Related Posts

China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: BasiGo Partnership For CATL Battery Systems Maintenance as E-Motorcycles Numbers Grow

This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Chinese automakers are reshaping the electric vehicle (EV) market with a tech-first strategy and competitive pricing. This is, ...

Motives That Matter: The Economic and Strategic Logic Behind China’s Power Sector Engagement in Africa

Why is China building power plants across Sub-Saharan Africa? What exactly motivates its involvement in the sector? What does it hope to gain, and what does this mean for countries on the receiving end of its infrastructure support? Is this simply a gesture of South-South solidarity, ...

Inside China’s Power Play: Understanding the Institutions Behind Africa’s Energy Projects

 China’s role in African power generation is substantial. Chinese-backed projects account for approximately 23 GW of installed generation capacity across at least 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – nearly 20 percent of the region’s total. This footprint reflects more than just a financial commitment; it signals ...

IMF Warns China’s Slowdown Could Hit Africa, Debunks Debt Trap Myth

The International Monetary Fund released a set of reports on Africa’s economic outlook and China’s shifting role on the continent. Overall, African economies are slowly rebounding after the double shocks of the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis. However, the IMF warns this recovery is endangered by constrained lending ...

African Leaders to Kamala Harris: We’re Going to Work With Both the U.S. and China

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Washington, D.C., after wrapping up a week-long, three-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa over the weekend. Before she left, Harris held a press conference on Friday with President Haikinde Hichilema, where she gently prodded China ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

Does China Sit Atop the Drone Throne?

By Lukas Fiala On Wednesday, it was reported that China donated four Type PMR-50 UAVs to Benin. Produced by China’s state-owned defense major NORINCO, the PMR-50 is a small, close-range drone and will reportedly support Benin’s counterterrorism efforts, likely by enhancing ...

What U.S. Policymakers Should Know About Chinese Basing Ambitions in Africa

U.S. military commanders regularly raise concerns about a possible second Chinese military base in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, despite rumors about possible footholds in countries like Equatorial Guinea, China’s strategic interest in Africa is relatively low, especially when compared with regions like Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Debunking Propaganda in the Debate Over “Western Private Creditor” Debt in Africa

In this short piece, I will use statistical data extracted from the World Bank's online database. The figures I will use here are for Africa as a whole, i.e. sub-Saharan Africa (the one most often referred to when talking about "African" debt) and North Africa. Figures are for the ...

China Daily’s Use of the Word “Investments” is Highly Misleading

A report in the state-run newspaper China Daily that touted China's "investments" in Africa's burgeoning sustainable energy sector was misleading and highlights a common problem surrounding the use of the word "investments" in the context of Chinese economic engagement on the continent.

World Bank: Don’t Blame the Pandemic For the Global South Debt Crisis

Two leading World Bank economists issued a stinging rebuke against policymakers in developing countries who have blamed the worsening debt crisis on the pandemic.  "The seeds were sown long before COVID-19," wrote Marcello Estevão and Sebastian Essl in a World Bank blog post ...

Speed is the One of the Key Hallmarks of Chinese Infrastructure Diplomacy in Africa

Chinese ambassador to the DR Congo, Zhu Jing, touted the rapid pace of construction of the new Kinsuka power station that's being built by Shanghai Power in the capital Kinshasa. Just 10 months after construction began, said Zhu on Twitter, the new station is more than 50% finished. ...