Live Feed

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

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 ...

Islamic Scholars Tour Xinjiang as Part of China’s Efforts to Refute “Western Lies”

A delegation of Islamic scholars tour Xinjiang as part of a Chinese campaign to challenge well-documented accusations of human rights violations in the Western Chinese region. Image via Global Times.
A group of 30 scholars from 14 Islamic countries is participating in a highly choreographed tour of China’s western Xinjiang region as part of Beijing’s latest efforts to push back against well-documented U.S. ...

Qin Gang Should Hit the Reset Button on Africa-China Relations: Expert

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang meeting with his Ethiopian counterpart Demeke Mekonnen Hassen on the first day of a five-nation African tour. Image via the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Qin Gang is taking over as Foreign Minister at an inflection point in Africa-China relations. While Chinese investment transformed African skylines, the relationship has also hit some problems. These include sky-high debt for ...

South Africa, China and Russia to Conduct Joint Naval Exercises

File image of the South African navy hosts a welcoming ceremony for frigate Weifang of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in Cape Town, South Africa, Nov. 24, 2019.
Russia, China and South Africa will conduct trilateral naval exercises in South African waters from 17-24 February. The three navies conducted similar exercises in 2019, and China-Russia exercises took place in the East China ...

China’s Middle East Approach Probably Won’t Change Soon: Expert

China's President Xi Jinping is received by the Governor of Riyadh province Prince Faisal bin Bandar al-Saud at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh during an official state visit in December 2022. AFP | SPA
Following President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia late last year, many speculated that China was aiming to replace the U.S. in the region, not least because U.S.-Saudi relations are currently quite frosty. ...

Chinese Arrivals Feted at Bangkok Airport

Images of Chinese tourists being cheered in Bangkok, via Shanghai Daily's Twitter feed.
In a striking demonstration of how central Chinese tourism is to Southeast Asian economies, travelers arriving from a reopening China were literally applauded as they disembarked in Bangkok this week.

China’s Wolf Warrior Defanged

Zhao Lijian was once known as China's "Wolf Warrior" for his provocative attacks against Beijing's critics while serving as Foreign Ministry spokesman. Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China’s most prominent Wolf Warrior diplomat, Zhao Lijian, has been moved from his previous position as Foreign Ministry spokesperson to a new post as Deputy Director of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs. ...

Why a Chinese Coal Buy From Australia Should Worry Some Developing Countries

File image of coal shipments being prepped for export from Australia's Newscastle port, the world's largest coal exporting port. Saeed KHAN / AFP
One of China’s largest coal importers, the China Energy Investment Corp., bought at least two shipments of Australian coal on Friday in the latest sign of thawing ties between the two countries. While the ...

China, Like the U.S., Wants to Onshore More of Its Critical Resource Mining

The Chinese Communist Party's most influential newspaper, People's Daily, ran a lengthy interview with China's Natural Resources Minister Wang Guanghua on securing the country's critical resources supply chain.
China appears to share many of the concerns over the security of its supply chains for critical minerals that now dominate conversations in North American, European and some Asian capitals. Wang Guanghua, China’s ...

Afghanistan Signs New Oil Deal With China, Assures Beijing It Will Also Improve Security For Its People

Acting minister of mines and petroleum Shahabuddin Dilawar (L), Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar (C) and China's ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu attend a press conference to announce an oil extraction contract with a Chinese company in Kabul on January 5, 2023. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP
The Afghan government signed a symbolically important oil extraction deal with a Chinese state-owned company, the first such agreement since the Taliban took power in 2021. The Chinese side will own 80% of ...

South Africa’s Ruling ANC Party Calls For BRICS Expansion

South African President and leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa delivers a keynote address during the during 111th Anniversary gala dinner celebration at the Imvelo Safari in Bloemfontein on January 7, 2023. Phill Magakoe / AFP
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party said the government should use its position as chairman of the BRICS group to welcome new countries to the China-founded bloc. “The ANC and ANC-led government ...

WEEK IN REVIEW: U.S. Launches New “China House” Initiative to Coordinate Foreign Policy Towards Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Joe Biden. NICOLAS ASFOURI, Nicholas Kamm / AFP
The U.S. government drew on its Cold War history on Friday with the launch of a new “China House” initiative that aims to coordinate foreign policy towards Beijing. The new office will house an ...

COVID Wave Drives Chinese Consumers to Indian Generics

TRANSLATION: Thousands of dollars for Indian-made generic COVID medications sold out? Be careful!
As the BF7 Omicron variant pushes China’s public health care system to its limits, the country is running out of antiviral medications like Pfizer’s Paxlovid. These shortages seem to be driving people to the ...

Can Zimbabwe Emulate Indonesia’s Tough Approach to Chinese Miners?

Indonesian President Joko Widodo confirmed an export ban for bauxite starting in June next year as scheduled, to encourage domestic processing. Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
The Chinese mining company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is chafing under pressure from the Zimbabwean government to convert its lithium mining operation in the country into a plant producing battery-grade lithium within five years. The ...

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 ...

How Africa-China Studies Exploded Since 2012

The SSRC report is its first mapping of the Africa-China field since 2012 and shows the field’s rapid expansion. Ten years ago, it found three key subfields in Africa-China studies: trade and aid; ...

The Sprawling World of Asia-China Studies

SSRC’s mapping of research on the relationship between China and Southeast, Central, South and Western Asia shows both how vast these fields are and how they differ significantly both in terms of research ...

Two Themes Dominate Latin America-China Studies

The SSRC’s mapping of scholarship on the relationship between China and South and Latin America and the Caribbean shows that the entanglement of geopolitics and global economics dominate the field. However, the report ...

Will Infrastructure Boost African Growth? Maybe Not, Says Economist

File image of a refugee from South Sudan carrying her child on her back while working at her vegetable crops in Kalobeyei settlement for refugees in Turkana County, Kenya. Luis TATO / AFP
The Kenyan economist David Ndii published a fascinating paper casting doubt on one of the most fundamental assumptions in Africa-China relations: that the key to boosting growth is infrastructure. Ndii, a prominent critic ...

Pressure Mounting on Biden to Counter China’s Free Trade Push in South America

US President Joe Biden meets with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 2022. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso’s visit to Washington this week prompted urgent calls from Capitol Hill for the President to do more to counter China’s growing influence in South America. Lasso met with Biden on Monday ...

New Satellite Images Show Widespread Road Building on Both Sides of the Disputed India-China Border

Before-and-after satellite images show key access roads on the Chinese side have been resurfaced or upgraded, and a new road has been constructed on the Yangtse Plateau from Tangwu New Village to within 150 metres of the LAC ridge. Image via ASPI.
The Chinese and Indian militaries are building out transportation infrastructure high up in the Himalayas along their disputed border known as the Line of Actual Control, according to new satellite imagery published by the ...

Apple’s “Out of China” Moves Continue Apace With MacBooks Now Set to Be Produced in Vietnam

Chris Tuite / AFP
Add MacBooks to the growing list of Apple products that the tech giant now plans to produce “Out of China.” The Cupertino-based company will reportedly begin manufacturing the laptops in Vietnam in mid-2023, according ...

Why Vietnam and Other Asian Countries Won’t Replace China as an Electronics Manufacturing Hub Anytime Soon

Via Bloomberg
There’s growing excitement in some corners of Washington, D.C., that Apple’s drive to shift production to other countries in Asia is a sign of progress in the ongoing effort to decouple U.S. manufacturing from ...

Chinese Contractor Signs $2.2 Billion Deal to Build Next Stage of Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway

Source: @SuluhuSamia Twitter Account
The Tanzanian government and an unspecified Chinese contractor signed a $2.2 billion contract on Tuesday to build a 2,561km rail line from Dar es Salaam to the Lake Victoria city of Mwanza. It’s ...

One of China’s Top Africa Diplomats in Ghana Just as Debt Crisis Unfolded

Liu Yuxi is the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs.
One of China’s most senior Africa diplomats, Special Representative Liu Yuxi, was in Ghana on the same day the country’s finance ministry announced it would suspend debt repayments to external creditors. Liu appears to be ...

Zambia’s President Hichilema Clarifies Chinese Loans’ Role in Debt Crisis

Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema speaking at Council on Foreign Relations event in New York on December 13, 2022. Image via CFR.
As Ghana sinks into debt distress, many are looking to Zambia’s debt restructuring process for clues on how China will feature. Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema provided a glimpse into his government’s thinking about ...

It’s China, Not Africa That Could be Facing a Debt Trap: Report

Top 20 recipients of Chinese loans in Africa, 2000–20 ($ millions, unadjusted). Source: Boston University Global Development Policy Center (2022), ‘Chinese Loans to Africa Database.’ Note: These figures are based upon loan commitments, and should not be regarded as equivalent to African government debt, as a portion of signed loans are not disbursed, and a significant portion have been repaid as scheduled.
At 12% of Africa’s total external debt, China didn’t cause the current wave of debt distress hitting the continent. But the crisis presents Beijing with a dilemma: should it strongarm these countries to get its ...

Uruguay’s Free Trade Talks With China and Desire to Enter Pacific Trade Pact Upsets Regional Neighbors

Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou gestures as he leaves the leaders' summit of Mercosur and associated countries in Montevideo on December 6, 2022. Eitan ABRAMOVICH / AFP
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou came under intense criticism from fellow leaders within the South American trading bloc known as Mercosur earlier this month over his government’s moves to strike ...

Fury Mounts in India Over Chinese Border Clash, Opposition Blasts PM For Remaining Silent

Screenshot of a New Delhi TV report on the walkout by the opposition Congress Party in parliament to protest the government's response to the recent border clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming under intense criticism from the opposition Congress Party for not condemning China for a December 9th military skirmish in the Tawang sector along their disputed border ...

Chinese Media’s Low-Key Reaction to Border Clash With India

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: Don't Let Border Issues Affect China-India Relations
While India’s notoriously outspoken media is filled with anger over the December 9th skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops along the disputed border in the Himalayas, it’s a very different situation in China, ...

Get Ready For Lots of Tough Talk on Chinese Debt When Janet Yellen Travels to Africa Next Month

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen meets with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, on December 15, 2022. SAUL LOEB / AFP
Just days after it wrapped up a summit with African leaders, the Biden administration is following through on its promise to send more high-level officials to the continent.  First ...
Page 92 of 1971919293197