Rajpriya Gautam

Finance Ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20  will convene an extraordinary meeting on November 13th  in a bid to come up with a more robust debt relief plan for the world’s poorest countries. A couple of weeks ago when this same group got together, they weren’t able to come up with much beyond a lowest-common-denominator agreement that  extended the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) by 6 months . They also agreed at that last meeting to a  common framework  to restructure bilateral debt, an issue that China initially opposed. Now, at this upcoming conference, analysts will be checking if the ministers apply that common framework to enact more sweeping debt relief initiatives for several countries at once, rather than on a one-by-one basis as they’ve done to date. Regardless, China will remain an obstacle. While Beijing insists that it’s committed to working with the DSSI framework,  it has doing so bilaterally with borrowing countries  rather than coordi

After Angola and Zambia, Kenya is high on the list of countries at risk of encountering severe debt distress due in part to extensive borrowing from China to fund major infrastructure projects like the Standard Gauge Railway and, more recently, its seemingly insatiable appetite for more debt.  In August, Kenya’s national debt broke the psychologically important Sh7 trillion barrier with external debt  growing by 15.6% in the March to August period  of this year alone. Kenya’s Borrowing at Lower Rates But Its Weakening Currency Makes Everything More Expensive COST OF BORROWING : Taxpayers forked out $5.9 billion to service Kenya’s public debt in the year to June 30, a report by the Treasury shows, marking a 23% drop from the previous year. “The decline of debt service was on account of decline to lower repayment of commercial debt,” Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said in the annual public debt management report to Parliament. (BUSINESS DAILY) KENYA’S TUMBLING CURRENCY:   

With physical trade fairs all shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese trade promotion authorities are experimenting with new virtual models.  On Monday, a China-Africa virtual expo kicked off, reportedly with more than a thousand exhibitors  from both regions and organizers say they’re confident that some 10,000 people will attend the week and a half event. Rwanda’s ambassador to China, James Kimonyo, delivered the opening address and yesterday Kenya’s envoy to Beijing, Sarah Serem, spoke as well. R ead more on the event on the China Daily website. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. SUBSCRIBE: $15 per month SUBSCRIBE: $149 per year -17% Savings The post China Launched a Virtual T

The United States threw a wrench into the selection process for the World Trade Organization’s next Director-General when it moved on Wednesday to block the appointment of Nigerian-American Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to support its preferred candidate Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister. Washington’s stated reason for backing Yoo over Okonjo-Iweala was that Yoo comes to the job with far more actual trade experience.  The Trump administration is certainly not going to make any friends with this decision, especially in Africa where Okonjo-Iweala is very popular. But that may not be the point. The Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia, among other observers, speculated that the White House may want to support Yoo’s candidacy out of fear that Okonjo-Iweala’s development background  may bias her towards China’s interests , particularly in places like Africa where Beijing’s influence is especially pronounced. This move again highlights U.S. isolation within the international community

Algeria’s new Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in Africa,  hosted its first public prayers yesterday  — 18 months after the China State Construction Engineering Corporation completed construction. The new mosque,  known locally as the Djamaa El-Djazair , occupies 27.75 hectares (almost 70 acres) and can accommodate as many 120,000 people. China’s role in building the facility strikes many as ironic, particularly in the U.S. and Europe who closely follow events in Xinjiang where China has interned more than a million Uighur Muslims. For example, news of the opening of the Grand Mosque on Wednesday  prompted an interesting exchange on Twitter  between Hong Kong-based CNN journalist  Jenni Marsh  and Wake Forest University Assistant Professor  Lina Benabdallah : JENNI MARSH : “It is kind of amazing that China has built Africa’s largest mosque, considering its assault on Islam on home soil.” LINA BENABDALLAH : “Not that surprising actually. It was transactional. The only people on the

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, sparked widespread outrage on Tuesday when he called for the government to step in and begin to censor online content. “If we don’t regulate social media, it will destroy us,”  he told a House committee . “The biggest challenge facing Nigeria today is fake news and misinformation,” Minister Mohammed told legislators. In his testimony, the minister used  China as an example of a country that successfully regulates social media  and other online content. But it’s not entirely clear how familiar he is with China’s all-encompassing control of digital media and the lengths Beijing goes to remove all content the government deems objectionable. Minister Mohammed’s suggestion of enhancing the government’s control of the internet comes amid the worst social instability in Nigeria in years following a week of protests against police brutality. But while the government may try to take advantage of the current crisis to get legislatio

The Chinese-inspired model of government control over digital communications and internet activity is becoming increasingly popular in a number of African countries. While no African country goes to the lengths that China does in regulating online behavior, states like Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Ethiopia are definitely employing many of the same tactics first introduced by China to control information, monitor dissidents, and regulate online content. These government surveillance capabilities are further enhanced by the fact that new Chinese-built telecom networks across the continent  make it easier than ever to impose enhanced control . How Chinese-Style Internet Control is Making Its Way to Africa LESOTHO:  Social media users with more than 100 followers to register with the Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) as “internet broadcasters.”  (QUARTZ) KENYA:  New, proposed legislation would require bloggers, among others, to register with the authorities.  (DEFENCEWEB)

Zambia’s Secretary to the Treasury Fredson K. Yamba announced that his office has reached a debt restructuring agreement with the China Development Bank on one of its loans. It’s important to note that the statement explicitly mentions a single loan and does not refer to CDB’s broader loan portfolio in Zambia. The following is a transcript of Secretary Yamba’s statement: The Government of the Republic of Zambia (the “Government”) is very pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with the China Development Bank (“CDB”) to defer debt service in respect of a commercial loan facility insured by Sinosure. Under the terms of our agreement with CDB, interest and principal due on 25th October 2020 will be deferred.  The deferred interest payment is now payable on 25th April 2021 and the deferred principal rescheduled over the life of the facility. Reaching this agreement is an important milestone for Zambia in our debt relief efforts. This was made possible thanks to CDB’s a

The President of the self-declared state of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi,  met with Taiwan’s envoy to Hargeisa  this week for talks. Back in Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen took note of the meeting and  retweeted a photo  of the two officials bumping shoulders. President @musebiihi , glad to see our collaboration is bearing fruit. As fellow democracies, I'm sure there is a bright future ahead for the #Taiwan – #Somaliland partnership. https://t.co/cfIp6BcKLV — 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) October 27, 2020 China, so far, has not tried to block Taiwan’s entreaties with Somaliland, which is a bit unusual given how determined Beijing has been in the past to restrict Taipei’s international engagements. Some observers suggest that because Somaliland is technically not a country, the Chinese government isn’t really that concerned about this situation. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping Ch

U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion to the Sudanese and Israeli prime ministers in a call last weekend that Egypt might “blow up” the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam if Cairo and Addis Ababa can’t reach a settlement, is not sitting well at all in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador, Mike Raynor, to explain the president’s comments and among civil society stakeholders in the press and social media, there’s a widespread sense of being “betrayed” by Washington. The President’s comments come at an awkward time for the United States in Africa after a steady stream of high-level officials ranging from Defense Secretary Mark Esper to Under Secretary of State Keith Krach has visited the continent in recent weeks to argue that the U.S. is a more reliable partner than China. Ethiopia, in particular, is strategically vital to both the U.S. and China given its strategic location, its emergence as a manufacturing hub, and its diplomatic significance as home

Oxford University Russia scholar Samuel Ramani is closely following Algeria’s recent talks with the U.S., China and Russia and observed that Washington is making much headway in discouraging Algiers from distancing itself from its two rivals. Ramani regularly comments on Russia-China-Africa issues on Twitter. You can follow him at  @SamRamani2 . Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. SUBSCRIBE: $15 per month SUBSCRIBE: $149 per year -17% Savings The post Researcher: U.S. Efforts Against Russia and China in Algeria Not Showing a Lot of Progress appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2020/10/28/researcher-u-s-efforts-against-russia-and-china-in-al

In less than three weeks, a group of Zambian bondholders, mostly in New York and London, will reconvene to vote on whether or not to approve Lusaka’s request for a six-month repayment holiday on about $3 billion of Eurobond notes that are coming due. These private creditors have made their demands to the government clear: give us a plan that clearly shows the extent of Zambian debt to Chinese creditors and provide us with assurances that the International Monetary Fund has agreed to step in with a debt restructuring program.  Most importantly, bondholders want to ensure the principle of “equal treatment” is applied to all creditors. There’s been widespread concern over the lack of transparency on the part of the Chinese and Zambian governments throughout this whole process and that any debt settlement would unfairly benefit Chinese creditors. Last week, bondholders gave the Zambian finance ministry a brief reprieve until November 13th to come up with a plan. If Zambian officials fai

While Zambia tries to figure out how if/how it plans to restructure its $12 billion debt portfolio, government coffers stand to benefit from resurgent copper prices, a major source of export earnings. The price of copper recently touched a two-year high on the London Metals Exchange at $7,000 per metric ton . The economic recovery in China, according to investors, is helping to boost the price of the red metal.  It’s still not clear what impact higher copper prices will have on the government’s overall finances, especially in the short term. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. SUBSCRIBE: $15 per month SUBSCRIBE: $149 per year -17% Savings The post Zambia Stands to Benefit From Rising Copp

Zambia owes $27 billion to external creditors rather than the $12 billion figure that is widely circulated in the media, according to Brad Setser’s reading of World Bank data on external debt. Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, explained in a six-part Twitter thread that explained why Lusaka owes far more than is reported. Key Highlights From Brad Setser’s Analysis on Chinese Debt in Africa TRANSPARENCY:  “The lack of accurate data is a function of Chinese policy not to be transparent: in almost every country, the same three Chinese institutions (China Exim, CDB and ICBC) account for the bulk of exposure (the Commerce Dept has some zero rate concessional loans).” DSSI MISTAKE:  “The World Bank and the G-20 erred in focusing on public and publicly guaranteed debt — when a lot of China’s project finance has been kept off the public balance sheet.” Read the full analysis on Brad Setser’s Twitter page. Get a daily email packed with th

Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. SUBSCRIBE: $15 per month SUBSCRIBE: $149 per year -17% Savings The post Chart of the Day: Africa Doesn’t Have a Chinese Debt Problem, About 10 African Countries Do appeared first on The China Africa Project . source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2020/10/27/chart-of-the-day-africa-doesnt-have-a-chinese-debt-problem-about-10-african-countries-do/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chart-of-the-day-africa-doesnt-have-a-chinese-debt-problem-about-10-african-countries-do

China’s ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, took a swipe at U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien’s  recent accusations that Chinese loans to African governments are predatory . Even though the event where O’Brien made the comments took place more than a week ago, the critique clearly didn’t sit well with the ambassador.  Rather than directly target O’Brien, Chen chose to echo a statement made by Senegalese President Macky Sall , who also objected to O’Brien’s sentiments at the conference. Chen, who recently took up his new post in Pretoria, is China’s most senior diplomat in Africa. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly article limit. Subscribe today for unlimited access. SUBSCRIBE: $15 per month SUBSCRIBE: $149 per year -17% Savin

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian called out the United States for its role in maintaining international sanctions on Zimbabwe, especially during the pandemic. “The few countries and organizations, such as the United States, should lift illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe as soon as possible,”  said Zhao during his regular press briefing on Monday in Beijing . Zhao’s comments echo those from Wu Peng, China’s top diplomat for Africa, who Tweeted on Sunday who called for the “ unconditional lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe .” The U.S., though, doesn’t feel that it should be singled out for criticism regarding Zimbabwe sanctions. “Some falsely blame U.S. sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic crisis,”  said Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy . “The truth: the U.S. supports the Zimbabwean people with millions of dollars in assistance. U.S. sanctions target those who violate human rights or engage in corruption,” he added. The U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on the Zimbab

The London-based conservation group Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) published a damning report on Monday that details “appalling” human rights violations aboard Chinese-owned fishing trawlers that operate in Ghanaian waters. The report details extensive exploitation of local crew members by Chinese managers that range “ from beatings to a lack of drinkable water or basic medicines and punishing working hours .” In its recommendations, EJF calls on the Ghanaian government to immediately launch an independent investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses and labor violations aboard trawlers operating under its flag. The group also called for enhanced protection of whistleblowers who report violations. Key Highlights From EJF’s Report on Human Rights Violations Aboard Chinese Fishing Trawlers Operating in Ghana BEATINGS : “Ghanaian crew members experience regular violence when sorting fish –if the fish are not sorted quickly enough or to the satisfaction of the ca

Lingnan University (Hong Kong)  Assistant Professor Roberto Castillo  is widely regarded to be among the world’s foremost scholars on Africa-China race relations. With his students all stuck at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Professor Castillo decided to try something different than the usual Zoom calls that he uses to engage his students and instead posted a lecture on YouTube for his students that serves as a master class in contemporary issues related to race and racism in Africa-China relations. In particular, Professor Castillo spends a lot of time reviewing the dramatic events that unfolded in April in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou when d ozens, possibly hundreds of black and African residents were evicted from their homes and hotels , sparking a widespread outcry. The incident remains highly contentious within large swathes of African civil society. Key Highlights From Professor Castillo’s YouTube Lecture on Race and Racism in Africa-China Relations [9:48] AVOID

The United States  brought its campaign against Huawei to Egypt  as part of a global effort to promote Washington’s new “ Clean Network ” initiative that aims to build an alternative to China’s dominance in the international telecom networking market. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, Keith Krach, made the pitch  during a three-day visit to Cairo last week that ended Friday  and included talks  with Egyptian trade minister Navine Gamea. The U.S. claims that it has 40 “ like-minded ” countries and 60 telecom companies already signed up for its “Clean Network” and seems to think it has a chance to peel Egypt away from becoming increasingly dependent on Chinese tech. Although Huawei has a very strong presence in Egypt and  has run 5G tests there , it’s still not clear whether the Chinese company will win the contract to build the country’s next-generation mobile communications network. Keith Krach’s Comments on China During His Recent Visit to E

Opposition National Democratic Congress presidential candidate John Mahama scolded the government for releasing Chinese nationals caught engaging in illegal artisanal mining (locally known as galamsey) while locking up locals for doing the same thing. “Our youth have been imprisoned for their involvement in galamsey, but it is surprising that a Chinese national and galamsey queen was arrested for the same crime and later freed and repatriated to her country,” he told supporters recently on a campaign swing through western Ghana. Mahama, who served as president from 2012 to 2017, said if he is elected again he will grant amnesty to those convicted of galamsey. Read  the full story on the Ghana Business News website. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Connect with leading professionals on the China- Africa Experts Network. You've reached your free monthly

Neither China’s recent cobalt buying binge nor a declaration of a state of emergency by U.S. President Donald Trump about securing the supply chains for strategic minerals, including cobalt, have been enough to boost the price of the chemical element, which is used to make batteries for electric cars and other electronics. As of last week, the cobalt spot price was $14.96 per pound, down from $15.41 last month. The bulk of the world’s cobalt supply is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where Chinese mining interests increasingly dominate both extraction and processing of this vital resource. Strategic Minerals: A New Front in the U.S.-China Conflict CHINA STOCKPILING:  China’s cobalt metal imports hit a record high in August. A total of 1,130 tonnes of cobalt was delivered to China in August, an increase of 245% from the prior month and 421% higher than the same month of last year, according to Chinese customs data. August’s volume is the highest monthly amount ever.  (FAST M