CGSP Podcasts
Weekly discussions with key thought leaders about China’s engagement in Africa and the Global South.
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SCO Preview: Modi Heads to China Amid U.S. Tariff Shock
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left Northeast Asia this week, embarking on a two-stop trip that includes Japan and then China, where he will participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which begins on Sunday. ...
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China and the Middle East: The Future in Three Scenarios
China's rapidly expanding presence in the Middle East has sparked a mix of anxiety and excitement, depending on one's perspective. Washington regards Beijing's support of Iran and the Palestinian cause, among other things, as key threats to its strategic interests. While ...
Customer Feedback Shaping Spiro’s E-bike Design in Uganda
E-mobility solutions in African countries like Uganda are driven not only by Chinese EV technology but also by local innovations, which are creating solutions for everyday mobility challenges. It is often rare that you hear ...
China Moves to Bolster Pakistan Ties Amid U.S. Rapprochement
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday for a three-day visit, following a high-level stop in India earlier in the week, where he met both Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
‘If You Want to Get Rich, Build a Road.’ Testing China’s Theory in Africa
There's a Chinese proverb that says, “If you want to get rich, build a road first.” That philosophy has guided China's development strategy in Africa for much of the past 25 years, that's led to the construction of more than 100,000km ...
A Sinopec employee assists with the docking of a liquefied natural gas tanker in Tianjin in October. [Photo/Xinhua]
In August, President Trump hosted a marathon of meetings aimed at delivering on a Ukraine-Russia peace deal. Previously, the Trump Administration hinted at reducing or lifting sanctions on Moscow as part of a final deal. A Ukraine peace deal that rolls back sanctions on Russia may undercut China’s energy security by ...
Africa’s EV Trade Siege and What’s Blocking the Future
The electric vehicle (EV) sector in many African countries faces critical challenges, slowing down the adoption of electric mobility. Some of these challenges are intra-African trade barriers, which make it hard to do cross-border trade. ...
[WEEK IN REVIEW] China Invests in Angola to Secure Food Supply Chains
Chinese construction giant Sinohydro signed a $100 million deal with Angola to build out the country's agricultural infrastructure in a bid to boost grain production. While 60% of the output from this venture will be shipped to China, the rest will ...
China’s Belt and Road Shatters Expectations With Record Activity
For much of the past two years, we've been told to expect a slimmer, more austere Belt and Road under the new "Small Yet Beautiful" mantra. The days of Chinese mega deals across the Global South were over... or so we ...
China’s Vital, Yet Poorly Understood Role in Africa’s Energy Sector
After a two-to-three-year hiatus following the pandemic, Chinese money is once again flowing into the African energy sector. Billions of dollars in new investment and construction contracts for power facilities were registered in the first half of the year, particularly in ...
Why Vietnam Will Never Join a U.S. Coalition Against China
Listen in on many of the foreign policy discussions about Vietnam that take place at think tanks and government seminars in Washington, D.C., and you'll hear this sense of optimism that "Hanoi is on our side." They see Vietnam's historical suspicions ...
How China Really Secures Its Loans to Developing Countries
The "debt trap" meme claims that China is intentionally lending vast sums of money to poor developing countries in Africa, and elsewhere, with the express intent to seize physical assets in those countries when they inevitably can't repay their debts.
China’s Middle East Math
There was widespread disappointment in Iran that China didn't do more to help Tehran during the recent 12-day war with Israel and the United States. Beijing, for its part, offered robust rhetorical and moral support, but little else. ...
The Evolution of China-Africa Research and Where It’s Headed
A new generation of scholars is reshaping China-Africa research. More geographically diverse and digitally fluent than the field’s early pioneers of the 2000s, this cohort brings fresh perspectives and tools to the study of China’s engagement on the continent.
Lessons for Europe From China’s Critical Minerals Strategy in Africa
While the U.S., India, and countries in the Persian Gulf are all moving quickly to establish new critical mineral supply chains, the European Union is struggling to follow suit, particularly in Africa. The EU currently lacks a cohesive policy framework that ...
Youthful Technicians Building Malawi’s E-bikes Driven by Chinese Tech
An electric vehicle (EV) company in Malawi, one of the continent’s smallest and landlocked economies, is making groundbreaking efforts to electrify transportation in the country, which is also one of the poorest in the world. Despite the challenges of raising capital ...
What Next for China-Israel Ties After the Iran War
In the first few months of this year, it seemed that China's ties with Israel were on the mend after entering into a deep freeze following the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas. China had begun to soften some of its ...
It’s Payback Time For a Lot of Those Chinese Loans
Borrowers in Africa and other developing regions are expected to repay $35 billion of Chinese loans this year, with two-thirds of the amount coming from the world's poorest countries. Many of these debts were taken out in the mid-2010s and are ...