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Who Gets to Tell the Africa-China Story?

So much of the framing of Chinese engagement in Africa is done through the prism of Western media, academia, government, and civil society. Stories about debt traps, malign influence, and exploitation are all firmly embedded in the larger discourse about Africa's ...

Why Did France Ban TikTok in Pacific New Caledonia?

France has taken the dramatic step of blocking TikTok in its Pacific territory of New Caledonia as part of efforts to quell days of violent unrest. It is the latest clash between democratic governments and the Chinese-owned social media platform.

Author Jeremy Garlick on China’s Strategic Advantage in the Global South

U.S. and European officials often lament that they've fallen behind China when it comes to engaging Africa, Asia, the Americas, and other developing regions. Western governments aren't set up to rapidly deploy the kind of money and resources that Beijing's done ...

Indonesian Nickel: Chinese Investments Must Heed Ecological Risks, Avoid Repeating European Colonialism Sins

Indonesia has a deep wound from colonialism. For centuries, Indonesia was a European colony forced to dig and provide raw materials for the European market. This practice was even maintained during the second president Soeharto’s New Order regime under the disguise of economic development. That is why, ...

What Do We Mean by ‘Global South’?

By Lukas Fiala and Hugo Jones This week, the China-Africa project formally rebranded to become the Global South Project. As authors of this similarly titled newsletter, we at China Foresight see this as an opportunity to critically reflect upon how we ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Plugging into African Agency

After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...

Trend of Shanghai “Blessing Videos” Featuring Africans Raises Dark Memories

Shanghai’s COVID lockdown is resurrecting a troubling trend in Africa-China social media. Online agents accept orders to create tailor-made videos to inspire Shanghai residents to persevere through the pandemic-related restrictions. The problem is that these videos include Africans, dancing and holding up signs in Chinese.

Youth Activists at France-Africa Summit: “We Expect to Be Part of the Process”

The young African civil society activists who attended last week's France-Africa summit in Montpellier gave voice to the surging frustration over their countries' ties with France, and by extension other foreign powers. Among the key themes that emerged was the demand ...

Thierry Pairault on What China Really Wants From Africa

French media and scholars have long struggled to understand the nature of Chinese engagement in Africa, often framing the issue in the context of their own brutal colonial past on the continent. Much of the discourse on the topic in France is whether China is the "new ...

Karen Bass Doesn’t Like What China’s Doing in Africa But Says Americans Aren’t in Much of a Position to Criticize

Chinese engagement in Africa is an increasingly popular topic in Washington these days amid heightened expectations that the Biden administration is going to make the continent more of a U.S. foreign policy priority. On the legislative side, one of the key players pushing the White House to ...

6 Reasons Why Africa Likes China

A U.S. and European observers often wonder why African leaders have so thoroughly embraced engagement with China despite warnings of predatory lending, cyber espionage and so forth. In many policy circles, there's genuine confusion as to why the Western offer isn't more appealing and largely unable to ...

Why the Neocolonialism Story Will Never Die

The revelation of what appears to be massive illegal Chinese gold mining and logging operations in rural Sierra Leone could open a contentious new front in Africa-China conversations. Or more accurately, it could revivify one of the ur-themes underlying the whole relationship: the idea that China is a ...

China Accuses G7 of “Empty Promises” and Draws on Members’ Colonial Past as Part of Its Counteroffensive

China hinted at the colonial pasts of the G7 member states in its coverage of the weekend's G7 summit in Cornwall, which focused a considerable amount of time and attention on confronting Beijing. Sensing an opportunity to mobilize mass opposition to ...
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