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China’s GEM Seals Nickel Deal with Indonesia’s SWF Danantara

China’s battery materials giant GEM has signed a head of agreement with Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara to build a nickel and recycling hub. The agreement, confirmed by Danantara investment chief Pandu Sjahrir on Tuesday, marks the fund’s first ...

Indonesia Taps Australian Lithium as China Builds EV Battery Plant

Indonesia will soon begin importing lithium from Australia to address a critical shortage of this essential raw material needed for its rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) sector, according to Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia. The decision highlights ...

Indonesia and China’s Battery Alliance Must Be Built on Sustainability

In a bold display of ambition and diplomacy, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto stood beside Chinese executives last week to break ground on what is touted as Asia’s largest integrated electric vehicle (EV) battery ecosystem. Backed by $5.9 billion in ...

China’s Big Bet on Indonesian Nickel Faces a Harsh Reckoning

For years, China raced to secure the critical minerals needed to fuel its economy and the global clean energy transition. Nickel was supposed to be one of the surest bets. Now, one of China’s largest investments in Indonesia’s nickel industry is unraveling—and with it, some of the ...

China’s Critical Minerals Lead Widens as Rivals Struggle to Keep Pace

Despite growing talk of securing alternative supply chains, China has entrenched itself as the world’s undisputed leader in critical minerals, widening a lead that few anticipated would stretch so far, so fast. From lithium to nickel to rare earths, China’s ...

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 ...

China Carefully Assembling a Deep-Sea Mining Strategy

By Amelie Bottolier-Depois with Mary Yang in Beijing In a world hungry for crucial resources, China may not be poised to start deep-sea mining but it is planting seeds for such operations in a meticulously planned economic and geopolitical strategy.

Critical Mineral Resource Nationalism: What It Means for China and the Global South

Driven by the accelerating global energy transition, resource-rich countries are actively asserting greater control over their critical minerals—lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and rare earths—through a policy shift known as resource nationalism. While the framing of resource nationalism came from global north countries that dislike policies by ...

China and Indonesia at 75: Progress Celebrated, Problems Persist

This past weekend, President Xi Jinping and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto exchanged warm pleasantries over the phone, celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between their two nations. It was a conversation rich in symbolism and ambition, with talk of “shared futures,” “strategic partnerships,” and a bilateral ...

Documenting the Human Cost of Nickel Mining: CGSP Wins Top Photojournalism Prize

The China-Global South Project (CGSP) has won the 2025 World Press Photo Award for a striking photo essay exposing the human cost of Indonesia’s nickel boom. The winning image, taken by Indonesian photojournalist Mas Agung Wilis Yudha Baskoro, captures ...

China Expands Strategic Reserve of Industrial Metals as Indonesia, Philippines Tighten Supply

China is quietly expanding its strategic reserves of key industrial metals, including nickel, just as Indonesia and the Philippines tighten export policies and raise mining royalties, reshaping global supply chains. Beijing’s stockpiling efforts and shifting supply dynamics in Southeast Asia are ...

Tracking China’s Dominance of the Transition Minerals Trade

U.S. and European leaders often talk about the importance of building China-free supply chains for transition minerals and other critical resources. While, for a lot of people, that may resonate among their constituents at home, the reality is that it's not ...

Indonesia’s Nickel Sector in Turmoil: Acquisition Proposal Amid Chinese Investor Bankruptcy Saga

Trouble seems to be brewing in Indonesia’s nickel sector.  One of the nation’s primary nickel smelters, PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI), is in an unprecedented crisis. Its troubles are deepened by its ties to a faltering Chinese parent company.
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