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

Buhari Commissions Port of Lekki, One of China’s Most Consequential Infrastructure Projects in Africa

Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari cutting the ribbon to open the new $1.5 billion Chinese-built Lekki Port in Lagos, West Africa's largest deep water port.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari officially opened West Africa’s largest port facility on Tuesday when he commissioned the new Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos State. The opening coincided with the docking of the ...
by Cobus van Staden

No Blackface in This Year’s Spring Gala TV Show, Actual Africans Performed Instead

Tanzanian singer Corona Kila performed in this year's CCTV Spring Gala TV program that's watched by hundreds of millions on the eve of Lunar New Year in China.
The producers of this year’s Spring Gala television variety show in China appear to have learned from recent scandals around Chinese actors in blackface appearing in the hugely popular annual Lunar New Year ...
by Cobus van Staden

WEEK IN REVIEW: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on an 11-Day, Three-Nation Tour of Africa

Onye Nkuzi is the nom de plume for a widely-followed Nigerian political commentator.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will leave Tuesday on an 11-day, three-nation tour of Africa that Biden administration officials say is intended to rejuvenate ties on the continent and counter Chinese influence. Yellen will visit ...
by Eric Olander

Dalai Lama Invite Complicates China-Sri Lanka Cooperation

Sri Lanka’s desperate attempts to get China’s support for its debt restructuring could be blown up from the inside. This follows an invitation from senior Buddhist clerics to the Dalai Lama to visit the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Is the DRC Making Progress in Reshaping Its Controversial Chinese Deals? Maybe.

Aerial view of the Chinese joint venture Sicomines copper and cobalt mining facility in Kowlezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Image via Sicomines.
The Democratic Republic of Congo could be closer to overhauling two controversial Chinese deals. Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi told Reuters the government is in active talks with Sicomines, a joint venture between the DRC’s ...
by Christian Geraud Neema Byamungu

Chinese Expert: Global North’s Sudden Concern about Global South Reflects Power Shift

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Xiang Haoyu: Why do Western powers suddenly care about the "Global South"?
As China’s decades-long focus on South-South cooperation results in strong relationships throughout the developing world, Global North powers like the United States and Japan are suddenly discovering their concern for the Global South ...
by Cobus van Staden

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka Goes on a Furious Twitter Rant to Rebut U.S. Ambassador’s “Spoiler” Accusations

The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka did not take well to U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung’s accusation that China is a potential “spoiler” in the South Asian country’s debt restructuring process. The embassy was ...
by Eric Olander

It Won’t Come as a Surprise That Indians Are Skeptical of China, But New Poll Reveals Lots of Ambivalence About the U.S. Too

There’s an emerging consensus in U.S. national security circles that bolstering ties with India will be the best way to confront China’s surging influence in the Asia-Pacific region. But if that is the ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Ties With India Will be Competitive and Confrontational Says Leading India Scholar

Sino-India analyst Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, speaking at an online event organized by Renmin University. Image via Remin University.
One of China’s leading India scholars, Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow at the prestigious Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS), outlined a grim vision for the future of Sino-Indian relations, warning that they’ll ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Social Media’s Unusual Response to the Indonesian Labor Riots

Chinese censors took down all posts about the Indonesian worker revolt at a Chinese-owned nickel processing plant last week from reputable news outlets but permitted individuals like this user to share content about the riots.
Production is up and running again at a Chinese-owned nickel smelting plant in Indonesia following last week’s violent uprising by laborers over poor working conditions. Two people, one Chinese and one Indonesian, were ...
by Eric Olander

South African Rail Company Puts Out Tender to Fix Faulty Chinese-Made Trains

South Africa’s state railway company Transnet has put out a tender for any company that can fix non-operational Chinese-made locomotives acquired under a corrupt deal. The original manufacturer of the locomotives, China Railway Rolling ...
by Cobus van Staden

U.S. Treasury Secretary’s Africa Tour Takes on China, Debt

Onye Nkuzi is the nom de plume for a widely-followed Nigerian political commentator.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is heading to Africa for a 10-day trip to Senegal, South Africa and Zambia. The continent’s green transition will feature prominently, with Yellen visiting South African coal country to ...
by Cobus van Staden

U.S., Europe Backseat Drivers in Africa: Expert

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "He Wenping: Europe and the United States approached China to discuss trilateral cooperation in Africa, but we had one condition"
He Wenping, the Program Director at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of West-Asian and African Studies and one of China’s most prominent Africa experts, laid into U.S. and European efforts in ...
by Cobus van Staden

Update on Riot at Chinese-owned Factory in Indonesia

Video that purports to show dormitories at the China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry smelting facility set ablaze by Indonesian laborers protesting against poor working conditions.
New video footage is emerging of the riot at a Chinese-owned nickel smelter in Indonesia that killed two people over the weekend. Hundreds of security personnel were deployed to quell the protests by Indonesian ...
by Cobus van Staden

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China-Led Study Proposes Global Energy Network

A globally connected network of solar and wind energy could provide three times the global energy demand by 2050 at a lower cost than independent national power systems. This is the finding of a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the United States and Denmark.
The study focused on how areas with high solar and wind capacity (such as deserts) can be linked ...

Decoding China’s Record-Breaking 2022 Trade With Africa

Mark RALSTON / AFP
China’s trade with countries in Africa broke a new record in 2022 at $282 billion, up 11% from last year’s $254 billion in two-way trade.  The data reaffirms China’s position as the continent’s ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese FM Qin Gang Wraps Up Africa Tour in Egypt

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on January 15, 2023. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP
Qin Gang concluded his first tour of Africa as Foreign Minister on Sunday in Cairo, where he met separately with his counterpart Sameh Shoukry, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. ...
by Eric Olander

Angola is Now a New Front in the U.S.-China Technology Duel

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (L) visited Huawei's technology park in Angola on Janury 13, 2023 while the State Department's number two diplomat, Wendy Sherman, (R) paid a visit to the Angola offices of the U.S. government-backed telecom operator Africell on May 5, 2022.
Technology, not oil, emerged as a key focus of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s brief visit to Angola on Friday. Qin visited Huawei’s new $80 million technology park in the capital Luanda and later ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Building Diplomacy in Africa Shows No Signs of Slowing in 2023

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Gabonese counterpart Michaël Moussa Adamo on January 12 oversaw the signing of an agreement for China to renovate the Senate building in Libreville. Image via Gabon Telegraph.
Add Gabon’s Senate, known as Omar Bongo Ondimba Palace, to the long and growing list of African government buildings that will either be renovated or newly built using Chinese money and contractors. Visiting ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Scholars Reflect on Qin Gang’s First Africa Tour

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Foreign Minister Qin Gang's first visit, what is the significance of choosing the five African countries?
There wasn’t much media coverage or online discussion in China about Qin Gang’s week-long visit to Africa that ended Sunday in Cairo, especially compared to previous years when the visit was widely touted ...
by Eric Olander

India and China Both Send High-Level Delegations to Sri Lanka This Week to Discuss Debt Crisis

Chen Zhou, Vice Minister of the International Development Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee met with former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at his residence during a four day visit to Colombo. Image via @BRISL.
Two of Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditors, China and India, are finally taking steps to engage Colombo after months of inaction in resolving the South Asian country’s worsening debt crisis. The Chinese led ...
by Eric Olander

Sri Lanka Caught in the Middle of China and India’s Geopolitical Rivalry

BBC Economics Editor Ben Chu returned to Colombo recently to report on Sri Lanka’s fraught position in the middle of India and China’s increasingly bitter feud and what the implications are for the ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: China Pushing for Free Trade Agreement With South America’s Mercosur Bloc

Newspapers reporting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential victory. Image: AFP
China is pushing for a free trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc or any of its individual members (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.) The recent election in Brazil could be a game changer, ...
by Eric Olander

Symbolism Galore as Qin Gang Opens Africa CDC HQ

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat inaugurated the Chinese-financed and built headquarters for the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa on January 11, 2022. Image via @AUC_MoussaFaki.
Qin Gang’s many photo-ops in Addis Ababa included the opening ceremony of the Chinese-built Africa Centers for Disease Control Headquarters building on Wednesday. This is the latest in a series of high-profile buildings for ...
by Cobus van Staden

Qin Gang’s First Foreign Visit as FM Busted Some Conventions

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister welcomes his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, during a brief refuelling layover at Dhaka's international airport on January 10, 2023. Image via United News of Bangladesh.
China has made it a 32-year custom that its Foreign Minister’s first foreign trip of the year is always to Africa. However, this year Qin Gang broke this tradition by stopping en route ...
by Cobus van Staden

Fresh Data on How China Affects African Jobs

Ethiopian workers in a shoe assembly plant. Image: AFP
Job creation is one of the most important issues in Africa-China relations. Two fascinating recent research articles give different takes on how engagement with China affects African development. The first focuses on the ...
by Cobus van Staden

The Final Piece of China’s Central Asian BRI Puzzle Is In Place

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting with the leaders of all five countries in Central Asia on January 25, 2022. Image via the Kyrgz presidential administration.
A recent MoU between China and Turkmenistan means that the whole of Central Asia is now part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This point was made during a briefing by Foreign Ministry spokesperson ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese and Bangladeshi FMs Have a (Very) Early Morning Stopover Meeting in Dhaka

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister welcomes his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, during a brief refuelling layover at Dhaka's international airport on January 10, 2023. Image via United News of Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen headed to the airport early Tuesday morning to greet his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at 02:00 while his plane refueled in Dhaka on its way to Ethiopia. ...
by Eric Olander

3 Chinese Nationals Arrested in DRC For Allegedly Murdering a Compatriot

Three Chinese nationals and a Congolese driver were put on display by the DRC military for allegedly trying to kill a fellow Chinese.
A trio of suspected Chinese “bandits” were made to pose in front of a stash of weapons and cash seized by military authorities in the southern DRC province of Lualaba. Authorities claim the ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Highly Selective Retribution Against Countries That Impose COVID Tests

A health worker walks in front of a Covid-19 testing centre at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul on January 3, 2023. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
The Chinese government on Tuesday stopped issuing short-term visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan in retaliation against COVID tests both countries imposed on Chinese visitors. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the testing ...
by Eric Olander
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