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Ericsson Sues Transsion in Nigeria, Brazil, and India
The Swedish phone-maker Ericsson has started legal action against the Chinese mobile company Transsion in Nigeria, Brazil, India, and the Unified Patent Court. The suit accuses Transsion of patent infringement. The Swedish company alleges that Transsion avoided entering a patent licensing ...
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South Korea Says DeepSeek Removed From Local App Stores Pending Privacy Review
By Kang Jin-kyu South Korean authorities said Monday that DeepSeek would not be available from local app stores pending a review of the Chinese AI startup's handling of user data. DeepSeek's R1 chatbot stunned investors ...
UAE to Launch DeepSeek-Inspired AI Models: Senior Official
By Talek Harris The United Arab Emirates is planning to launch new artificial intelligence models inspired by China's DeepSeek, a senior official told AFP, calling the system's disruptive emergence "fantastic news." Faisal Al Bannai, the ...
Chinese-Language Media Abuzz Over Rumors Huawei is Now China’s Largest Beef Importer Thanks to Argentina
Reports are circulating on mainstream media outlets in both China and Taiwan that Huawei has become China's largest importer of beef that it sells online with other agricultural products. Chinese netizens were seemingly puzzled by the reports that not only appeared on ...
China’s Big Push to Dominate the Egyptian Automotive Market
Chinese auto brands are revving up to capture an even bigger share of the Egyptian vehicle market, one of the three largest in Africa. The state-run auto major BAIC Motors opened a flagship dealership in Cairo this week to boost sales ...
Rogue Angolan Police Allegedly Extorted Money From Suspected Chinese Bitcoin Miners
Nearly two dozen Angolan police officers raided a suspected Chinese bitcoin mining operation outside of Luanda on Tuesday, violently forcing their way past security guards to enter the premises. Once inside, the police were confronted by the Chinese factory managers who ...
China Shows Off Latest Version of Its Weaponized Robot Dog in Cambodia
This year's Golden Dragon 2024 exercises between the Cambodian and Chinese militaries is wrapping up this week. And while this was the first time the two navies engaged in joint maritime drills, the lasting impression of this year's event will likely be that of a robotic dog ...
Chinese Mobile Phone Giant Transsion Delivered Outstanding Financial Results, But Investors Still Ditched the Stock. Why?
Transsion, the world's fourth largest phone company that dominates the device market across large swathes of the Global South, shed a stunning $2 billion of its market cap in a single day last month after investors dumped the company's stock en masse. What's ...
EU Chief Calls on China to Pressure Iran Over Weapons Sales
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a direct appeal to visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping to help curb Iranian weapons sales in the Middle East. “We believe that China can play an important role in limiting the irresponsible ...
China Still Dominates Apple’s Supply Chain in Asia
Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent visit to Southeast Asia prompted a lot of discussion about the company's drive to diversify its supply chain to reduce its reliance on China. While Apple is definitely shifting some production capacity to other countries in Asia, ...
Chinese Satellites Track the Destruction in Gaza
Nearly 60% of all the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed since the beginning of the war between the Palestinian-militant group Hamas and Israel on October 7th, according to Chinese satellite imagery. Scholars from Wuhan University presented their findings last week ...
Philippine Government Disavows Deepfake Audio of President Marcos Directing Military to Act Against China
A video of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. purportedly ordering the Philippines Armed Forces to take action against China circulated widely on YouTube on Wednesday, prompting an immediate response from the president's communications team who denounced it as a "deepfake." The audio on ...
The Long Arm of Chinese Law Enforcement in Southeast Asia
Two China Eastern planes chartered by the Ministry of Public Security arrived in Wuhan from Cambodia on Sunday carrying the last batch of 680 telecom fraud suspects apprehended in a joint Sino-Cambodian police operation earlier this month. Soon after they disembarked, ...
The State of Chinese Tech in Africa With Benjamin Dada
For much of the past ten years, Chinese technology in Africa focused largely on devices and infrastructure. But today, the conversations also include issues related to governance, online services, and the emergence of artificial intelligence. ...
BYD is Launching Its Next Gen Blade EV Battery and That’s Really Bad News for Both DR Congo, Indonesia
Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced the launch date for its next generation Blade EV battery that will be released in August with 27% more energy density than the current power pack. The new battery will also be sufficient for most cars to ...
Morocco Signs Agreement for EV Battery Plant With Chinese Company
The Moroccan government signed a $300 million agreement with China’s BTR New Material Group to build a plant in the port city of Tangier to produce cathodes used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The government considers this plant the first step ...
China Nearly Done With Its Aid Program to Bring Satellite TV to 10,000 Rural Communities Across Africa
It's been almost ten years since Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled a plan at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Johannesburg to install satellite television dishes in 10,000 rural African communities. Now, nine years later, only a few hundred installations are left.
India Test Fires New Nuclear Ballistic Missile That Now Puts Beijing Within Range
Prime Minister Narendra Modi proudly congratulated India's state-run Defense Research and Development Organization on Monday for the successful launch of an Agni-5 intercontinental ballistic missile that can travel up to 5,000 km, putting the Chinese capital, Beijing, within striking distance. The key ...
Two Chinese Research Vessels Operating in the Indian Ocean Are Making New Delhi Very Anxious
A pair of Chinese research ships currently deployed to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) have sparked renewed fears among observers in India that the vessels are gathering military intelligence. The ships, Xiang Yang Hong 01 and Xiang Yang Hong 03, are ...
Smartphone Sales Rebounded Last Year in Mideast and African Countries, Led by Chinese Brands
Smartphone sales in the Mideast and Africa rose sharply last year, led by Tecno, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings, which surpassed Samsung in market share for the first time. Overall, sales in the region increased by 30% in Q4 2023 ...
Huawei and South African Telco MTN to Build Tech Innovation Lab
Chinese electronics giant Huawei and South African telco major MTN signed an agreement on Wednesday to build a "Joint Innovation Technology Lab" that the two companies will use to support African research in AI, big data, and cloud computing, among other things.
BYD Launches Low-Cost Model in Mexico and Will Choose Site for Plant This Year
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD launched its Dolphin hatchback model in Mexico with a price tag around half that of the cheapest Tesla model. Stella Li, president of BYD Americas, stated that the company will choose a site for its new ...
BYD Is Not Planning to Enter the U.S. Market
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD is not planning to enter the U.S. market, according to Stella Li, CEO of BYD Americas, and will instead focus only on Mexico's domestic market with plans to construct a plant in the vicinity of Mexico City.
Ghana Installs 1,010 Rural Telephony Sites as Part of China-Backed Project
The Ghanaian government is at the halfway point to build out 2,016 telephony sites that will deliver new voice and data services to millions of rural residents. Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said 618 of the new towers are fully operational, with the remaining ...
China is Taking Advantage of Rock Bottom Cobalt Prices to Stockpile Huge Quantities of the Blue Metal
The Chinese government is leveraging a 40% plunge in the price of cobalt to further bolster its national strategic reserve of the blue metal used in advanced electronics and electric vehicle batteries. UK-based cobalt trading house Darton Commodities recorded a massive ...
Just Two Chinese Companies Account for More Than 50% of the Global EV Battery Market
Chinese companies remain firmly in control of the global electric vehicle battery market, with two companies accounting for more than half of the industry's entire production last year. Battery giant CATL and EV manufacturer BYD together had 53% of the total ...
China Rejects Philippine Cyber-Attack Accusations
The Chinese Foreign Ministry pushed back against claims by the Philippines government that hackers in China attempted to break into Manila's most sensitive computer networks. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the accusation on Wednesday and echoed earlier remarks by the ...
China Launches Egypt’s Newest Satellite Into Orbit
Egypt's NextSat-1 satellite blasted into space from a seaborne launch pad off the coast of Yangjiang in China's southern Guangdong province on Saturday. The small, microsatellite weighs only 67kgs and was shot into orbit on the back of a Jielong-3 (Smart Dragon-3) ...
China’s Maritime Research Has Military Role: Report
The government of Sri Lanka announced in early January that it is imposing a one-year ban on Chinese research vessels docking at its ports. Last year, Colombo got into a spat with India about allowing a Chinese ship to dock amid Indian fears about military surveillance.
Chinese EV Leader BYD to Launch in Indonesia
BYD, the Chinese car company that recently surpassed Tesla to become the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles, will launch its first products in the Indonesian market next week. As Southeast Asia’s largest market, Indonesia will be key to the regional rollout of ...
U.S. Becoming Increasingly Worried About Chinese EV Car Brands Setting Up Factories Across the Border in Mexico
The United States government is becoming nervous about the prospect of Chinese automakers building new factories in Mexico that would afford those new vehicles duty-free access into the U.S. market. MG, BYD and Chery are reportedly all in talks to build ...
Chinese Arms Arrive in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially received a consignment of weapons from China on Wednesday. The arms include armored fighting vehicles, personnel carriers, machine guns, and pistols. The weapons were handed over by China’s ambassador, Zhou Ding. While framing the consignment as a donation, Mnangagwa ...
Huawei is Going to Save Christmas in South Africa!
Chinese telecom giant Huawei wants to save South Africa from celebrating the Christmas holiday in the dark. The company's end of year marketing push in South Africa is focused on promoting its $3,400 Power-M battery back-up systems that can offset the ...
U.S. Counts on Tech Firms Like Nvidia and Apple to Improve Its Standing in Vietnam
The United States is laggard when it comes to foreign investment in Vietnam, not even among the top ten and far behind countries like South Korea, Japan and China. But that may soon change as more U.S. tech companies like Nvidia ...
iPhone Maker Foxconn to Invest $1.5 Billion in India as It Looks Beyond China
As it looks to build beyond China, Foxconn Technology will invest more than $1.5 billion in an Indian construction project to fulfill “operational needs,” the Apple supplier said Monday. Foxconn, based in Taiwan, has significant operations in mainland China. Foxconn’s factories ...
Huawei Expands Digital Power Products With New Distribution Deal in East Africa
The Chinese technology giant Huawei, once known only for phones and switches, is now pivoting quickly in East Africa to expand beyond telecommunications to new energy storage services in a new, rapidly expanding market. Huawei signed a distribution deal last ...
Chinese Stunt Fliers Hype Fighter Jets at Dubai Air Show
Seven Chinese-made J-10C fighter jets will take part in displays at the Dubai Airshow starting on Monday. They will be flown by the PLA Airforce’s Bayi Aerobatics team in-flight performances, including twenty different maneuvers. The exhibition is aimed at promoting the J-10C, a ...
Changan Becomes Latest Chinese Automaker to Break Ground in Thailand
Changan, one of China’s Big Four automakers, held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for its first assembly plant in Thailand, following other Chinese car sellers in a rapid expansion into Southeast Asia. The new manufacturing facility is located in Thailand’s auto hotspot ...
Democratic Republic of Congo Unveils Chinese-Built Data Center
DRC Prime Minister Sama Lukonde on Friday cut the ribbon on a new data center financed by China and built by Huawei. The minister said the center will improve data management and national financial performance. Huawei announced in March that it will ...
The U.S. Response to China’s Dominance of African Critical Minerals
Bloomberg correspondent Matthew Hill hosts a compelling eight minute mini-documentary on how the United States is now starting to mount a response to China's dominance of certain sectors of Africa's critical minerals supply chain.
Kenyan-Chinese Smartphone Assembly Plant Debuts
Kenyan President William Ruto launched the country’s first smartphone assembly plant earlier this week. Located in a town outside of Nairobi, the East Africa Device Assembly Kenya plant is a joint venture between Kenyan telecom companies Safaricom and Jamii and the Chinese mobile device dealer Shenzhen TeleOne Technology. ...
China Comes to Philippines Confrontation With Cameras Ready
In previous confrontations between China and the Philippines at sea, the Chinese were slow to release video and to rebut Philippine allegations of what transpired. Not this time. Chinese state media and influencers were quick ...
China Limits Exports of Graphite to Counter U.S. Technology Restrictions
The Chinese government announced it will soon restrict the export of three grades of graphite, a key ingredient in EV batteries and nuclear power plants, in retaliation for U.S.-led restrictions on technology sales to Chinese companies. China's Ministry of Commerce ...
China’s Space Plans Play Into India-Pakistan Tensions on Earth
If China’s upcoming mission to the moon succeeds, it will become the first country to collect samples from the dark side of the moon. China’s National Space Administration said planning for the Chang’e-6 mission is going smoothly. The mission will be notable for ...
China’s Two-Pronged Auto Export Strategy: EVs to the North, Gas-Powered to the South
Analysts are forecasting Chinese automakers will ship 5 million vehicles this year, solidifying the country's position as the world's largest auto exporter. But there's a stark discrepancy in terms of what kind of cars go where, according to Michael Dunne, one ...
Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema Does the Rounds of Shenzhen’s Tech Giants
Zambian President Haikinde Hichilema devoted the third day of his week-long China tour to visiting some of the country's largest tech companies headquartered in the southern megacity of Shenzhen. The president visited the headquarters of internet giant Tencent, automaker BYD and ...
Philippines and Chinese Coast Guard Face Off Again in South China Sea With the U.S. Air Force Overhead
The Philippines Coast Guard and Navy successfully outmaneuvered a Chinese blockade to bring food and other provisions to a remote outpost in the South China Sea -- but not before several harrowing confrontations with Chinese vessels that appeared determined to prevent the Filipino vessels from passing.
Japan Moves to Build China-Free EV Battery Supply Chain
Nishimura Yasutoshi, Japan's economy and industry minister, spent last week crisscrossing southern Africa on a five-nation tour at the behest of his country's auto industry that is looking for new supplies of the raw materials needed to power electric vehicles. Japan, like ...
Chinese Weapons Giant Norinco Wants to Expand Its Business in West Africa
The Chinese state-owned arms manufacturer Norinco opened a new sales office in the Senegalese capital Dakar this week as part of the company's effort to expand its business in West Africa. The company is already a major supplier to militaries ...
Backgrounder: The Chinese-Owned TV Company Beaming Into Africa
Researchers following Chinese media influence in Africa have long concentrated on StarTimes, a Chinese-owned satellite TV company rapidly expanding its influence across the continent. However, unlike Chinese state media outlets like CGTN, StarTimes isn’t simply a mouthpiece for Beijing, as made clear in a recent profile on ...
Tiktok Moves into E-Commerce, Music Streaming Across the Global South
Bytedance, the parent company of the Chinese social media giant TikTok, is racing to expand its business into e-commerce and other fields, in a bid to mimic the success of other Chinese e-commerce giants like Shein. The platform’s TikTok Shop, which allows ...
Indian Navy Transfers Fully Operational Warship to Vietnam, Adding Yet More Naval Hardware to the South China Sea
The Indian Navy gifted the Vietnam People's Navy with an aging yet still functioning warship on Saturday during a handover ceremony for the INS Kirpan in the central Vietnamese port city of Cam Ranh. The transfer comes one month after Indian Defense ...
Why Did Taiwan’s Foxconn Exit Indian Chip Deal? Chinese Columnist Drops Some Gossip
Earlier in July, the Taiwanese contract electronics maker Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, announced it was pulling out of a $19.5 billion deal to produce semiconductors in India. The joint venture between Foxconn and the Indian mining and metals firm Vedanta ...
Iraqi Air Force Denies Rumors It Agreed to Buy Chinese JF-17 Fighter Jets From Pakistan
Reports began circulating late last week that Iraq had finalized a deal to purchase 12 JF-17 Thunder fighter jets from Pakistan for $664 million. The news lit up Pakistani Twitter as hundreds of posts emerged celebrating the deal that would make ...
PLA Navy Tour of Africa Stops in the Republic of Congo
A weeks-long tour of Africa by a trio of Chinese warships continued with a stop in the Republic of Congo on Friday, where they were greeted by Defense Minister Richard Mondjo. The PLA Navy ships previously made stops in Nigeria, Ghana ...
Report: Suspected Chinese State-Backed Disinformation Campaign Targeting Latin America Detected
Suspected Chinese state-backed entities launched a series of Twitter accounts to disseminate pro-China messaging to audiences in several Latin American countries, including Paraguay, Costa Rica, Chile and Brazil, among others, according to the findings in a new report published by the U.S.-based cyber intelligence firm Nisos.
Timing of China’s New Germanium Export Restrictions Couldn’t Be Better for the DR Congo
China's announcement this month that it would limit the export of two metals used to manufacture semiconductors and other defense technologies could provide a huge opportunity for DR Congo's state-run mining company Gécamines which is planning to open a new mining facility for one of those resources.
China-Pakistan Cooperation on Weapons, Border Construction: Reports
Press outlets in India are reporting that Chinese entities are working with the Pakistani army to build infrastructure along the de facto India-Pakistan border (known as the Line of Control), which runs through the disputed Kashmir region. Reports allege that Chinese ...
Graph of the Day: Where Does China’s Coal Come From?
Finland's Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air recently published a fascinating report on recent fluctuations in China's coal imports. Imports have spiked due to politics-inflected resumptions of imports from Indonesia and Australia, as well as because of moves to ...
White House Pressed to Explain Muddled Response to Report About Chinese Spy Base in Cuba
The White House is defending its seemingly contradictory response to last week's Wall Street Journal report that claimed China is building a new base in Cuba to spy on the United States. When the report first came out, National Security Council Spokesperson ...
Huawei is Now the Must-See Stop in China for Visiting Global South Leaders
Honduran President Xiomara Castro is the third leader from a developing country in just the past two months to include a stop at a Huawei research facility during their state visit to China. Castro visited the telecom giant's Shanghai research ...
Chinese Battery Major Gotion Poised to Build Africa’s First Gigafactory in Morocco
The Sino-German electric vehicle battery major Gotion High-Tech is planning to build a massive new factory in Morocco that would produce electric car batteries and energy storage systems. The company signed an MOU with the Moroccan government last week in Rabat for a ...
Both Kenya and China Dismiss Reuters Report on Chinese Hacking as “Sheer Nonsense” and “Sponsored Propaganda”
The Chinese and Kenyan governments issued separate statements that blasted last week's report by Reuters that claimed Chinese hackers had penetrated the computer networks of eight Kenyan ministries. Citing security concerns, the report did not name any of the sources that ...
Chinese Hackers Targeted Kenyan Government on Debt: Report
Kenya is abuzz following an exclusive report by Reuters that Chinese entities repeatedly hacked Kenyan government computer networks. The report cites cybersecurity reports and government sources to allege that unidentified Chinese actors surveilled eight Kenyan ministries and government departments for three years. The campaign reportedly included the office ...
The Chinese EV That Comes With a Uniquely South African Feature: Load Shedding Back Up
Chinese EV major BYD will launch its new compact electric crossover next month in South Africa. The BYD Atto 3 is a pretty standard EV with a range of about 420km. While car buyers in other countries might fret over the ...
Chinese Brands Take a Hit as Smartphone Sales Slump in Mideast and African Countries
First-quarter smartphone shipments to countries in the Mideast and Africa slumped to their lowest level in seven years, with some of China's top device makers all losing share. High inflation and weak local currencies are largely to blame for the downturn, according to analysts at the technology ...
BYD Chairman Discuss Manuacturing, Sales Expansion With Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister
The chairman of the world's largest electric vehicle company, China's BYD, met with Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà in Hanoi late last week to discuss the company's plans to expand in the Southeast Asian country. BYD announced plans to build ...
U.S.-China Technology Competition in the Global South
The U.S. and China are waging a hard-fought battle today for dominance of global technology standards, particularly in emerging sectors like 5G mobile telecommunications. While China's access to markets in advanced economies is increasingly limited, tech companies like Huawei, ZTE, and ...
U.S.-China Technology Competition in Africa
African telecom operators have resolutely opposed U.S. calls to stop using Chinese networking hardware. In fact, Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese tech firms in recent years have significantly expanded their presence beyond networking to mobile money, data centers, and even new ...
Lessons For South Africa From China’s Tech Hub in Shenzhen
As South African policymakers plot their country's economic revival from the past several years of worsening economic crisis, boosting the country's tech industry is going to play a pivotal role in their plans. Grace Yuehan Wang, a researcher at the South ...
Chinese Mobile Phone Brands Want to do in Latin America What They’ve Done in Africa
Chinese mobile phone makers are steadily expanding their market share in Latin America where they're now among the top three brands in some of the region's largest markets including Mexico, Peru and Chile, according to data from the telecommunications research agency Counterpoint.
Chinese Mobile Phone Brands Lead Africa’s Mobile Phone Market Rebound
Chinese mobile phone brands led by Shenzhen-based Transsion hold firm to their places as the unrivaled market leaders in Africa's mobile phone market, according to second-quarter data from the technology research firm IDG: - 64% of all ...
MSA Capital is the Chinese VC Firm to Watch When it Comes to Investing in African Start-Ups
Announcing yet another early-stage Africa-focused company being backed by the Beijing-based MSA Capital is becoming a monthly ritual. African mobile money start-up PawaPay is the latest to attract MSA Capital financing as part of a $9 million seed round.
China’s Tech Lead in Africa Highlights B3W’s Biggest Problem
When Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump, many predicted that Trump’s foreign policy would soon follow him out the door. A few months down the line, it’s become clear that they agreed more frequently than expected even if their styles are very different. One example is ...
Nigeria-Based, Chinese-Backed Mobile Money Platform OPay Raises $400 Million From Softbank-Led Round
The Nigeria-based, Chinese-owned mobile payment platform OPay closed its latest funding round with $400 million of new investment in a deal that values the company at an impressive $2 billion. This latest fundraising round marks was led by Japanese ...
Huawei Launched Its New Android-Free Mobile Operating System That Will Likely Soon Find Its Way to Africa
Chinese technology giant Huawei launched its new mobile operating system Harmony OS on Wednesday as part of an effort to recover from U.S. sanctions that crippled much of its smartphone business. This new Google-free OS will debut in Asia ...
Be Wary of All Those “Hyperbolic” Reports Warning of the Dangers of Chinese Technology
The fear that China is going to export digital authoritarianism and repression to Africa is way overblown and oversimplified in Western media reports and think tank analysis cautions Iginio Gagliardone, a media scholar at Wits University in Johannesburg and one of the world's foremost scholars ...
CNN Ran a Story on Big Tech Expanding in Africa That Didn’t Mention a Single Chinese or European Company
CNN International broadcast a report over the weekend purportedly about "how big tech is expanding in Africa" yet the story only mentioned five major U.S. tech companies and not one from either Europe or Asia. This is somewhat odd given that ...
Naspers Stock Rises on White House Assurances That Proposed WeChat Ban Won’t be as Broad as Previously Feared
Investors in Africa's most valuable public company, Naspers, breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after hearing that any White House measures against WeChat and its parent company Tencent won't be as broad as initially feared. A Naspers subsidiary is Tencent's ...
The China-Funded Mobile Browser That’s Zeroing in on the African Market
Four years ago, Opera was most famous for Opera Mini, a simple data compression browser, gaining traction in African countries with high data costs. Today, Opera’s software holdings have developed into an interconnected nexus spanning file sharing, news, digital payments, ride hailing, food delivery and news.
OPay’s Failure Prompts Reflection in Nigeria’s Tech Community
Last week's announcement by the Chinese-owned Nigerian-based e-commerce and payments company OPay to suspend four of its services (ORide, OTrade, OCar, OFood) caught a lot of people by surprise. After raising an impressive $170 million in a Series B funding round last fall from some ...
Transsion’s VC Fund Makes First Investment in an African Fintech Start-Up; the Chinese-owned Opera Mobile Browser Well Positioned to Capitalize on Financial Services
International interest in Africa's burgeoning fintech sector dropped considerably in the first half of the year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but now we're starting to see some of the first signs of interest from Chinese VCs and other investors.
Consortium of Chinese Smartphone Makers Launch New Effort to Challenge Google’s Play Store’s Dominance
Four of China's largest smartphone makers have launched a new initiative to build an alternative app marketplace to challenge the dominant Google Play store. Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have come together to form the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA), a new platform for dev games, ...
Chinese Investors Have a Palpable Sense of Optimism About the African Market That Most Others Just Don’t Seem to Share
Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Aubrey Hruby shared her views about this weekend's "Netpreneur" competition organized by the Jack Ma Foundation in Accra, Ghana where she picked up on the same sense of optimism and excitement about the African market that Chinese investors seem ...
Jack Ma is the New Face of Chinese Soft Power in Africa
Forget CGTN, China Daily or the countless other propaganda outlets the Chinese deploy in Africa to exert soft power, none of them are capable of generating the kind of impact that Jack Ma did this past week with his business and wildlife conservation awards. ...
Huawei’s Surveillance Technology Program “Safe Cities” Now Active in 12 African Countries
The Washington, D.C.-based think tank CSIS published a new report today on the global reach of Huawei's "Safe Cities" products that include facial and license-plate recognition, social media monitoring, and other surveillance capabilities. CSIS researchers Jonathan Hillman and Maesea McCalpin provided a ...
China to Challenge Facebook’s Libra With Its Own Cryptocurrency and Africa Could be Huge Potential Market
A quick follow-up from the story we shared yesterday about how the dominance of Chinese mobile phone companies in Africa could create a "walled garden" that would exclude Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency Libra. Now, CNBC reports that the Chinese government is expediting the development of ...
Zimbabwe Expected to Lean on Chinese Expertise and Technology to Enforce New Cyber Crime Law
The Cyber Crime, Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill of 2019 was passed by president Emerson Mnangagwa’s cabinet this week, an important step towards it becoming law. It still has to be debated and approved by parliament, where Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu PF party has a majority.
Transsion IPO Proves the Promise of the African Market
This week's stunning stock debut of the Chinese company that dominates the African mobile phone market is definitive proof in the promise of the African market. Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings started trading this week on the NASDAQ-style Star exchange in Shanghai where its stock immediately shot up ...
China's Controversial Technology Partnership with South Africa
The Chinese and South Africa governments have signed a pact, or a "plan of action," where Beijing will provide a broad array of technology training, skills transfer and ICT development for South Africa's emerging technology sector. The ...
File image of an artisanal miner carrying raw ore at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe/File Photo
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Ange Kasongo The U.S. has made progress in its push to prise Congo's strategic minerals from China's orbit, but conflict, contested licences and compliance demands are still slowing Washington's advance into a region its rival dominates, diplomats and ...
Ericsson Sues Transsion in Nigeria, Brazil, and India
The Swedish phone-maker Ericsson has started legal action against the Chinese mobile company Transsion in Nigeria, Brazil, India, and the Unified Patent Court. The suit accuses Transsion of patent infringement. The Swedish company alleges that Transsion avoided entering a patent licensing ...
South Korea Says DeepSeek Removed From Local App Stores Pending Privacy Review
By Kang Jin-kyu South Korean authorities said Monday that DeepSeek would not be available from local app stores pending a review of the Chinese AI startup's handling of user data. DeepSeek's R1 chatbot stunned investors ...
UAE to Launch DeepSeek-Inspired AI Models: Senior Official
By Talek Harris The United Arab Emirates is planning to launch new artificial intelligence models inspired by China's DeepSeek, a senior official told AFP, calling the system's disruptive emergence "fantastic news." Faisal Al Bannai, the ...
Chinese-Language Media Abuzz Over Rumors Huawei is Now China’s Largest Beef Importer Thanks to Argentina
Reports are circulating on mainstream media outlets in both China and Taiwan that Huawei has become China's largest importer of beef that it sells online with other agricultural products. Chinese netizens were seemingly puzzled by the reports that not only appeared on ...
China’s Big Push to Dominate the Egyptian Automotive Market
Chinese auto brands are revving up to capture an even bigger share of the Egyptian vehicle market, one of the three largest in Africa. The state-run auto major BAIC Motors opened a flagship dealership in Cairo this week to boost sales ...
Rogue Angolan Police Allegedly Extorted Money From Suspected Chinese Bitcoin Miners
Nearly two dozen Angolan police officers raided a suspected Chinese bitcoin mining operation outside of Luanda on Tuesday, violently forcing their way past security guards to enter the premises. Once inside, the police were confronted by the Chinese factory managers who ...
China Shows Off Latest Version of Its Weaponized Robot Dog in Cambodia
This year's Golden Dragon 2024 exercises between the Cambodian and Chinese militaries is wrapping up this week. And while this was the first time the two navies engaged in joint maritime drills, the lasting impression of this year's event will likely be that of a robotic dog ...
Chinese Mobile Phone Giant Transsion Delivered Outstanding Financial Results, But Investors Still Ditched the Stock. Why?
Transsion, the world's fourth largest phone company that dominates the device market across large swathes of the Global South, shed a stunning $2 billion of its market cap in a single day last month after investors dumped the company's stock en masse. What's ...
EU Chief Calls on China to Pressure Iran Over Weapons Sales
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a direct appeal to visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping to help curb Iranian weapons sales in the Middle East. “We believe that China can play an important role in limiting the irresponsible ...
China Still Dominates Apple’s Supply Chain in Asia
Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent visit to Southeast Asia prompted a lot of discussion about the company's drive to diversify its supply chain to reduce its reliance on China. While Apple is definitely shifting some production capacity to other countries in Asia, ...
Chinese Satellites Track the Destruction in Gaza
Nearly 60% of all the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed since the beginning of the war between the Palestinian-militant group Hamas and Israel on October 7th, according to Chinese satellite imagery. Scholars from Wuhan University presented their findings last week ...
Philippine Government Disavows Deepfake Audio of President Marcos Directing Military to Act Against China
A video of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. purportedly ordering the Philippines Armed Forces to take action against China circulated widely on YouTube on Wednesday, prompting an immediate response from the president's communications team who denounced it as a "deepfake." The audio on ...