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

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

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Weighing the Value of “Values”

I was in Berlin this week for a conference on the EU’s relationship with Africa in the context of the continent’s growing ties with external actors, many of whom Europe finds acutely worrying.
The conference eerily landed on the second anniversary of the October 7 attack in Israel. I was in Berlin two years ago as well. In the weeks after the attack, one could see how Western powers’ ...

China Battles Six Other Countries to Run UN Maritime Agency

File image of the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London. CC BY-SA 4.0
China is standing off against six other countries, including Kenya, Türkiye and Panama to lead the London-based International Maritime Organization, a United Nations specialized agency. Panama was widely thought to be the ...
by Eric Olander

China’s CiEG Signs 2.4 Giga-Watts Power-Purchase Agreement With Zambia’s Zesco Amidst Debt Crisis

Representatives from Zambia’s state-owned power utility company, signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with China's Integrated Clean Energy Power Company Ltd on April 3, 2023 in Lusaka. Image via @JitoKayumba.
The Integrated Clean Energy Power Company Ltd (CiEG) of China signed a Power-Purchase Agreement (PPA) on Monday with the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) for the generation of 2,400 Megawatts (MW) of renewable energy. In ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

Preview of New U.S.-China Popularity Polling in Africa

U.S. President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 14, 2022. SAUL LOEB / AFP
The influential African polling outfit Afrobarometer has released a glimpse of new polling results among African populations of their perceptions of external powers. Afrobarometer surveys have noted consistently high (and similar) approval rates ...
by Cobus van Staden

How Far Ahead Is China in the Battery Race? Pretty Far.

A chart published in Financial Times showing the location of the global battery supply chain. Note that Chinese companies control large sections of both cobalt and nickel extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, respectively
China is sprinting ahead in the global race for critical minerals used to make batteries for electric cars, leaving Western competitors scrambling to catch up. Chinese companies’ early investment into the extraction of lithium and ...
by Cobus van Staden

China Boosted Pandemic-Era Debt Relief: Report

Source: World Bank IDS 2022 and IMF (for Angola). Note: “All China’’ includes both “bilateral” and “private” Chinese creditors. For seven debtor countries participating in only one year, the calculation includes only the participating year. The China data includes debt reprofiling by CDB and ICBC in Angola. The calculation does not include cash-flow relief provided by the IMF through the CCRT fund. “Debt service due” represents the pre-DSSI debt service originally due in 2020 and 2021.
China’s role in debt renegotiation processes has become very controversial, with U.S. officials like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen singling Beijing out as a “barrier” to resolving debt distress. However, a new report by a team ...
by Cobus van Staden

African Leaders to Kamala Harris: We’re Going to Work With Both the U.S. and China

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during a press conference in Lusaka with Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema during the last stop of her week-long, three nation Africa tour. AFP.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Washington, D.C., after wrapping up a week-long, three-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa over the weekend. Before she left, Harris held a press conference on Friday ...
by Eric Olander

Nigerian VP: “Most African Countries Are Rightly Unapologetic About Their Close Ties to China”

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo speaking at King's College in London, where he gave a forceful defense of his country's and other African states' ties with China. Image via @ProfOsinbajo
Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo pushed back against Western criticisms of Chinese engagement in Africa, saying concerns over predatory lending are “an overreaction.” The Vice President spoke at King’s College in London, where ...
by Eric Olander

Embassy Briefs Chinese Business Community in DR Congo on Worsening Security Conditions

Ambassador to the DR Congo Zhu Jing (center left) provided an update to Chinese business representatives in the DR Congo on the security conditions in the country. Image via Congo Today.
China’s ambassador to the DR Congo, Zhu Jing, hosted a briefing at the embassy for Chinese companies operating in the country about the deteriorating security conditions. Representatives from at least 50 Chinese ...
by Eric Olander

Ford Teams Up With Chinese, Indonesian Companies in Nickel Venture

Jack TAYLOR / AFP
The Ford Motor Company is teaming up with Indonesia’s PT Vale and Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to buy the Pomalaa nickel processing plant in Indonesia. The $4.5 billion venture deepens the ...
by Eric Olander

Reality Check for U.S. and EU Policymakers Planning to Decouple From China’s EV Battery Supply Chain

Source: BloombergNEF
One of the main priorities of last year’s landmark environmental legislation in the U.S. (known as the Inflation Reduction Act) is to reduce, even eliminate China’s role in the electric vehicle supply chain, ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Renewable Energy Expertise Could Help Cape Town Address Crippling Blackouts

File image of Cape Town during on one of the regular black outs, or load shedding periods, that are now common in South Africa's second city. RODGER BOSCH / AFP
As South Africa’s power woes worsen, Cape Town is seeking to double electricity supplies from hydropower from the current 200 megawatts (MW) in a desperate bid to reduce the impact of chronic power outages. ...
by Njenga Hakeenah

WEEK IN REVIEW: Brazilian President Expected to Reschedule China Visit to April 11th

Newly re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) met with his Uruguayan counterpart Luis Lacalle Pou to discuss a controversial trade pact between Montevideo and Beijing. Dante Fernandez / AFP
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong embarked on a week-long trip to China on Monday that will include meetings with both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. The visit marks the Singaporean leader’s ...
by Eric Olander

Singapore PM Meets With Guangdong’s Top CPC Official on His Way to Beijing

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets with Huang Kunming, the Secretary of the Communist Party of China Guangdong Provincial Committee. Image via @leehsienloong.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a brief stopover in China’s southern Guandong province on Wednesday during his six-day visit to China. Lee paid a courtesy call to the province’s top official, ...
by Eric Olander

Challenging Chinese Mining Contracts Isn’t About Politics, It’s About What’s Fair, Says DRC Finance Minister

Nicolas Kazadi, the Democratic Republic of Congo's finance minister, provided new details at the FT Commodities Global Summit about why the government is so determined to restructure Chinese mining contracts. Image via the Financial Times.
DR Congo Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi pushed back against the narrative that Kinshasa is specifically targeting Chinese companies over unfair mining contracts. The minister was adamant in his discussion with Financial Times ...
by Eric Olander

Zambia’s Debt Grows to $33 Billion as Restructuring Talks Stall and Interest Accrues

List of the outstanding debts and accrued interest payments owed to Zambia's creditors as of March 2023. Source: Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
The Zambian Finance Ministry released its latest debt figures this week that reveals the painful cost that delays in restructuring are exacting on the economically-distressed country. The country’s total public debt now stands ...
by Eric Olander

Hondura’s President Announces That’s She’ll be Traveling Soon to Beijing to Sign “Auspicious Agreements”

Honduran President Xiomara Castro arrives for the plenary session of the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government at the Dominican Foreign Ministry building in Santo Domingo, on March 25, 2023. Erika SANTELICES / AFP
Honduran President Xiomara Castro looked visibly pleased with her decision to switch ties from Taiwan to China last week when she announced on Twitter that she’ll soon be headed to Beijing to sign a ...
by Eric Olander
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Developing Countries’ Debt Servicing Costs to China Are Significant, but Nowhere Near as Much as Other Creditors
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Indonesia Goes Nuclear, Taps China and Russia for Modular Reactors
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Uncertainty Roils Minerals Markets
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Chinese Cargo Planes Secretly Ferrying Supplies to Iran, Claim Online Sleuths

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