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

South African, Chinese Communist Party Officials Meet in Beijing

The General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, Solly Afrika Mapaila, met on April 18, 2023 with the Liu Jianchao, director of the international liaison department of the CPC. Image via the Central Committee of the CPC.
The head of South Africa’s Communist Party, Solly Afrika Mapaila, met the director of the CPC’s international liaison department, Liu Jianchao, on Tuesday in Beijing.  From the gist of the read-out of the ...
by Eric Olander

In the U.S.-China Duel, the Philippines Has Chosen a Side, Says Xiamen University Southeast Asia Scholar

A US.. army soldier fires a Javelin anti-tank weapon system during the live exercise as part of the US-Philippines joint military exercise "Balikatan" at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila on April 13, 2023. Ted ALJIBE / AFP
When Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was elected president of the Philippines last year, there was a lot of hope in Beijing that he would reset ties with China after six turbulent years of Rodrigo ...
by Eric Olander

Backgrounder: China-Australia Iron Ore Fight

The Australian-based company Sundance Resources is suing the China-linked Australia-based AustSino for malpractice and corruption over the Mbalam-Nabeba iron project on the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. The court case has ...
by Christian Geraud Neema Byamungu

China’s Economy Rebounds on Back of Increased Trade

A Financial Times graph plotting newly released first quarter growth figures against Beijing's official targets. While still below the official target, the Chinese economy seems to be bouncing back.
China’s economy rebounded in the first quarter of this year, with gross domestic product growing by 4.5%, exceeding expectations. A recovery in retail spending and real estate prices has added to growth, according to 
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Embassy in Vietnam Blasts Blinken For “Sowing Discord” in Southeast Asia

Statement published on the Chinese embassy in Vietnam website that denounced comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for "sowing discord in the region."
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment over the weekend about U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Vietnam but will likely do so on Monday at the regular press briefing ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Online Supporters Incorrectly Thought They Saw the Vietnamese Dissing the Blinken by Not Displaying a U.S. Flag

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken a meet with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính. Image via @SecBlinken
China’s online supporters, including a number of diplomats and well-known trolls, seemed to think the Vietnamese government was trying to send visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken a message when they only ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Central Bank Chief Signals Beijing Will Cooperate With Other International Creditors on Debt Relief

File image of Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, who seemingly retreated from Beijing's position that it would insist on multilateral developmemt banks also take losses on loans to developing countries. Image via Xinhua
The head of China’s central bank, Yi Gang, provided the clearest indication to date Beijing is willing to retreat from its demand that multilateral development banks (MDBs) also take write-downs on their loans to ...
by Eric Olander

New Billion-dollar Korean-Chinese EV Battery Plant Deal Likely to Anger the U.S.

View of Saemangeum, a reclaimed area along South Korea's southwest coast where LG Chem and China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt plan to build a new plant. Image via LG Chem.
South Korea’s LG Chem signed a deal with Chinese mining and metal refining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to build a massive $920 million electric vehicle battery factory in southwest Korea. While the proposed ...
by Eric Olander

What’s in Store for Chinese Companies Encouraged to Invest in Equatorial Guinea?

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, recently urged Chinese companies to invest in Equatorial Guinea and expressed that the Chinese market is open to receiving more products from the African nation. After ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

WEEK IN REVIEW: Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to Embark on a Four-Nation African Tour Next Month

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi (L) during their visit at Buddha Jayanti Park in New Delhi. PIB / AFP
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will embark on a four-nation African tour next month, a trip widely seen as an effort to counter Chinese and Russian influence on the continent. This will be the ...
by Eric Olander

First Signs of Progress on Debt at Spring Meetings, But Much Remains Unclear

World Bank President David Malpass arrives at a plenary session of the Development Committee at the World Bank and IMF's Spring Meetings in Washington DC. Image: Stefani Reynolds / AFP
There is cautious optimism at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington DC for progress on debt relief. Earlier this week, Reuters and other outlets reported that China could be ...
by Cobus van Staden

The Philippines Walks a Tricky Line Between the Superpowers

The top defense and diplomatic officials from the United States and the Philippines met in Washington, D.C. for the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue Plenary Session on Promoting Regional Security on April 11, 2023. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
China has rejected a joint call by the Philippines and the United States to scale back its presence in the South China Sea. This follows Tuesday’s 2+2 talks between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. ...
by Cobus van Staden

Lots of Talk, Little Action: Zambia’s Debt Relief Process Remains Stalled Says Finance Minister

Zambian Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane complained in an interview with Bloomberg Television that progress in restructuring the country's debts has been too slow. Image via Bloomberg.
Zambia’s Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said it’s urgent that the country’s international creditors finalize a debt restructuring deal at once, or else a $188 million IMF emergency financial package could be at risk. ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya Now in the Grip of Worsening Debt Crisis, President Rules Out Default

Kenya’s public employees are threatening to go on strike unless the government pays their overdue salaries. Civil servants did not get paid last month due to a financial crisis brought on by the country’s ...
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 ...

Pirates Seize Chinese-run Oil Tanker in the Gulf of Guinea

Pirates took command of a Chinese-operated oil tanker this week 300 kilometers off the coast of Ivory Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, according to a London-based risk management company. Details about how ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Analysts Warn New U.S., Philippines Security Plan Will Escalate Tensions in the Pacific

The top defense and diplomatic officials from the United States and the Philippines met in Washington, D.C. for the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue Plenary Session on Promoting Regional Security on April 11, 2023. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
The United States and the Philippines agreed to a new long-term plan that will pave the way for a major increase in U.S. security assistance to the Southeast Asian country over the next ...
by Eric Olander

Advice for African Leaders on How to Manage Newfound Lithium Wealth in the Era of Great Power Competition

Lithium production in Africa is expected to jump fourfold in the next ten years as demand surges for the metal needed to build batteries for electric vehicles. While that may produce another resource boom ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese Company Commences Construction Works After 5-Year Delay as Kenya Turns to Mega Dams for Irrigation

A photo taken during the ground-breaking of the construction of Mwache Dam in Fulugani, Kwale County. The dam will provide water for irrigation and domestic use to 1.6 million people. Image via PCS
China’s Sinohydro Corporation and Engineering has received the green light to commence works on the $135 million Mwache Multipurpose Dam project in Kenya’s Kwale County. Launched by President William Ruto on Thursday, the long-awaited project ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

Chinese Experts Weigh In On Brazilian President’s Visit to Beijing

President Lula's official twitter feed
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai on Tuesday, after a March visit was rescheduled due to illness. He will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. ...
by Cobus van Staden

Brazil’s Lula Heads to China With a Ukraine Peace Proposal That’s Effectively Dead on Arrival

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke with the press at Planalto Palace in Brasilia on April 6, 2023. EVARISTO SA / AFP
Brazilian President Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva had hoped to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday with a plan to present to Chinese President Xi Jinping that would end the conflict in Ukraine. Lula ...
by Eric Olander

How Important is China’s New Role as Mideast Mediator? Depends Who You Ask.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (L) shaking hands with Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (C) during a meeting in Beijing on April 6, 2023. Iranian Foreign Ministry / AFP
The smiles and awkward handshake among the foreign ministers from China, Saudi Arabia and Iran last week in Beijing that finalized a once-improbable reconciliation between the two Persian Gulf rivals triggered another wave ...
by Eric Olander

Amid Twin Political and Economic Crises, Tunisia Turns on West and Announces Intent to Join BRICS

Tunisian demonstrators attend a rally against President Kais Saied, called for by the opposition "National Salvation Front" coalition, in the capital Tunis, on April 9, 2023. FETHI BELAID / AFP
The Tunisian government angrily pushed back against both the International Monetary Fund and the European Union over how to resolve the North African country’s twin economic and political crises. President Kais Saied ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese Surveillance Ship Docks in South Africa’s Durban Harbor

Chinese surveillance ship the Yuan Wang 5
A Chinese surveillance ship, which can track rocket launches, has docked in South Africa’s Durban harbor. The Yuan Wang 5 previously drew security complaints from India when it docked in Sri Lanka. Its stay ...
by Eric Olander

EACOP: Court to Determine Fate of Oil Pipeline Project by Chinese, Other Shareholders

A map showing the EACOP project from Hoima in the west of Uganda to Tanzania’s city of Tanga on the Indian Ocean coast.
Just days after Lloyd’s Cincinnati confirmed that it will not insure the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), the project faces another hurdle at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). The EACJ is ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

China’s Top Africa Embarks Envoy on Three-Country Tour

File image of Wu Peng, Director-General of the Department of African Affairs in the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Image via the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wu Peng, China’s top diplomat in Africa, tweeted that he’s visiting Guinea, Niger and Sierra Leone this week. Notably, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also recently visited Niger, where he ...
by Cobus van Staden

China’s Southeast Asian Diplomatic Blitz

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left) and Malaysian Prime Mininster Anwar Ibrahim (right) while top diplomat Wang Yi hosted former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Beijing this week. Images via Xinhua.
This is a busy time for diplomacy between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors. Senior Chinese officials are holding numerous meetings with their counterparts in the region. Following the recently-concluded visits from Malaysia’s ...
by Cobus van Staden

How Does Africa Get the Tech It Needs?

Image by Desola Lanre-Ologun on Unsplash.
As geopolitical tensions rise, external partners want a say in African development choices. This is particularly true for digital expansion, where Global South countries are frequently framed as battlegrounds between Chinese companies like Huawei ...
by Cobus van Staden

China is Increasingly Determined to “De-Dollarize” Its International Trade

NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP
When Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim went to Malaysia’s parliament this week to brief lawmakers on his recent trip to China, he emphasized his discussions with President Xi Jinping about transitioning away from relying ...
by Eric Olander

Mixed Views in the Chinese Discourse About the Rise of the Yuan and Fall of the Dollar

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "De-dollarize! ASEAN’s big move, Brazil announced direct local currency settlement with China, and the RMB moved from behind the scenes to the front stage"
A similar split of opinions exists in China as in the West between experts who see greater yuan internationalization economically and those who frame the issue in geopolitical terms. These differences of opinion ...
by Eric Olander

Chinese State Media Propagated Fake News Story About U.S. Response to China-Brazil Currency Swap Deal

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN / AFP
A unit of China’s state-run CGTN television broadcaster repackaged misinformation about a purported U.S. response to China’s currency exchange deal with Brazil and then shared it on social media, where it was re-posted ...
by Eric Olander
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