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Pacific Military Exercises Reveal Global South Countries’ Complex Choices

The Philippines joined other Global South countries like Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga in the U.S.-led Talisman Sabre military exercises currently taking place in Australia. The exercise, dubbed “the Olympics of war games,” has grown rapidly since its inception in ...

New Zealand Cuts Aid to Cook Islands Over China Deal

New Zealand has paused $18.2 million in development aid to the Cook Islands because of a recent cooperation agreement with China. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who is on an official visit to Beijing this week, said the small state didn’t consult New Zealand about the “breadth and ...

WEEK IN REVIEW: China Becoming Africa’s Go To Source for Weapons

The Nigerian military signed a deal with Chinese state-owned weapons manufacturer Norinco to set up a factory as part of an effort to develop a domestic arms production capacity in the West African country. The ...

China’s Quake Relief a Messaging Win

The first batch of Chinese emergency aid arrived in Myanmar on Monday. By then, Chinese rescue teams were on the ground in Myanmar and Thailand, and they had rescued six people. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun framed the response as a sign of China’s regional commitment: ...

Bridges, Yes, Bandages, No: China Won’t Fill America’s Aid Shoes

By Felix Brender 王哲謙 If former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson thought a week was a long time in politics, a single day in Trump’s America now feels like a political eon. This column was originally meant to dissect the implications of ...

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 ...

USAID’s Closure Threatens to Derail U.S. Involvement in the Lobito Corridor

U.S. participation in the Lobito Corridor project that aims to challenge China's dominance of African critical resource supply chains is now in jeopardy due to the Trump administration's decision this month to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). ...

China Provides Funding for Cambodian Demining as USAID Retreats

The Chinese government will give $4.4 million to advance the clearance of landmines in Cambodia. This follows the freeze in USAID funding dedicated to removing landmines left from the Vietnam War era. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Gutting Aid, U.S. Cedes Soft Power Game to China

By Shaun Tandon When President Donald Trump froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid, Cambodia was forced to suspend workers removing dangerous mines from the country  -- until China stepped in with the necessary funding. In ...

As U.S. Foreign Assistance Retreats, Will China Step In?

A widely shared Politico article argued on Monday that “China is quickly making moves to fill in gaps left behind by the Trump administration’s abrupt moves to almost entirely halt and wind down USAID operations worldwide, from the Indo-Pacific to South America.” 

Africa, China, and Trump’s World-Spanning Gamble on Foreign Assistance

The Trump administration’s decision to halt and review U.S. foreign assistance to developing countries instantaneously turned the United States from many countries’ biggest helper into their biggest problem. In the process, he kicked off a massive experiment. The research question ...

The Case for More U.S. Soft Power to Counter China in the Global South

China is one of the very few truly bipartisan issues in Washington today where there is near unanimous consensus that the U.S. must work to counter Beijing's growing influence around the world, especially in developing countries.

China’s Debt Fight Has High Stakes

We’ve covered Chinese lending to the Global South through the boom days of the BRI and the current debt busts cratering Zambia, Sri Lanka and other economies. One of the things we’ve learned is that China plays a weird dual role in the global development finance landscape. ...
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