Base in Cuba

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gestures as National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2023. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
The White House is defending its seemingly contradictory response to last week’s Wall Street Journal report that claimed China is building a new base in Cuba to spy on the United States. When the ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Scholars Are (Really) Confident China Can Mediate a Settlement Between Palestinians and Israelis

Palestinian Authority President arrived in Beijing for a four-day visit, the first by an Arab leader to China this year. Image via Xinhua.
There is an emerging consensus among prominent Mideast scholars in China that Beijing is now the ideal mediator to help broker a settlement to the seemingly intractable Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their confidence (which some ...
by Eric Olander

U.S. Treasury Secretary, Chinese Premier Both Scheduled to Attend Global Financial Conference in Paris

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on the state of the international financial system on June 13, 2023. Mandel NGAN / AFP
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are both scheduled to attend the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris next week, where debt relief for the world’s ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Horn of Africa Envoy Addresses East African Leaders’ Forum in Djibouti

China's Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Xue Bing, addressed the opening session of the leaders' gathering of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Djibouti. Image via the China-Africa Chamber of Commerce.
China’s low-profile special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Xue Bing, made a rare public appearance on Monday to address the opening session of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Leaders forum in Djibouti. ...
by Eric Olander

Veteran Chinese Diplomat is New Envoy to Zimbabwe

China's new ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding, presented his credentials to President Emmerson Mnanagagwa on June 7, 2023. Image via the Chinese embassy in Harare.
China’s new envoy to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding, presented his credentials to President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week to become the second Chinese ambassador in Africa (after Zhao Bin in the DRC) to take up ...
by Eric Olander

Why China Wins and the West Loses When the Price of Cobalt Drops

U.S. and European automakers are rejoicing over the 30% plunge in cobalt prices this year, providing relief for one of the costliest elements needed to power electric vehicles. But what’s good for Tesla, ...
by Eric Olander

China Plans Supply Chain Expo As ‘Derisking’ Scambles Firms’ Investment, Manufacturing Plans

Increased pressure for Asian investments that exclude China adds to the complexity facing both Chinese and foreign firms. Graph: FT
China will hold a supply chain-focused expo in November, aimed at protecting its unique status as the world’s workshop. The China International Supply Chain Expo will feature more than 300 international exhibitors, including ...
by Cobus van Staden
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