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

Possible Xi-Modi Meeting in Johannesburg?

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their last formal summit meeting in October 2019 when relations between the two Asian powers were considerably less strained than they are today. Handout / PIB / AFP
One of the closest-watched interactions at the summit will be between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping. Tensions between the two Asian superpowers have been rising due to an ongoing ...
by Eric Olander

Insider/Outsider Politics and Member Country Agendas Are Likely to Shape Summit’s Outcomes

The draft agenda (PDF) of this week’s BRICS summit in Johannesburg reveals an event split between intra-group discussions early on and a wider group of participants on the last day. The first two ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Scholars: BRICS Is All About Confronting the West

Many Chinese scholars have weighed in on this week’s BRICS summit, and the framing of the discussion on Chinese-language platforms is revealing. Commentators tend to see the bloc’s importance as mostly lying in ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Automakers Prominent at BRICS Summit

The BRICS summit is proving a PR bonanza for an unexpected group of stakeholders: Chinese automakers. South Africa, the host of this week’s summit, eschewed the usual fleet of Mercedes Benzes to ferry ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Company Expands Footprint in South Africa’s Energy Sector With New Solar Project

The Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex in Morocco by PowerChina and ACWA Power. Redstone CSP in South Africa will be done by PowerChina.
One of China’s biggest companies, the Fortune 500-listed PowerChina, is establishing itself among energy sector players seeking to offer solutions to the crippling blackouts predicted to last until 2027 in South Africa. The ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

Translation: How a Middle-Aged Chinese Divorceé is Enjoying His “Next Life” in a Big House With a Zambian Wife

Zambia-based Chinese expatriate Wang Guojun together with his wife at their home in Lusaka. Image via Home Abroad.
This article was published on 驻外之家 (Home Abroad), a popular WeChat page that focuses on the stories of Chinese expatriates in Africa. This channel provides a more detailed picture of Chinese who came ...
by Han Zhen

WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese Contractors Won Nearly a Third of Construction Projects in Africa in 2022, Four Times More Than Western Firms

The new Lagos light rail in Nigeria (top left), the Lekki Deep Sea Port, also in Lagos (top right), the Kingfisher oil drilling platform in Uganda (lower left) and the Central African Cultural and Arts Center in Kinshasa that's still under construction (bottom right).
Chinese contractors won nearly a third of all construction projects in Africa last year, four times more than Western firms, according to a new study by the Hinrich Foundation. These findings mark a sharp ...
by Eric Olander

Wang Yi Pushes Southeast Asian Diplomacy on the Sidelines of South Asia Expo

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during the China-South Asia Expo in Kunming. Image via @liupheonix
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is busy this week, with the China-South Asia Expo in Kunming providing a chance to expand China’s diplomatic outreach to Southeast Asian countries. As tensions simmer between China ...
by Cobus van Staden

Graph of the Day: Comparing U.S. and China’s Investment Clout in Southeast Asia

A recent article in Nikkei Asia provided a fascinating deep dive comparing China and the United States’ influence in key Southeast Asian economies. It shows that while the U.S. has leaned into expanding ...
by Cobus van Staden

China and Kenya to Collaborate on Film-Making

Performers dancing during the opening of the 2023 Chinese Film Festival in Nairobi. Image: Xinhua
The Chinese and Kenyan governments signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop their film industries and to boost exchange programs between the two countries. The agreement with China Film Administration came as Kenya ...
by Cobus van Staden

South African Dance Craze Travels to China

Choreographer Kay the People's Dancer teaching an amapiano class in Shanghai. Image: CGTN
South African amapiano (a style of street dance featuring languid-but-intricate moves over tense minimalist beats) has blown up internationally in no small part due to SA dancers’ strong showing on TikTok. Now Kutlwano Molefe ...
by Cobus van Staden

No Breakthroughs But Lots of Good Vibes After Two Days of Chinese, Indian Border Talks

Unresolved territorial claims complicating China-India border relations.
Chinese and Indian military commanders both pledged to resolve their long-running border dispute “in an expeditious manner” following two days of talks aimed at defusing tensions along their 2,100km contested boundary in ...
by Eric Olander

Currencies, Old and New, Set to Top Agenda at Next Week’s BRICS Summit in Johannesburg

The idea of creating a brand new currency under the auspices of the BRICS countries is “ridiculous,” according to the former Goldman Sachs economist who coined the acronym for the five countries. Jim ...
by Eric Olander

China Importing Record Volumes of Sanctioned Iranian Oil

Note: Kpler data may be revised at a later date depending on the cargo discharges
China is importing a record amount of Iranian crude, easily circumventing U.S. sanctions expressly designed to restrict such trade, according to new findings by the data intelligence firm Kpler. Iranian oil sales to ...
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 ...

200 Million Viewers Watch a South African Singer Make Television History in China

The judges on the nationally-televised hit show Sing! China were blown away when they discovered Motswedi Modiba was not, in fact, Chinese.
When 26-year Motswedi Modiba, aka MOE, began singing last Friday night on the opening round of the nationally-televised hit TV show Sing! China, the judges, with their backs to her just like it ...
by Han Zhen

India-China Border Talks Resume, Raising Hopes of a Xi-Modi Meeting

A file image of the military buildup on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. Image: Money Sharma / AFP
China and India held joint talks about their contested border a week before President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will both attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. Xi will also travel to New Delhi ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Convoy Attacked in Pakistan, Two Militants Killed

Separatist militants ambushed a convoy of three SUVs carrying Chinese construction engineers on Sunday near the Port of Gwadar in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan Province, a key investment hub for the massive China-Pakistan Economic ...
by Eric Olander

As Tensions Between China and the Philippines Surge, Wang Yi Calls on a Few Old Friends in Southeast Asia

Chinese Foreign Minister met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (top), Sinaporean leader Lee Hsien Loong (middle) and Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim during a three-nation SE Asian tour. Images via AFP.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a quick sprint through Southeast Asia over the weekend as part of a three-nation tour of Malaysia, Singapore, and Cambodia.  Wang met with the prime ministers in ...
by Eric Olander

China and the Philippines Warn Each Other Not to Push South China Sea Confrontation Too Far… Or Else

A man points a water hose at a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping as he joins a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Manila on August 11, 2023, to condemn the water canon incident between China and Philippines Coast Guards in the South China/West Philippine Sea. JAM STA ROSA / AFP
Tensions between China and the Philippines steadily worsened over the weekend as both sides attacked the other for instigating the latest confrontation in their disputed waters in the South China Sea. In Manila, Armed ...
by Eric Olander

Massive Russian Energy Buys Are Transforming China’s Global Trade

File image of a Russian coal shipment being off-loaded in eastern Jiangsu province on July 12, 2023, for use in power generation plants in the surrounding area. AFP
Russia is now China’s largest single supplier of energy commodities in a shift that is also transforming Beijing’s trade engagement in countries throughout the Global South. Whereas fifteen years ago, China sourced a ...
by Eric Olander

Japan Moves to Build China-Free EV Battery Supply Chain

Nishimura Yasutoshi, Japan’s economy and industry minister, spent last week crisscrossing southern Africa on a five-nation tour at the behest of his country’s auto industry that is looking for new supplies of the raw ...
by Eric Olander

Burundi’s “Banana Riders” Go Viral on Chinese Social Media, Triggering Memories of China’s Own Development Journey

Eric, a young Burundian, barrels down a mountain at 70km an hour with more than 200 kilos of bananas strapped to his rickety bicycle in what looks like an absolutely terrifying race to ...
by Han Zhen

WEEK IN REVIEW: U.S. President Joe Biden Said He Will Travel to Vietnam “Shortly”

A planned summit of Quad leaders from the United States, India, Australia, and Japan in Sydney next week has been canceled after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled out of his visit. Jim WATSON / AFP
U.S. President Joe Biden said he will travel to Vietnam “shortly” and that Hanoi is interested in elevating its relationship with the United States and become a major partner. This follows a trip by ...
by Eric Olander

The U.S. is Popular in Southeast Asia, But Chinese Influence Isn’t Going Away: Study

A breakdown of popular and elite views of the U.S. and China in key Southeast Asian countries. Via CSIS.
While the United States is generally more liked among populations in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, they see China as the pivotal economic power in the region. This was one finding of a newly 
by Cobus van Staden

Reminder: China Will Be Central to Clean Tech Supply Chains for a Long Time

A set of graphs by FT showing China's centrality in critical minerals refining. Keep in mind that much of the nickel refining done in Indonesia is by Chinese firms.
Financial Times published a fascinating rundown of China’s ongoing centrality in the mining and refining of critical minerals. These minerals, which include lithium, cobalt and nickel, are key to many clean energy applications, from ...
by Cobus van Staden

Backgrounder: How India-China Relations Are Shaping Multilateral Bodies

A rare face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2019. Image: India's Press Information Bureau / AFP
India and China’s fractious relationship reaches far beyond their disputed border. It influences politics in countries like the Maldives, where candidates in the upcoming presidential election are frequently defined according to their China/India alignment. ...
by Cobus van Staden

Tensions Surge Between China and the Philippines Over WWII Warship at the Center of Territorial Dispute

The Philippines refused to accede to China's demands that it remove the WWII warship Sierra Madre (background) from a disputed shoal in the South China/West Philippine Sea. Ted ALJIBE / AFP
The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) immediately dismissed China’s call to remove a decommissioned World War II-era warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea that ...
by Eric Olander

China Releases New Video That Aims to Counter Claims It Attacked the Philippine Supply Vessel

The China Coast Guard released a new video on Tuesday that aims to bolster its assertions that it did not strike the Philippine supply vessel with a direct blast of water but instead merely ...
by Eric Olander

China, Thailand Agree to Fight Call-Center Gangs

China's Public Security Vice Minister Xu Ganlu (left) met with Thailand's outgoing Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan (right) to discuss closer cooperation fighting organized crime. Image via The Nation/Asia News Network.
Senior Chinese and Thai security officials met in Bangkok on Tuesday to discuss closer cooperation to combat so-called  “call center gangs” that have ensnared thousands of Chinese nationals into forced labor across Southeast Asia. ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Weapons Giant Norinco Wants to Expand Its Business in West Africa

ERIC PIERMONT / AFP
The Chinese state-owned arms manufacturer Norinco opened a new sales office in the Senegalese capital Dakar this week as part of the company’s effort to expand its business in West Africa. The ...
by Eric Olander
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