Author: Cobus van Staden
China, Africa and the Internet, Again
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa recently discussed African elections and, not surprisingly, the conversation became about China. The lawmakers latched on to a narrative that the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to ...
Vaccine Crossroads
At present we’re in a moment of both hope and fear. The vaccines are finally rolling out, and with them, we’re seeing a glimmer of a post-COVID world. But is that only a mirage? The decisions that will decide that answer are being made now. A ...
China Benefits from the West’s Shortsighted Vaccine Policy
Focusing on China-Africa issues on a daily basis now means a daily dose of vaccine news (in lieu of an actual vaccine dose.) This morning I gamely waded into a great new Slate explainer on the vaccine crisis, only to promptly lose my mind. The article outlined ...
“Them” But Also “Us”
The recent striking images of Texans stuck in freezing temperatures without electricity and queueing for water. I felt much solidarity with them, especially when a blackout in Johannesburg made it impossible for me to join Eric in a fascinating conversation ...
Our COVID Conundrum
We face a massive conundrum: while more and more global problems are coming our way, almost all our problem-solving power remains ensnared by the apparatus of the nation state. States are inherently insular, and self-obsessed. The mythos of an imagined community, ...
If China’s Vaccine Rollout Is the New Normal, What Was the Old Normal?
It's true, if redundant, to point out that if 2020 was the year of COVID-19, 2021 is shaping up as year of the vaccine. Like every aspect of the pandemic, the vaccine rollout acts like an x-ray, revealing the bones of ...
Inclusion Talk and Its Limits
On Friday, the official White House Twitter account posted a brief video featuring a message from President Joe Biden to the African Union. In the message he expresses support for the AU summit, and solidarity with the peoples of Africa in dealing with crises like ...
Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Washington’s China-Africa Groupthink
This week’s confirmation hearing for Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s to become the next United States ambassador to the United Nations provided a glimpse of how Africa might be dragged into growing tensions between the U.S. and China. Thomas-Greenfield faced hostile questioning about a speech she gave in 2019, ...
What did Xi Jinping Really Say at Davos?
It’s fascinating to read Xi Jinping’s address to the World Economic Forum and then to read the comments about the speech. What U.S. commentators focus on, and what they ignore, reveal much about the challenges posed by China’s rise to established powers like the United States.
The Full Picture: China, Africa, and the Global South
The last year has seen the China-Africa space undergoing massive changes. The impacts of COVID-19, the pandemic-induced debt crisis and rapid shifts in Chinese financing to Africa have shifted some of the core assumptions underlying what we think of as ‘China-Africa relations.’