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

China Isn’t Spending Anywhere Near as Much on Aid to Pacific Island Countries as Many Think

The Lowy Institute's Pacific Island Aid Map showcasing Chinese development assistance in the region.
New research reveals that Chinese aid spending in Pacific Island Countries (PIC) is now at the lowest level in 14 years, challenging the widely held perception that Beijing is showering ...
by Eric Olander

The Cost to Build An EV Battery is Going Up… A Lot

This chart explains in part why Chinese battery giants are moving as fast as possible to lock up supplies of the key ingredients needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles. ...
by Eric Olander

Reports: Xi Expected to Travel to Saudi Arabia for December Summits

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan for the fourth meeting of the political and diplomatic sub-committee under the China-Saudi Arabia high-level joint committee. Image via the Saudi Press Agency.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will reportedly travel to Saudi Arabia in December to attend a trio of Sino-Arab summits taking place in the Kingdom. The latest rumors about President Xi’s purported trip surfaced late last ...
by Eric Olander

China-based Development Bank to Ramp Up Lending by $10 Billion a Year

The headquarters of the Chinese-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing. Image via Xinhua.
While China’s two major policy banks have pulled hard on the reins to curtail development financing in the Global South, the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is going in the opposite direction. AIIB’s ...
by Eric Olander

Two New Huawei-Powered 5G Networks Launch in Africa

NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP
Chinese telecom giant Huawei may be encountering severe headwinds in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia but not so in Africa, where the company launched two new 5G networks in just the ...
by Eric Olander

How Does Local Agency Fit into Africa-China Negotiations?

The CORA panel discussing local agency in Africa-China negotiations.
In the first of a three-webinar series, the Le Collectif pour le Renouveau Africain (CORA) brought together a group of leading African analysts and scholars to discuss local agency in Africa-China negotiations. The panelists ...
by Christopher Edyegu

WEEK IN REVIEW: A Military Stand-off Between a Chinese-Run Mining Company and the DRC’s State-Owned Mining Giant Gécamines Heading to Arbitration

A military stand-off between a Chinese-run mining company and the DRC’s state-owned mining giant Gécamines is heading to arbitration.  Congolese army forces took control of two of the Australian-based, Chinese-controlled company MMG’s mines in ...
by Eric Olander

Kenyan Avocado Exports to China Gather Speed

Chinese customs officials in Guangzhou inspect a newly-arrived shipment of Kenyan avocados. Image via the Guangzhou Media Center.
A 24-ton shipment of Kenyan avocados arrived in China’s Guangzhou harbor this week. It took years for Kenyan producers to clear import protocols, but the shipment shows that China is finally moving forward with ...
by Cobus van Staden

U.S. Plans to Bypass China’s Cobalt Dominance with Arizona Plant

FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
The Singapore-based commodities trader Trafigura announced it will partner with the U.S. battery metals processing firm EVelution to build a battery-grade cobalt sulfate processing facility in Arizona.  The facility is projected to produce 7,000 tons of ...
by Cobus van Staden

Taiwanese Troops to Serve in Somaliland

John Rosenberg is a U.S.-Africa government relations and national security specialist in Washington.
For the first time, the disputed African region of Somaliland will be included in 14 countries and territories that will host Taiwanese soldiers as part of an alternative directive that allows them to ...
by Cobus van Staden

China’s Messaging to Africa on Xinjiang in Action

Image via Mohamed Osman's Twitter feed
The meeting this week between a group of African journalists and Wu Peng, China’s top diplomat to Africa, became an example of how Chinese government officials use direct engagement with reporters as a messaging ...
by Cobus van Staden

It Worked For Nickel, So Why Not Tin? Indonesia Wants to Move Up the Value Chain by Blocking Exports of Raw Commodities

Aerial view of the Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry nickel smelting facility in Konawe. Indonesia banned the export of raw nickel and now wants to do the same for tin. ANDRY DENISAH / AFP
The Indonesian government plans to add tin bars to the growing list of commodities that it will ban for export as part of an ambitious effort to have more of these ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Dream of Direct Access to the Indian Ocean is Finally Becoming a Reality in Myanmar

China has long regarded its dependence on transiting goods through the narrow Malacca Straits on the Malay peninsula as among its most serious national security vulnerabilities. In the event of a conflict with ...
by Eric Olander

These Charts Explain Why China is Cutting Back on Spending For BRI Projects

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about the sharp curtailment of Chinese spending for Belt and Road projects. New data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of ...
by Eric Olander

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 ...

Why Kenya Will Struggle to Repay the Chinese Loans for its Standard Gauge Railway

The Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway depot in Nairobi. Simon Mania/AFP
Newly-elected Kenyan President William Ruto’s fulfillment of a campaign promise that reversed his predecessor’s mandate that cargo from the Port of Mombasa has to be transported via the Standard Gauge ...
by Eric Olander

Here We Go Again… More Blackface on Chinese Television

Scene from the Hong Kong drama series Come Home Love: Lo and Behold broadcast by TVB that featured actors wearing blackface. Image via TVB.
The Hong Kong-based television network TVB is facing criticism following this week’s broadcast of its popular drama series Come Home Love: Lo and Behold, which featured actors wearing blackface. The ...
by Eric Olander

China’s Lending Will Be Demand-Driven: Ambassador

Chinese ambassador to Kenya, Zhou Pingjian, during an interview with the Kenyan newspaper The Star at the Chinese embassy in Nairobi. Image via The Star.
China will not promote loan-supported projects to the Global South but will be led by recipient country demand. This was one of the takeaways from a recent interview with China’s ambassador to Kenya, Zhou Pingjian. ...
by Cobus van Staden

Does China Want Africa to “Choose Sides”? Maybe a Little Bit

HEADLINE TRANSLATION: "With resources, markets, and votes, Africa has become a new arena for major powers."
China often assures African countries that they won’t be made to ‘choose sides’ in a new cold war. However, a recent op-ed by a prominent Africa-focused think tanker makes clear that Beijing increasingly sees the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Africa’s Cynical Democrats Face the Development Dilemma

Hong Zhang is an expert on development and Africa-China relations at Harvard University
The Biden administration frames its fight with China for influence in the Global South as a struggle between democracy and autocracy. Both sides argue that their systems boost development. The result is that Africa’s development ...
by Cobus van Staden

Exposed: The Asian Companies Ruining West Africa’s Forests

Timber awaiting transport from the Campo Ma'an National Park in Cameroon near the border with Equatorial Guinea on October 9, 2022. Daniel Beloumou Olomo / AFP
West and Central Africa house some of the world’s last remaining old-growth rainforests. Asian timber companies are now driving widespread irresponsible logging, leaving ruined ecosystems in their wake.  However, simply blaming ‘China’ for this destruction ...
by Cobus van Staden

Annoyed With the U.S., Saudi Arabia Pivots to Asia

File image of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman. VLADIMIR SIMICEK / AFP
The steadily deteriorating ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia are coinciding with what appears to be a concerted shift by the Kingdom to foster closer ties with Asia’s largest powers, namely ...
by Eric Olander

South Korea’s Growing Reliance on Saudi Oil Could Make It Vulnerable in the Event of a Taiwan Conflict

South Korea imported 31 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil last month, up 30% compared to the same time last year, according to new data from the Korea Customs Service. ...
by Eric Olander

How the U.S. Should Respond to China’s Growing Military Presence in the Middle East and North Africa

The latest U.S. National Security Strategy released this month singled out China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge,” and nowhere is that contest more on display than in ...
by Eric Olander

Poll: More People Still Prefer U.S. Over China as Global Superpower, But to What Extent Depends on Where You Live

The divide between how people in wealthy advanced countries perceive China and those in poorer, less developed countries appears to be widening, according to the findings of a new year-long ...
by Eric Olander

No, Jackie Chan Didn’t Wear a T-Shirt Promoting Uganda’s First Son to Be “The Next President”

A 2010 photo of kung fu superstar Jackie Chan with the image on the left doctored to include a photo of Ugandan First Son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Images via Pesa Check.
The fact-checking team at Pesa Check debunked a photo that’s been circulating on Twitter and Facebook showing Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan purportedly wearing a t-shirt with a photo of the first son ...
by Eric Olander

WEEK IN REVIEW: Singapore Prime Minister Said There Is No Consensus yet About China Joining the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact CPTPP

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong listens to Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) speech during the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit at the International Expo Center in Hangzhou on September 4, 2016. POOL / AFP
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long said there is no consensus yet about China joining the trans-Pacific trade pact CPTPP. Although Prime Minister Lee said on Tuesday that he personally believes China would be ...
by Eric Olander

Kenya’s New Transport Secretary Criticizes Previous Government’s Deals with China

Cabinet Secretary nominee for Roads, Transport and Public Works, Kipchumba Murkomen testified before the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments in Nairobi. Image via @kipmurkomen.
This week’s confirmation hearing for Kenya’s new Transport Secretary included some revealing details about prominent Chinese projects like the recently inaugurated Nairobi Expressway. Kipchumba Murkomen reacted to widespread complaints about the tolls charged to use the ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese Embassy Calls for Retreat from Nigeria’s Kaduna State

The Chinese embassy in Nigeria called for Chinese citizens to leave Kaduna state due to ongoing criminal attacks and kidnappings. This is only the latest such warning from the embassy, and Chinese diplomats have also met with Nigerian security ...
by Cobus van Staden

Chinese National Convicted of Illegal Mining in Nigeria

Mug shot of Chinese national Gang Deng who was arrested in September for illegal mining and sentenced by a High Court in Nigeria to five years in jail.
A Nigerian court sentenced a Chinese national to five years in jail (with the option of a fine of 1 million naira (about $2,300) for illegal mining. Gang Deng, who works for a ...
by Cobus van Staden

China is Now Zimbabwe’s Biggest Investor

Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun speaking at a recent Chinese investment in Zimbabwe conference in Harare. Images via @ChineseZimbabwe.
Over the past three years, China invested over $2 billion in Zimbabwe and is now the Southern African country’s largest foreign investor.  This was the main takeaway of a symposium on the economic ...
by Cobus van Staden
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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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Chinese Cargo Planes Secretly Ferrying Supplies to Iran, Claim Online Sleuths
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Indonesia Goes Nuclear, Taps China and Russia for Modular Reactors
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China, U.S. Ink Rare Earth Deal; More Trade Pacts Coming

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