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Category: Human Rights

The Colonial Connection to Chinese Labor Disputes in Africa

The last year or so has seen a constant drip-drip-drip of social media videos showing Chinese managers abusing African workers. The trend has understandably cast a harsh light on Africa-China labor relations. To my mind, the resultant framing of Chinese labor practices in Africa as neo-colonial is ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China’s Climate Role in the Global South

I don’t know about you, but I’m suffering from COP26 stress. There’s so much riding on the global climate summit happening in Glasgow at the end of the month that it’s sometimes difficult to remember we face a few other pressing issues too. 

To this point, Foreign Affairs this week published a poll asking a stellar group of experts whether American foreign policy is too hostile to China. Not surprisingly they got ...

Sicomines Wanted a Dialogue With Congolese Labor Advocates… And They Sure Got an Earful

The management at the embattled Sino-Congolese mining company Sicomines reached out to local labor activists for a dialogue about the working conditions at the Chinese-run joint venture.  They got an earful last week, particularly from labor advocate Don ...

China Could Factor Into the U.S. Debate Over Duty-Free Trade with Ethiopia

A lively debate is underway in the United States now over whether Trade Representative Katherine Tai should remove Ethiopia's duty-free access to the U.S. market as part of the African Growth and Opportunity Act or AGOA. The White House is threatening ...

China’s Role in Ghana’s Unfolding Fishing Catastrophe

While the Ghanaian government took decisive action earlier this year to crack down on illegal mining known as Galamsey where Chinese illegal mining interests have been active for years, Accra has done absolutely nothing to combat persistent illegal fishing in its ...

Ethiopia, China and the Future of African Conflict

Ethiopia is giving us a glimpse of a set of dynamics that could come to shape African life in complicated ways. Last week, the Biden administration announced new sanctions aimed at reducing violence in the Tigray region, where conflict between the forces of President Abiy Ahmed and ...

Reports of a Chinese “Black Site” in the UAE Used to Target Uyghurs Gaining Momentum in U.S. Media

The Washington Post picked up on a story today about an alleged Chinese "black site" in Dubai that was reportedly used to detain a young Chinese woman and at least two Uyghurs. The Post based its Editorial on a story published last ...

Report: Human Rights Abuses Cloud China’s Investment Push in The Global South

The steadily growing presence of Chinese companies in developing countries has been accompanied by an increase in social, environmental, and human rights violations that threaten Beijing's ambitions to become a "responsible great power," according to the findings in a new report published Tuesday by ...

Chinese Companies’ “Eat Bitter” Management Style Just Doesn’t Work in Africa

Forget debt traps, Huawei ‘back-doors' and vaccine diplomacy. They might be the disputes that define our current polarized moment. But I’m willing to bet they won’t have the staying power of the one – the original – dispute that has haunted Chinese engagement with Africa since the ...

U.S. Ethnic Cleansing Charges Against Ethiopia and China May Be Helping to Foster Closer Ties Between Addis and Beijing

The U.S. State Department submitted a report to Congress this week that named both Ethiopia and China among a group of countries that commits ethnic cleansing against their own people. The designation has roiled ties between the U.S. and Ethiopia, ...

China’s Xinjiang Coalition Holds as Not a Single African or Muslim Majority Country Signs New Human Rights Statement

China's hard work in compelling African, Middle Eastern, and most other Global South countries to avoid criticizing Beijing on human rights issues in Xinjiang appears to be paying off. On Tuesday, Canada along with 43 other countries submitted a joint statement to the United ...

When Scholars Talk About How Effective China Is at “Elite Capture” in Africa, This Is It What It Looks Like

In her 2020 book "Shaping the Future of Power," Wake Forest University China-Africa scholar Lina Benabdallah showed how China has been extremely effective in so-called "elite capture" among Africa's governing class. As an academic theory, it's intriguing but often hard to visualize.
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