This weekend the Chinese government released a new white paper on development. It comes in unassuming guise – it’s basically a MS Word Doc with the workaday title of China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era. But in its own way it’s eye-popping.If (like me) you have an irrational fetish for long lists of country names, this document is for you. The bulk of the white paper outlines the different kinds of ...
Category: U.S.-China
What It Was Like to Watch the Insurrection in the U.S. From South Africa
Lordeee…I went to bed early on Wednesday night, only to wake up to a full screen of notifications from the New York Times, and pictures of horned men storming the US Capitol. On the edge of the world in Johannesburg, I’m struck by the ...
Congolese Reflect on the Stark Contrast Between the Violence in Washington and Wang Yi’s Visit to Kinshasa
Wednesday was a day of sharp contrasts for Congolese looking at the United States and China from afar. While pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol, China's Foreign Minister was in Kinshasa signing deals and relieving old debts. The stark contrast in ...
A China-Africa Angle Makes Its Way Into the Senate Run-Off Election in Georgia
Two conservative U.S. media outlets, Breitbart News and the National Review, used Democrat Senate candidate Jon Ossof's role in producing a 2015 China-Africa documentary for Al Jazeera English as purported evidence that the Georgia politician is purportedly sympathetic to ...
The China-Mediterranean Observer: How Will a New/Old Biden Mideast Policy Impact China’s Ambitions in the Region?
The killing of the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the future of American foreign policy toward the Middle East under President Biden, and the tensions between France and the Muslim world are the three key topics of recent Chinese commentaries. The ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Begins 5-Nation Africa Tour
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will begin a five-nation African tour on Monday in Nigeria in what's now a 30-year old custom of Beijing's top diplomat always starting the year with a visit to the continent. After Nigeria, Wang will fly ...
The Once Frenetic Debate Over Chinese Debt in Africa Has All But Disappeared
China's top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, posted a tweet today that restated China's often-repeated position about its commitment to implement the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative and to help "alleviate debt pressure on African countries." It's not ...
How U.S.-Africa Policy Is Adapting To Competition With China
Recently, the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and the Policy Center for the New South launched a pair of reports on external power competition in Africa, with one focused on traditional powers and the other on emerging powers in the region. One ...
Chinese Diplomats Are Now Leaning in To the “Wolf Warrior” Meme
The so-called "Wolf Warrior" meme that characterized Chinese diplomats in much the same way as the gung-ho, take-no-prisoners, Rambo style action star in the blockbuster movie was once roundly rejected by officials in Beijing. But no more. ...
China, African Union Break Ground on New HQ For the Africa Centers for Disease Control
Senior African Union officials together with Chinese diplomats led a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday at the site of the new Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Just as with the African ...
Who Exactly is the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria Trying to Reach With a Tweet Like This?
It's apparent that the social media managers in various Chinese embassies across Africa are still not entirely clear on how to best use Twitter to engage a large audience of local constituents. The Chinese embassy in Liberia posts Tweets in Chinese?!?!? ...