Chinese lenders have used legal contracts to give them a hidden advantage over other creditors when lending to low-income countries, in a trend which threatens to undermine global debt relief efforts, according to research. Many of the contract terms were… Read More ›

Africa
What Africans really think about China’s role in Africa
It’s been 20 years since the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was first held. Another summit is planned for September 2021 in Dakar, Senegal. Meanwhile, Chinese and African officials are reviewing and reflecting on their two-decade relationship. China’s growing engagement with… Read More ›
Sino-African relationship: Win-win or debt trap diplomacy?
China has had unparalleled involvement and success in Africa across trade, investment, and infrastructure financing in the past decade. As Africa’s biggest trade partner and the largest supplier of overseas construction projects, the Sino-African relationship is transforming the African economy… Read More ›
African nations, US decry racism against blacks in China
African officials are confronting China publicly and in private over racist mistreatment of Africans in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the U.S. says African-Americans have been targeted too. Some Africans in the commercial hub have reported being evicted or… Read More ›
China’s future in Africa
China has great goodwill in Zimbabwe, South Africa and other African countries. However, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Minister may have jeopardised that by offering praise for the recently deceased Robert Mugabe. Mugabe had become as hated in Zimbabwe… Read More ›
Japan cannot stop China from owning Africa
Japan cannot stop China from owning Africa. When it comes to votes of African nations in international agencies, that is. It’s too late. China already owns the votes of most Africa nations. Japan has a new mission in Africa: to… Read More ›
Africa News explains why Africa will choose Huawei
Africanews’ June 6 article “Why Africa will choose Beijing in ongoing US-China trade war” provides valuable information to support my May 22 comment here that Africans have a decisive role in shaping Huawei’s global future. “… Much of the continent’s… Read More ›
Science journal ‘Nature’ says Chinese investments fuel growth in African science
“… US hegemony is the result of objective material conditions … the perpetuation of US primacy is a matter of policy …” (Layne 2006, p.12) It is one of the most academically known conceptions about ‘Hegemony’ stipulated by Christopher Layne… Read More ›
Huawei’s global future? Africans have a decisive role
After being cut off by service providers like Google and hardware suppliers including Intel, Qualcomm and Xilinx, Huawei’s future in the OECD countries is definitely dim. Populous Asian countries like India, Indonesia and the Philippines, with sizable markets, will probably… Read More ›
China and Russia to challenge US Air Force supremacy in East Asia?
Reuters reported on Nov 16 that the “U.S. military will withdraw hundreds of troops focused on counterterrorism operations in Africa over the next several years to support the Pentagon’s increased focus on countering threats from China and Russia, officials said… Read More ›
Would increasing Interracial Marriages help boost China’s rise?
“Interracial marriages between Chinese and Africans are on the rise as a direct result from China’s increasing investment in, and trade with Africa. More than a million Chinese migrants now work and live on the African continent, while the number… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, July 23, 2018
Central planning has only so much room for slight of hand tricks to keep up its sleeve. When the going gets tough, everyone goes home. For China, that means devaluing its currency, a complaint Trump has long lobbed against the… Read More ›
African selfies and Chinese adaptation
Transsion, a little known Chinese smartphone manufacturer, outsells Samsung and Huawei in Africa by grapping 40 percent of the market with its two brands — Tecno and itel, here. There are two reasons: “Everyone in the world loves selfie, and… Read More ›
Will scarcity lead to anarchy in China?
Renowned American journalist Robert D Kaplan warned the West that, in the light of the quick deterioration of the arable land quality in interior China due to “deforestation, loss of topsoil and salinization”, when China’s population has reached “1.54 billion… Read More ›
Lifeline for elephants: Ivory price halves in China after President pledges ban
The price of raw, illegal ivory has almost halved in China in the past 18 months because of growing public awareness, a promise from President Xi Jinping to ban the trade, a far-reaching anti-corruption drive and a slowing economy, according… Read More ›
China pledges $60 billion in funding support to Africa
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Friday that the country will pledge a new round of funding support to Africa‘s development, worth $60 billion. Analysts had wondered if the pace of Chinese investment in Africa would slow, particularly in infrastructure projects,… Read More ›
China says its military base in Djibouti may harm America’s vital interests in Africa
The following is based on a translation of a report in Chinese media: Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao reported that according to AFP, President Guelleh of Djibouti, a small eastern African country, said that his country was discussing with China the establishment… Read More ›
China and Africa forge new trade alliances on ancient routes
Africa Brings New Trade and Challenges to World Economies. China and India’s new-found interest in trade and investment with Africa—home to 300 million of the globe’s poorest people and the world’s most formidable development challenge—presents a significant opportunity for growth… Read More ›
China is getting ready to surge troops into Africa to protect its economic interests
Chinese activities in Africa have expanded massively during the last decade. To be sure, most of this has been purely economic — such as bartering access to natural resources in exchange for loans. But these money-making activities have grown so… Read More ›
China’s ivory craze kills 100,000 elephants
China‘s skyrocketing appetite for ivory is leading to the unsustainable slaughter of African elephants. As prices for precious ivory goods have surged in China, the number of poached elephants has also escalated. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, said… Read More ›
China is most at risk for Ebola outbreak because of Chinese workers in Africa
While international fears continue to rise as Ebola crosses international borders and continents, China still has not reported a confirmed case of the deadly virus. But Professor Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine… Read More ›
Has China found the cure for Ebola?
A Chinese pharmaceutical company working with Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), a PLA-affiliated research institution, claims to have developed an experimental cure for the Ebola virus. An outbreak of the deadly virus in west Africa has become a global… Read More ›
Chinese people’s bad behaviour causes poor image in Africa, negative international rating
It’s perhaps coincidence, but Reuters’ report on China’s Xi Jinping not making global impact comes on the same day when Hong Kong newspapers SCMP and Ta Kung Pao report on China’s poor image in Africa due to Chinese people and… Read More ›
Susan Rice attempts to solve the Japan-China deadlock
Sending Caroline Kennedy, a household name in the United States, to Japan as the ambassador indicates that President Obama has realised there is no better choice than using the tension in East Asia to capture and retain the attention of… Read More ›
Fourteen Chinese nationals arrested for poaching ivory in Gabon
Fourteen Chinese nationals have been arrested for poaching at a wild life reserve in Makokou, capital of Ougooué-Ivindo province, northeast of Gabon. The men were arrested by agents of the National Agency for National Parks following a tip-off from a… Read More ›
The American military is using Chinese satellites
U.S. forces are so heavily saturated with different communication devices that if not transmitted by satellite would cause serious problems. Data flow is so great that there are no adequate available satellites. The Pentagon has quietly hired a Chinese satellite,… Read More ›
Is China secretly hoarding the world’s fish?
It looks like rare earth elements aren’t the only commodity China has been allegedly keeping to itself. According to a recent study published in the journal Fish and Fisheries, the Chinese have been drastically underreporting the number of fish that Chinese ships catch… Read More ›
Xi Jinping begins African tour in Tanzania amid anti-China sentiment
Chinese President Xi Jinping began on Sunday a tour of Africa that underlines the continent’s strategic importance to China both for its resources and as a market place, signing more than a dozen trade and cooperation deals with Tanzania. Visiting,… Read More ›
Nigeria warns Africa to view China as a competitor and beware of it’s imperialism
Africa must shake off its romantic view of China and accept Beijing is a competitor as much as a partner and capable of the same exploitative practices as the old colonial powers, Nigeria‘s central bank governor has warned. Reflecting the… Read More ›
From elephants’ mouths, a shameful and illicit trail of ivory to China
Asian demand every year is about 220 tons of raw ivory: equalling the lives of roughly 20,000 elephants. Chinese investors have anointed it “white gold.” Carvers and collectors prefer the term “organic gemstone.” Smugglers, however, use a gruesome straightforward name… Read More ›
Is Chinese foreign aid better for africa?
There is a new kid in town and its name is the People’s Republic of China. Its entrance into the rich and elite foreign aid club has redefined the foundations of foreign aid. At last summer’s Conference of the Forum… Read More ›
China’s narrow focus on oil in South Sudan won’t work says U.S. envoy
China needs to move beyond a narrow focus on oil issues in South Sudan and help tackle that country’s larger political disputes with Sudan, the outgoing U.S. special envoy to the two African states said on Wednesday. Ambassador Princeton Lyman… Read More ›
China supplying Africa with guns
The Chinese are bidding to beat the US as the largest source of illicit small arms. China’s aggressive new strategy to sell weapons in Africa was on clear display at a recent defence exposition here. The pavilion for Chinese manufacturers was… Read More ›
In Africa’s warm heart, a cold welcome for Chinese
Malawians bill their country as the “Warm Heart of Africa” and pride themselves on a reputation for friendliness. But Jaffa Shaibu, a burly 32-year-old merchant in a clothes market in Salima, a dusty town near the shores of Lake Malawi,… Read More ›
Increasing hostility towards Chinese traders in Southern Africa
In the last decade, Asian migrants have fanned out through southern Africa, opening shops in small towns and rural backwaters. While consumers in countries facing increasing economic hardships have come to depend on their low prices, local shop owners complain… Read More ›
China flooding globe with cheap steel
China is ramping up its global exports of cheap steel, sometimes at a loss, as bulging stocks of the alloy give way to a worsening domestic demand picture for the commodity consuming giant. Slowing construction and industrial activity has hit… Read More ›
Elephants slaughtered to provide ivory to China
In 30 years of fighting poachers, Paul Onyango had never seen anything like this. In Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young ones, were clumped together on the open savannah, many killed by… Read More ›
China seeking to dominate African news media, complete with censorship and propaganda
China’s investment prowess and construction know-how is widely on display in the long-congested Kenyan capital of Nairobi. A ring road and the nation’s first superhighway are being built and partly financed by Beijing. The international airport is undergoing a $208 million… Read More ›
China’s firm grip in Africa – a lesser of two evils
We heard a somewhat mystifying comment from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week warning of a “new colonialism” in Africa from foreign investors and governments interested only in extracting natural resources to enrich themselves. No culprits mentioned… Read More ›
Can China extend its colonisation to Africa?
It seems that no Western power has succeeded in their colonisation in the past, and their influence in their previous colonised countries is limited now. However, Chinese people were extraordinarily successful in their colonisation in South East Asia when China… Read More ›