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Kenya Launches $1.5 Billion Road Project With Chinese Firms

Kenya on Friday launched a $1.5 billion road expansion project financed by Chinese firms, including a state-owned company. Beijing is among Kenya's top five development lenders, with Nairobi owing China some $4.7 billion, according to official 2025 data. ...

A Chinese Upstart Takes On Big Tobacco in Kenya — by Playing It Straight

In a sector long dominated by counterfeit trade and British American Tobacco's (BAT) near-monopoly of the Kenyan cigarette market, a Chinese distributor did something no one expected: it played by the book.  The popular Kenya-based Chinese online commentator Xiao Nie “小聂说事儿,” ...

Kenya’s Chinese Debt Swap Comes With a Hidden Currency Risk

The Kenyan Treasury last month announced a breakthrough in its years-long effort to restructure billions of dollars still owed to the China Exim Bank that were used to build the Standard Gauge Railway. The two ...

Chinese Companies Are Changing the Way They Operate in Africa

By Elisa Gambino and Costanza Franceschini For most of the past 25 years, Chinese construction companies operating in Africa could count on generous financial backing from Chinese banks. Between 2000 and 2019, Chinese funders committed almost $50 billion to African transport ...

African Countries Should Stop Being Questioned About Their Diplomatic Engagements

No nation should have to defend its right to choose its own diplomatic partners. Yet, in recent years, African countries have increasingly been called to account whenever those partners happen to be China or Russia.  When President William Ruto of Kenya ...

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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Pew Survey: Global South More Concerned About U.S. Than China

A new Pew Research Center survey reveals a surprising shift: in many Global South middle-income countries, people are more concerned about U.S. influence than China’s.

Kenya or Tanzania? Chinese Investors in Africa Face a Clear Choice

For Chinese entrepreneurs eyeing East Africa, one question looms large: Tanzania or Kenya? Longtime Africa WeChat commentator Xiao Nie (小聂说事儿), who spent 3 years in Tanzania and 11 years in Kenya, cuts through the debate with a vivid analogy: “Tanzania is East Africa’s factory floor; Kenya ...

How Chinese EVs Are Powering Africa’s Mobility Revolution

Chinese e-mobility technology is poised to transform large swathes of Africa's transportation ecosystem in the coming decade, but in very different ways than in other regions where EVs are the primary focus. Bicylces, scooters, tricyles, tractors, cars, minibuses, and full-sized coaches, all ...

Is It Just Because They’re Cheap? Why Chinese Products Dominate the African Market

The popular East Africa-based Chinese online commentator Xiao Nie “小聂说事儿,” who chronicles daily life of Chinese immigrants on the continent, recently published an article addressing common biases about Africa’s consumer market. The piece was written in response to a flood of comments on a previous ...

The New Realities About Chinese Development Finance in Africa

Chinese overseas development finance is unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago. After suffering tens of billions of dollars in losses, Chinese lenders have moved to de-risk their lending to countries in Africa, Asia, and across the Global ...

China and Kenya Pledge to Upgrade Ties, Oppose Tariffs

China and Kenya agreed on Thursday to boost ties to a new level and oppose trade barriers, following talks between President Xi Jinping and his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, in Beijing. Relations between Beijing and Nairobi will be upgraded to a ...

China and Kenya Pledge to Upgrade Ties, Oppose Tariffs

China and Kenya agreed on Thursday to boost ties to a new level and oppose trade barriers, following talks between President Xi Jinping and his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, in Beijing. Relations between Beijing and Nairobi will be upgraded to a ...
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