Rajpriya Gautam

The European Union  unveiled a $776 million infrastructure financing package for Africa  on Tuesday as part of its Global Gateway initiative that is aimed at challenging China’s growing influence in developing regions. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the new program during talks with the visiting Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki. The new funding will finance investments in transportation, digitization, and energy connectivity under the auspices of the Global Gateway. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber?...

High-level Chinese visits to Central and South America have become rare in recent years, so it was notable when Beijing’s special representative for the region embarked on a five-nation tour to  Mexico ,  Peru ,  Colombia ,  Venezuela , and  Bolivia . The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not release specific details about Qiu’s discussions, and it’s not clear if he was pursuing a specific agenda or if this was more of a relationship-building exercise. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post China’s Sp...

Coverage of the ongoing protests in China has been relatively muted in major African media markets like Kenya and Nigeria. Most outlets only covered the protests sporadically and mostly relied on Western news agencies.  Much more coverage  was dedicated to Africa-China issues, like trade and climate. In contrast, more attention is being paid in South Africa. The South African Broadcasting Corporation focused on the protests  with a long interview  with Thembisa Fakude, an analyst at the Africa-Asia Dialogues think tank and an analyst at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies.  Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Mo...

The prominent Kenyan daily The Standard this week published  a breathless front-page story claiming  that the U.S. government says it is concerned that China wants to leverage the Kenyan ports of Mombasa and Lamu for military use.  The article is misleading on a number of counts and warrants some debunking: Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post FACT CHECK: No, Kenya’s Lamu and Mombasa Are Not Being Targeted by the Chinese Military <div class="cap-padlock"> <svg version="1.1" xml:space=...

When Chinese football fans turned on their TVs to watch World Cup matches from Qatar,  there was a sense of disbelief over how tens of thousands of maskless fans were all packed together in stadiums  while millions of Chinese compatriots at home are still confined to their homes as part of the government’s strict Zero COVID policy. Once they started to realize that Qatar, like pretty much everywhere else, had long abandoned social distancing and mask protocols, furious Chinese netizens began to vent their anger on WeChat and other social media platforms, prompting an immediate response from state broadcast CCTV. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today ...

New research reveals fascinating patterns in Chinese overseas foreign direct investment in the nearly twenty-year period from 2003 to 2021. Not surprisingly, Asia has been the preferred destination, followed by Latin America, most of which has gone to Brazil, Chile, and other resource-rich countries in South America. The comparatively small share of FDI that’s gone to Africa during that period did take some scholars by surprise. “It is noteworthy that for all the ink spilled, Africa is basically a rounding error on the graph,”  observed University of Notre Dame China-Africa professor Joshua Eisenman . Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited ac...

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is considering hosting a third Belt & Road forum next year, the first time a major BRI event would be convened in China since the beginning of the pandemic.  The key question is whether China will relax its strict COVID travel restrictions or organize the event as a “closed loop” as it did with the Winter Olympics earlier this year.  (REUTERS) The Pentagon’s top policy official warned Middle Eastern countries that if they cooperate too closely with China on security issues, it could damage ties with the U.S.  Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl’s comments on Friday at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain point to mounting unease in Washington over China’s surging influence in the region, particularly among Persian Gulf countries.  (AXIOS) Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed t...

The long-delayed 609-kilometer China-Thailand high-speed standard gauge railway is once again a top priority for both sides following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Thailand last week, where the project topped the agenda in bilateral talks. With a price tag of $12 billion, this is one of China’s largest and most expensive BRI projects to date. Thai authorities are hoping to finish the first two stages by 2026 and have the entire project completed no later than 2026 — 14 years after it was first conceived. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the latest head of state to visit Vietnam as more countries look to expand their Asia engagement strategies beyond China.  President Museveni arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday for a three-day state visit  that will include talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Two weeks ago, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also traveled to Vietnam , and the Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. last week  accepted an invitation to come in January . Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn...

The creator of the widely-debunked  Chinese “debt trap” meme  is at it again with a new litany of breathless warnings about the risks developing countries take on when they borrow money from China.  Indian pundit Brahma Chellaney on Tuesday published a new article on the topic  in the normally dependable academic publishing site Project Syndicate. His piece was riddled with inaccuracies. Repeated factual errors aside, Challeney’s writing is important because it buttresses many of the powerful Indian and Western narratives that frame Chinese engagement in the Global South. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly...

While Western automotive industries are trying to figure out how to decouple their supply chains from the Chinese battery sector, Chinese commentators don’t seem particularly panicked.  In fact, the e-vehicle industry is being touted as a national victory. This becomes clear in this fascinating conversation between Yin Chengliang, an e-vehicle expert and the dean of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhang Weiwei, a Fudan University academic who’s emerging as a nationalist commentator. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a s...

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa will formally inaugurate the country’s new parliament building on Wednesday. The building was financed as a ‘gift’ by the Chinese government and built by Shanghai Construction Group Co. After the inauguration, Mnangagwa will deliver his annual State of the Nation Address. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Zimbabwe’s Chinese-Built Parliament Building Ready for Business <div class="cap-padlock"> <svg version="1.1" xml:space="preserve" ...

The United States and Europe could free themselves from their dependence on China for electric vehicle batteries by 2030, if they invest about $160 billion.  This is the key finding of a new Goldman Sach forecast, which extrapolated the long-term effects of new Western funding of the sector and a political turn towards decoupling from the Chinese industry.  Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Why Battery Decoupling Projections Could Be Way Off <div class="cap-padlock"> <svg version="1.1...

Chinese President Xi Jinping held dozens of quick sideline bilateral meetings with various international leaders over the past several weeks but few were as important as the one with Chile’s Gabriel Boric at the APEC summit in Bangkok on Friday. President Boric was elected earlier this year and is part of the leftist wave that swept across South American politics with a new slate of leaders  who are all eager to forge closer ties with China . But what makes Chile important to China is its location atop some of the world’s largest reserves of lithium — a key ingredient to power electric vehicle batteries. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited...

Tens of thousands of Brazilians waited in line for hours last week for their chance to get into a pop-up store in São Paulo that was open for just five days by Chinese fast fashion giant Shein. On the last day, the line was more than a kilometer long. Given that clothing prices in Brazil have surged 19% this year, it’s not surprising so many people were drawn to Shein’s incredibly low prices where everything on sale in the pop-up store was priced between $3 and $30.  Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Tens of Th...

Kenya’s Road and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen  was all smiles last week when Chinese ambassador Zhou Pingjian made a courtesy call to his office  in what appears to be an effort to show that ties between the two had not been impacted by the CS’s controversial decision to override secrecy clauses relating to the Chinese loan for the Standard Gauge Railway. Two weeks ago,  Murkomen provided the media and legislators copies of the loan agreement with the China Exim Bank  for the Standard Gauge Railway. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a sub...

The G77 bloc of countries together with China is reportedly going to propose a new “loss and damage” fund at the COP27 summit to provide finance to poor countries impacted by climate disasters.  The fund appears to be a repackaged version of the failed “climate adaptation fund” that wealthy countries balked at financing. Supporters say they hope the new initiative will be established before the next round of climate talks in Dubai in 2023.  (REUTERS) U.S. Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales called on all of Zambia’s creditors to accept debt write-offs.  Although he didn’t specifically mention Chinese creditors that own more than a third of Zambia’s external debt, he did say there was a “stinky debt’. “There’s a lot of shenanigans that went into the debt that the Zambian people are now saddled with for a generation,” he said during a Sunday interview on state television. (BLOOMBERG) Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. ...

The COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt,  will soon head into  its final stage when delegates will wrestle through the night to finalize the wording of the agreement.  The summit saw the emergence of major fault lines between the Global North and Global South, with China and India awkwardly straddling the divide. These conflicts are coming to a head as  lists of ‘possible elements’ [PDF]  circulate, setting up a tooth-and-nail fight around the final declaration. Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn Mor...

Chinese and African media professionals committed to working together to reshape media narratives about Africa-China relations. Delegates from the continent gathered in Nairobi for a seminar organized by the state-owned China Media Group. Aziz Hartley, editor-in-chief of the partly Chinese-owned Independent Media Group in South Africa, said, “ The African media has a responsibility to assist in the realization of China’s vision.” Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Seminar Highlights China-Africa Media Alignment <...

The South African analyst Steven Kuo wrote in a recent column in the financial daily Business Day that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s third term heralds a shift towards state-owned enterprises:  “That means there will be more Chinese private enterprises that are squeezed out of the domestic market and come looking for African partners to explore African markets.” Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Xi’s State-Centric Focus an Opportunity for Africa: Analyst <div class="cap-padlock"> <svg version=...

After three years of avoiding major in-person diplomatic engagements, Chinese President Xi Jinping re-emerged on the diplomatic stage with a flurry of at least eight bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Spread among the President’s schedule on Tuesday were meetings with three leaders from developing countries: Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More The post Ladies and Gentlemen, Xi Jinping is Back in the Diplomatic Game <div class="cap-padlock"> <svg version="1.1...

One observation that emerged from Tuesday’s flurry of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and various world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali was that President Xi stood at the flags waiting to greet his counterparts as if he was somehow hosting them in his own country. One might expect that in a third country, both leaders would approach one another from an equal distance. But that didn’t happen and consequently sparked a lot of frustration from observers in the United States who felt it diminished President Joe Biden. One observation that emerged from Tuesday’s flurry of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and various world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali was that President Xi stood at the flags waiting to greet his counterparts as if he was somehow hosting them in his own country. One might expect that in a third country, both leaders would approach one another from an equal distance. But that didn’t happen and consequently...

The G7 group of wealthy countries unveiled the first major initiative as part of its Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), which is ostensibly aimed at countering China’s dominance in financing infrastructure in developing countries. The coalition announced a $20 billion climate finance deal on Tuesday that will help Indonesia to transition from largely coal-based energy generation to cleaner renewable sources. Jakarta has pledged to cap carbon emissions from its power sector by 2030 and also aims to generate a third of its power from renewable sources, including wind and solar. The G7 group of wealthy countries unveiled the first major initiative as part of its Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), which is ostensibly aimed at countering China’s dominance in financing infrastructure in developing countries. The coalition announced a $20 billion climate finance deal on Tuesday that will help Indonesia to transition from largely coal-bas...

While much of the attention this week at the G20 summit in Bali will be on Monday’s meeting between the U.S. and Chinese presidents, in South Asia, many observers will be keeping a close watch on what happens between Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The last time the two were in the same room together at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand in September,  not only did they not say one word to each other, they didn’t even exchange glances. … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn More T...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz seemed visibly happy to be back in Southeast Asia over the weekend and specifically to be out of China.  Chancellor Scholz arrived in Hanoi on Sunday  to kick off  a four-day visit to Southeast Asia  that will also include a stop in Singapore. The German leader was joined by a 12-member business delegation (considerably smaller than the high-powered 100-member group that accompanied him to Beijing) who are all eager to look for ways to reduce their dependence on the China market for both sales and manufacturing. … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (1...

Indonesian President Joko Widodo confirmed that both Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden will attend next week’s G20 summit in Bali but said it’s still not certain if Russian leader Vladimir Putin will be there.  President Xi will spend much of next week traveling in Southeast Asia, first heading to Thailand for the APEC leaders summit and then on to Indonesia for the G20.  (BLOOMBERG) China’s top envoy for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, backed calls for more aid to developing countries on the opening day of the COP27 summit in Egypt.  Although Beijing is the world’s largest carbon emitter, it nonetheless appears to be aligning with developing countries that are calling on wealthy states to pay billions of dollars for damage caused by climate change.  (BLOOMBERG) … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to t...

The Angolan government has  signed a $450 million agreement  with the Portuguese infrastructure group Mota-Engil to run rail and logistics in the Lobito Transport Corridor, which connects Lobito Port to the mining zone in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. Mota-Engil is partly owned by China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC) and the deal increases the Chinese stake in the project, following  a deal last year  for China International Trust Investment Corp (CITIC) and Shandong Port Group to run operations at Lobito Port. The impetus behind the development is to cleave some of the DRC’s mineral exports away from South Africa’s Durban Port.  … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Globa...

Kenya’s Supreme Court will rule  on the legality of the country’s Standard Gauge Railway contract. Opponents say the contract being awarded to China Road and Bridge Corp contravened Kenya’s competitive tender rules. The ruling  will come  in the wake of renewed controversy as the incoming Transport Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen, released financing agreements for the SGR. The full contract has yet to be made public. It is unclear what the legal implications will be if the Supreme Court finds the contract to be invalid and how it will affect Kenya-China relations. … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Y...

As former colonial powers like France and the United Kingdom lose their relevance in West Africa, the region is  pivoting to China . This trend comes as China’s own confidence in West Africa is growing, despite relatively slow engagement compared to other parts of the continent.  A new policy brief  from the Peace Research Institute Oslo, led by the prominent Africa-China researcher Ilaria Carrozza, compares China’s growing influence in two West African countries: Ghana and Senegal. … Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis. Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations. Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South. China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening. Subscribe today for unlimited access. Monthly $15/mo OR Yearly $149/yr (17% Savings) Already a subscriber? Log in Click Here to Learn Mo...