Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
The China in Africa Podcast
A lively discussion about all aspects of Chinese engagement in Africa.
CAR Attack Sparks New Concerns About Safety of Chinese People in Africa
One week after a brutal attack on a Chinese mining site in the Central African Republic (CAR) that killed nine people and injured two others, it's still not clear who is responsible and why they did it. All Chinese personnel in ...
Reporting Tips for African Journalists Covering China
Reporting on China is difficult even for the most experienced journalist who's spent years living there and speaks the language. So, it's not surprising that reporters in Africa who've had limited exposure to the country often struggle to cover China-related news. ...
Africa’s Role in China’s Evolving Geopolitical Priorities
It's been a momentous past two weeks for Chinese foreign policy with major a breakthrough in the Sri Lanka debt impasse and the landmark announcement that Beijing helped to broker the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Meantime, China ...
What Lessons Should the U.S. Take From China’s Mideast Diplomatic Breakthrough?
This month's surprise announcement that China brokered the restoration of diplomatic relations between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia prompted widespread excitement in Beijing and considerable consternation among U.S. conservatives. The implication for both is that China's role in the process ...
What to Make of China’s Mideast Diplomatic Breakthrough?
New details are emerging about the landmark diplomatic deal brokered by China for Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations. The initial excitement about the prospects for peace between these two Persian Gulf rivals has given way to a more ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
China vs. the Multilateral Development Banks
There was a major breakthrough this week in China's months-long standoff with the World Bank, IMF and other multilateral creditors when Beijing agreed to fully back Sri Lanka's debt restructuring. The move now clears the way for Colombo to secure $2.9 ...
Latin America Was Once an Afterthought for China… Not Anymore
In just the past twenty years, China's trade with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean surged 26-fold to almost half-a-trillion dollars. The region is also now a major destination for Chinese foreign investment and becoming a critically important new front ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China-IMF Debt Standoff | France’s “New” Africa Strategy | SA Naval Exercises
The G20 finance ministers meeting in India came and went without any progress on the debt standoff between China and the IMF/World Bank over who should take losses on loans to the world's poorest countries. ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: South Africa: Naval Drills | Ghana: Debt Crisis | DRC: Mining Contracts
Controversial joint naval exercises among South Africa, Russia, and China got underway this week off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, prompting a fierce backlash from critics who blasted Pretoria for legitimizing Russia on the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
Wang Huiyao on China’s ‘Misunderstood Foreign Policy’
Senior-level Chinese stakeholders often contend that one of the main reasons for today's heightened geopolitical tensions between China and the West is due to "misunderstandings" of its foreign policy objectives by outsiders. Chinese distrust is ...
What the New Port of Lekki in Nigeria Tells Us About the Future of Chinese Infrastructure Finance in Africa
China is no longer in the game of providing African countries with enormous loans to finance large-scale infrastructure projects. In fact, BRI financing last year for projects in Africa plunged more than 50% to just $7.5 billion.
China, Latin America, and the Rise of a New Non-Aligned Movement
During the first Cold War, a large group of developing countries sought to distance themselves from the ideological battle between the United States and the Soviet Union to create a Non-Aligned Movement. Today, three decades ...
It’s Getting Tougher for African Students to Get a PhD in China
Thousands of African students are back in class again in China following a three-year absence due to the pandemic and Beijing's strict COVID Zero travel restrictions. But doctoral students from Africa and elsewhere are confronting ...
How the U.S. Aims to Compete With China in Critical Resource Mining
U.S. officials are speaking out about the urgency to diversify supply chains for critical resources that are now largely dependent on China, particularly rare earths, cobalt, and lithium that are all essential ingredients in manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. ...
The Role of Chinese Solar Technology in Africa’s Just Energy Transition
China is by far the world's dominant producer of solar power technology which is becoming increasingly popular in places like Africa that are under mounting pressure to transition from reliance on fossil fuels to new, greener renewable sources of energy.