CGSP Podcasts
Weekly discussions with key thought leaders about China’s engagement in Africa and the Global South.
podcast
How Taiwan Became a Divisive Wedge Issue in South Africa
South Africa's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), now sees the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party's close ties to China as a vulnerability that the DA aims to exploit. Evidence of this new strategy came in December when the DA mayor of Pretoria, ...
How Donald Trump Could Give China a Real Boost in Africa
The election of Donald Trump has introduced a new era of uncertainty in global politics, especially in Africa where the president-elect has said nothing about his ...
2016 China-Africa Year in Review
After years of relatively trouble-free development, 2016 marked a turning point in the China-Africa amid turbulent changes in the global economic and political order. China increased its deployment of combat troops to the continent, suffering some its first casualties ...
Does Just One Man in China Control the Fate of Africa's Elephants?
In the powerful new Netflix documentary "The Ivory Game," Elephant Action League Executive Director Andrea Crosta ominously warned that the entire fate of Africa's elephants is in the hands of a single man, Chinese president Xi ...
How Rwanda Attracts Chinese Money and Migrants Without the Lure of Natural Resources
It is a widely-held perception that Chinese investment in Africa is guided by a strategic foreign policy agenda focused on securing vast amount of natural resources. This narrative fits nicely with an outdated Western ...
China Poised to Benefit From Trump's Africa Policy (Or Lack Thereof)
Although leaders in Asia, Europe and the Americas are struggling to figure out what are the implications of Donald J. Trump's election to the U.S. presidency. At least in those regions, the president-elect made passing references during the campaign to Japan’s future security status, ...
China's Controversial, Out-Sized Role in Africa's Digital Revolution
Africa is home to one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world. In fact, more African households own a mobile phone than have reliable electricity or even clean water. The combination of a young population, some of the fastest ...
IMF Missteps Over Huge China Deal in the DR Congo Proves Costly
In 2007 when China's Exim Bank unveiled a massive $6 billion mining deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it completely rocked the normally-staid world of international development finance. The agreement, known as "The China Deal" or Sicomines, was among the first of ...
The Enduring Popularity of Chinese Kung Fu Movies in Africa
The Chinese government is spending billions of dollars around the world to expand its already massive global media footprint. Africa is a major destination for a lot of that investment. Although it is not clear how much money the Chinese have spent ...
A New Generation of Chinese Social Entrepreneurs Emerges in Africa
The story of the Chinese in Africa is one that has been largely defined by either state or corporate interests. Whereas there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Western non-governmental organizations and other civil society groups have long been active in Africa, there are a just a handful of similar ...
Chinese Companies Employ a Lot More African Workers Than You Think
Across Africa and throughout the West there is a widespread belief that a good portion of the Chinese construction workers building infrastructure across the continent are actually prisoners who have been forcibly enslaved to work in Africa. So the ...
China Working Hard to Challenge West's News Narratives in Africa
The Chinese media presence across Africa has expanded dramatically over the past ten years as Beijing invested millions of dollars to build out a vast distribution network for its newspaper, radio, and TV content. China's flagship ...