Tag: Governance
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Nigeria’s Twitter Ban & China’s Cyber Cultural Products
June’s been an eventful month for China, Africa, and the internet. On June 5th, Nigeria’s government suspended the use of Twitter in the country, indefinitely. The next day, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism reported that the Nigerian government had also reached out to the Cyberspace Administration ...
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 ...
Unpacking African Agency
Today the South African Institute of International Affairs is holding a webinar featuring new work focusing on African agency in the face of Chinese power. How much power African actors have to shape their engagement with China is one of the field’s most ...
Why the Debt Trap Narrative Won’t Die Soon (or Ever)
Recent reports of the debt trap’s death might have been exaggerated. Like a vampire that just won’t die, we keep burying it, but it keeps rising from the coffin. This week we saw reports that Kenyan politicians had to clarify again that the Mombasa port itself ...
Paul Kagame: “I Don’t Think China Has Forced Any Country in Africa To Take Their Money”
President Paul Kagame joined former U.S. National Security Advisor for what has become a trademark for the Rwandan leader to be brutally frank with U.S. and European interlocutors about sensitive political issues in Africa, including China's presence on the continent. President ...
Joe Biden’s Getting a Lot of Advice on How To Reset U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa and It All Calls for Less Focus on China
Scholars, analysts, and commentators in the U.S. and Africa are all offering lots of advice for what Joe Biden should to do to revitalize foreign policy in Africa. Seemingly without exception, the experts agree that Washington urgently needs to shift the focus away from China and towards ...
What To Do About the Lack of Chinese Loan Transparency in Africa?
One of the central issues in the current Zambian debt crisis is a lack of transparency that makes it largely impossible for investors, policymakers, and constituents on all sides to know what's really going on. The Chinese government and creditors are among the worst in this regard. ...
The Chinese Embassy in Harare Responds to Zimbabwe’s National Park Mining Ban
The Chinese embassy in Harare responded late last week to the Zimbabwean government's surprise decision to ban all mining activities in the country's five national parks and in most river beds. Although Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa did not mention China by name when announcing the ...
UPDATE: Officials Confirm Chinese Mine At the Center of a Water Pollution Controversy Wasn’t Licensed to Mine in the First Place
Quick update on a story that we've been following for the past couple of weeks, focusing on allegations of pollution from a Chinese mining project in Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory, on the outskirts of the capital Abuja: Already under investigation for ...
Kenyan Government’s Hiring of the State-Owned Chinese Company Used to Build the SGR Ruled Illegal by Court of Appeals
Kenya's Court of Appeals dealt a devastating blow to the government and its national rail company when it ruled on Friday that the $4.7 billion (Ksh 500 million) contract with the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) was illegal and violated the constitution. ...
Anti-African Racism Was Partly to Blame for What Happened in Guangzhou, But China’s Political System is the Bigger Reason
Chinese YouTuber Simon Yu provides a clear, concise explanation for why incentives within China's rigid meritocratic political system were largely to blame for the poor treatment of Africans and other foreigners in Guangzhou in recent weeks. In this 13-minute video, Yu says if one wants to understand ...
The COVID-19 Crisis is Rapidly Evolving From a Health Crisis to an Economic Crisis to a Governance Crisis for Some African Leaders
Largely spared of the serious health consequences from the COVID-19 outbreak around the world, the crisis in Africa is now rapidly evolving into an economic and now, increasingly, a political crisis as constituents in a number of African countries express frustration over how their governments have handled ...