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Debt-Saddled Laos Struggles to Tame Rampant Inflation

By Thanaporn Promyamyai and Damon Wake Suffocating under a mountain of debt to China, Laos is struggling to tame rampant inflation, with food prices rising so sharply that a growing number of households are resorting to foraging.

China’s Hunan Province Boosts Status as African Trade Hub

Trade between the African continent and the central Chinese province of Hunan grew to $7.79 billion in 2023. The increase solidifies Hunan’s status as a center of African agricultural trade. The province was integrated into regional transport networks, which positioned it as a fresh commodities hub.

Thailand Worries of Losing Spot As China’s Top Durian Supplier

Analysts estimated that about three decades ago, Thailand sent to China its first batch of fresh durians – the pungent, spiky fruit native to Southeast Asia. Since then, Thailand’s Monthong durian’s creamy and custard-like texture has dominated the Chinese palate. “Thai ...

Could China’s Grain Hoard Become a Geopolitical Tool?

Russia’s war on Ukraine is increasingly being hitting African food security, and raising political tensions in the process. For example, Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat and gets half of its supply from Russia and Ukraine. This is also true for Kenya, which imports 30% of ...

Chinese Tastes Shaping South African Wine-Making

South African winemakers are increasingly tailoring their products to the tastes of the Chinese market. South Africa’s share of China’s wine market was less than 1% in 2019. However, it’s grown rapidly, thanks to China’s massive tariffs on Australian wine. Before the trade war, Australia accounted ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The Pain of Un-Polarity

“THE G2 WILL BE CONVENING SHORTLY!”
This post by U.S. President Donald Trump in the run-up to his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week may end up leaving a more lasting mark than the actual summit he attended.

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How a Chinese Vlogger is Challenging Stereotypes About Africa One Video at a Time

The classic stereotypes about Africa are widespread in China where, like elsewhere, many peoples' perceptions about Africa mirrors the outdated, offensive caricatures that are commonplace in mainstream media. Just as in the West, Africa for many, if not most people, is a place of war, despair, disease, ...

Why Food Security & Agriculture Issues Need to Be Atop the China-Africa Agenda

A growing number of people in Africa are facing acute shortages of food due in part to disruptions brought on by COVID, climate change, and, in some countries, conflict. Solving the problem today is not going to be easy given how ...

Meet China’s Newest E-Commerce Live Streaming Stars: African Ambassadors

The Chinese government launched a new three-month promotional campaign leading up to the FOCAC summit to promote African goods to Chinese consumers on television and via live streaming on popular e-commerce apps. Rather than use celebrities, African ambassadors to China will instead appear on camera ...

Q&A: Why Banning Chinese Fish Imports Is Not a Good Idea in Kenya

Soon after reports emerged that Kenya’s Agriculture Committee in parliament proposed legislation that would restrict Chinese fish imports into the country, Safina Musa, a fisheries scientist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, called for a reconsideration of the plan in a column she ...

A Lot of Kenyans May Want to Ban Imported Fish From China, But That Just Can’t Happen For Now

The recent proposal in Kenya's National Assembly to ban imported fish from China has sparked a lively discussion about how to simultaneously enhance the country's food security while bolstering the livelihoods of Kenya's embattled fishing communities. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya ...

African Food Bloggers Are Finding Large Audiences Live Streaming on Chinese Social Media

The following article is a summary of a longer version of this story by Shu Xiong (薯熊) that was published on the 公路商店's WeChat channel. The original, Chinese-language article is available here. From Rwanda to Guinea, from the Democratic Republic ...

It’s Dumpling Time! Chinese Peacekeepers in the DRC Celebrate the Annual Dragon Boat Festival

Monday was the annual Dragon Boat Festival holiday in China when it's customary to eat sticky rice dumplings known as Zongzi 粽子. And even though they were far from home, a group of Chinese soldiers deployed as part of ...
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