CGSP Podcasts
Weekly discussions with key thought leaders about China’s engagement in Africa and the Global South.
podcast
There Are a Lot More Chinese Soldiers in Africa Today… And Likely More to Come
Over the past five years the Chinese military presence in Africa has undergone a profound change. Until 2012, the Chinese were happy to play a low-key support role in multinational peacekeeping operations on the continent, preferring to send military engineers and medical staff rather ...
China's Relationship Status with South Africa: "It's Complicated"
South Africa's relationship with China has undergone a profound transformation in a remarkably short period of time. In less than twenty years, these two countries have gone from barely acknowledging one another to developing a deep partnership that transcends economics, ...
China Was Once a Hot Destination for African Migrants, Not Anymore
It was not that long ago that entire neighborhoods in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were overflowing with African migrants. Although there are no precise figures, scholars estimated that between 20,000-100,000 African immigrants used to lived in Guangzhou, or ...
The Danger of Too Much Chinese Debt in Africa
The financial implosion in Venezuela is prompting growing concern in Beijing that China may have been too ambitious in its drive to loan billions of dollars to high-risk countries throughout the global south. Persistently low oil ...
Namibia's Chinese Ivory Smugglers
Namibia is the rare country in Africa that seems to be holding its own against ivory poachers. Whereas in most other southern African countries the elephant population is being decimated, in Namibia, according to the government, the number of ...
Why the Stakes Are so High for China in South Sudan
Nowhere else in Africa do China's financial, diplomatic and geopolitical interests confront as much risk as they do in South Sudan. Beijing has invested billions of dollars in the country's oil sector, deployed over a thousand troops
China's Ambitious New 'Silk Road' Trade Route Takes Shape in Africa
Four years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, China's ambitious global trading strategy known as the "New Maritime Silk Road" or "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) is now coming to life, particularly in parts of East Africa where major ...
Industrialization in Africa: Ethiopia Wants to Become the New 'Made in China'
There's a pretty good chance that some of the clothes you're wearing, the shoes on your feet and even the device you're using to read this were made in China. Even as its economy slows, China remains the world's factory, churning out billions of ...
Outrage Over the #RacistChineseAd: What Did We Learn?
The company behind the racist Chinese laundry detergent ad that sparked widespread online outrage around the world issued a half-hearted apology for the uproar it caused. Actually, it was one of those 'we're ...
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Chinese in Africa… But Were Too Afraid to Ask
The Chinese presence in Africa has been so sudden and so all-encompassing that it's left a lot of people confused. Chinese farmers now compete for space and customers in Lusaka's open-air markets, Chinese textiles are undercutting Nigerian manufacturers, tens of thousands of Africans now ...
Why Chinese Agriculture Engagement in Africa is Not What it Seems
The Western and African media have long fueled the myth that Chinese investors are buying up vast tracts of land across Africa as part of some neo-colonial plan to export food back to China. Sure, on one level,
Why More Chinese Companies in Africa Are Choosing To Be Good Neighbors
Chinese companies around the world, particularly in Africa, have a well-earned reputation for being bad corporate citizens. There are countless stories of labor rights violations, disregard of environmental ...