The China in Africa Podcast (The China-Global South Project)
Explorez tous les épisodes de The China in Africa Podcast
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| 01 Aug 2024 | Jendayi Frazer on U.S.-China Geopolitical Competition in Africa | 00:45:39 | |
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week on what the U.S. needs to do to better compete with China in Africa and other developing regions. Campbell bluntly told senators Washington "has to do better" to match Chinese finance, trade, and military engagement around the world. But the problem for Campbell and other U.S. stakeholders is that it's been difficult to define what success looks like in their bid to out-compete China. Jendayi Frazer, a distinguished visiting fellow at Hoover Institution and adjunct senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, is one of Washington's foremost experts on U.S. foreign policy towards Africa. She speaks from firsthand experience as a former assistant secretary of state and joins CGSP Africa Editor Géraud Neema to explain why it's critical for the U.S. to devote more attention to Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 03 Sep 2024 | [BONUS EPISODE] Chinese, African Perspectives on the FOCAC Summit | 00:59:00 | |
This year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit comes at a critical time for governments in both regions. While China is embroiled in an increasingly contentious great power duel with the United States, African governments are under mounting economic and social pressures. These challenges are prompting Chinese and African scholars to wonder aloud whether it's time to introduce new reforms into the FOCAC process, particularly more transparency and accountability. Last month, University of California at Irvince scholar Paa-Kwesi Heto and Paul Nantulya, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., convened an independent working group of some of the world's foremost Africa-China scholars to discuss this week's FOCAC summit. Normally, these gatherings are conducted off the record, but this time, the participants agreed to allow CGSP to record the discussion and share some of the highlights for the podcast. In this special bonus edition, you'll hear insights from:
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| 16 Sep 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] How Persian Gulf Countries Are Responding to the U.S.-China Rivalry | 00:35:07 | |
For much of the past thirty years, since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been largely unrivaled in its power in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Today, that is no longer the case as the U.S. faces new challenges both from regional powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as international competitors, including China and Russia. This transition to multipolarity is transforming the region and served as the thesis of a special edition of the academic journal Middle East Policy that came out earlier this year. Three of the journal's editors on this project, Andrea Ghiselli from Fudan University in Shanghai, University of Naples China scholar Enrico Fardella, and Durham University international relations professor Anoushiravan Ehteshami, join Eric to discuss how the different countries in the region are adapting to the Sino-U.S. rivalry. SHOW NOTES: Download the Spring 2024 edition of Middle East Policy (you'll need institutional access or have to pay a small fee): https://bit.ly/3XvvLUm JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 29 Nov 2024 | [WEEK IN REVIEW] China's Role in Africa's Energy Transition and Biden's Angola Trip | 00:33:09 | |
The Sirexe “Salon International des Ressources Extractives et Energetiques” conference took place this week in the Ivory Coast and brought together ministers, policymakers and corporate leaders from across the continent to discuss Africa's energy transition. Géraud led the discussion about China's role in that process, both as a key supplier of new energy technologies like photovoltaic power supplies and electrified mobility and, of course, as a major actor in the critical resources extractive sector in Africa. Also this week, senior U.S. officials briefed the media on President Joe Biden's upcoming trip to Angola. Eric, Cobus, and Géraud discuss the awkward timing of the visit that comes less than two months before Donald Trump returns to the White House and how Angola is now in the middle of the U.S.-China duel in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 11 Oct 2024 | Judd Devermont on the State of U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa | 01:00:24 | |
U.S. President Joe Biden was supposed to be in Angola this week, fulfilling a pledge to visit the continent he made back at the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. But with massive hurricanes pounding the southern United States, the president was forced to postpone the visit. The trip to Angola would have marked a major milestone for Biden. The southwestern African country is the showcase for the president's global infrastructure investment program, which is widely seen as Washington's effort to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative. What does the president's cancellation of his trip this week say about Washington's larger Africa policy? Not a whole lot, according to Judd Devermont, the former senior director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and now an operating partner at Kupanda Capital in Washington, D.C. Judd joins Eric to discuss the latest trends in U.S. foreign policy in Africa and what role China now plays in the White House's strategy. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 05 Apr 2024 | Labor Relations at Chinese Construction Sites in Africa | 00:54:46 | |
Few topics have shaped perceptions about China's engagement in Africa more than the presence of Chinese construction sites across the continent. Chinese contractors have built countless ports, roads, railways, and more, but how that work was done has been very controversial over the years. There've been widespread complaints about mismanagement, abuse, and discrimination at Chinese-run construction sites across the continent. While there's no doubt some veracity to those claims, many of the allegations are also rooted in vastly different expectations between Chinese managers and local workers. For some perspective on this complex dynamic, Eric & Cobus spoke with two longtime Africa-China scholars, Mandira Bagwandeen, a political science lecturer at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, and Elisa Gambino, a Hallsworth Research Fellow in political economy at the University of Manchester, to discuss their latest research on Chinese-African labor relations in the construction sector. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 11 Dec 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] "Some Improvement" But Still a Long Way to Go to Resolve China-India Border Tensions | 00:51:00 | |
India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the lower house of parliament last week that "some improvement" had been made in resolving the ongoing border dispute with China. But he also cautioned that a lot more work has to be done and that it will take years to "reset" relations with Beijing. The two sides have pulled back their military forces from seven points along their contested boundary in the Himalayas, so they're no longer in close proximity to one another, but those troops are nonetheless still stationed there and haven't yet been redeployed. Daniel Balazs, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is a specialist in Sino-Indian relations and joins Eric to discuss what's motivating the two countries to negotiate a border settlement. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 04 Oct 2024 | Negotiating Chinese Infrastructure Deals: Lessons From Two African Countries | 00:39:16 | |
Africa is the only region in the world where access to electricity is actually shrinking. Prolonged drought across large swathes of the continent has severely impacted hydropower production, triggering large-scale electricity outages — most notably in Zambia. China plays a critical role in this crisis, both as a major financier of African power infrastructure development and as one of the largest contractors that builds new facilities like the Karuma Power Station in Uganda, which came online last month. But how these infrastructure projects unfold in different African countries depends a lot on the competence of the negotiators who sit across from the various Chinese stakeholders. Adjekai Adjei, a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss her research that compared the outcomes for the Bui Hydropower Plant in Ghana and the Karuma facility in Uganda. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 01 Feb 2024 | WEEK IN REVIEW: Kenya to Overhaul China Policy & Chinese Infrastructure in the DRC | 01:00:47 | |
Kenya has a new envoy to China, Willy Bett, who formally presented his credentials to President Xi Jinping this week. Among Ambassador Bett's first tasks will be to follow up on Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi's promise to craft a new China policy. Mudavadi, who just returned from a three-day trip to Beijing, said a policy refresh is long overdue. Eric, Geraud and Cobus discuss the key issues that will influence that process. Plus, Geraud provides a detailed breakdown of DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi's recent announcement that he finalized a deal with a major Chinese mining joint venture to secure $7 billion of infrastructure financing. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 16 Feb 2024 | Africa's Digital Sovereignty in the Era of U.S.-China Great Power Competition | 00:54:11 | |
In the increasingly acrimonious competition between the U.S. and China over technology standards, it's often assumed that smaller countries in places like Africa lack the necessary agency to determine their digital destinies. In some instances, that is, in fact, true, given that technology is developing much faster than most governments, particularly those with weak state capacity, can regulate. But it's also starting to change as a new generation of young thought leaders is laying out a bold vision for how African countries can more effectively assert digital sovereignty. Folashadé Soulé, a senior researcher at the Global Economic Governance program at Oxford University and a leading Africa-China scholar, led a pioneering research project that explored Africa's digital partnerships in the context of the burgeoning U.S.-China rivalry. She joins Eric & Cobus from Accra to discuss the project's key findings. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 28 May 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] What's Driving the Surge in Brazil's Business Ties With China | 00:48:45 | |
BYD announced that it opened its 100th dealership in Brazil, highlighting the South American country's growing importance to the Chinese electric vehicle giant. It's a similar story across the board in tech, agriculture, and natural resources, among other sectors. Trade and investment between China and Brazil is booming and is unlikely to slow anytime soon. Tulio Cariello, director of content and research at the Brazil-China Business Council, joins Eric & Cobus from Rio de Janeiro to explain how Brazil is benefitting greatly from Beijing's souring ties with Washington. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 09 Feb 2024 | Africa's Debt Dilemma: The Urgent Need for More Equitable Borrowing | 00:49:53 | |
For the first time in years, a few African countries are venturing back into the bond market to raise funds for infrastructure and to pay down their debts. However, borrowing more from private creditors is a risky move given the difficulties that many African governments, namely Zambia, have encountered in restructuring their existing debt portfolios. And if Zambia's experience is anything to go by, it's taught us that whatever global financial safety net was in place to help countries in distress was wholly inadequate to meet the challenge. William Kring, executive director of Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, and Marina Zucker-Marques, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of London's Centre for Sustainable Finance, recently published a new article that explored the inability of the current financial system to protect the poorest, most vulnerable states. William and Marina join Eric & Cobus to discuss the situation in Africa and China's role, in particular, as one of the continent's largest and most important creditors. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 28 Feb 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China and the Indonesia Nickel Trade: Measuring the True Labor and Environmental Cost | 00:43:43 | |
A lot of EV consumers bought new battery-powered cars in the hope it would be better for the environment than a vehicle with a conventional internal combustion engine that runs on fossil fuels. By some measures, that's no doubt true. But many of these early adopters are also unaware their supposedly "green" cars aren't quite as carbon neutral as promised and that there are serious labor and human rights problems related to the metals used to manufacture the batteries that power those EVs. Krista Shennum, a climate and human rights researcher at Climate Rights International, joins Cobus & Antonia to discuss the situation in Indonesia where Chinese mining companies dominate the all-important nickel sector that's rife with labor and environmental abuses. SHOW NOTES:
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| 04 Jun 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Jane Perlez on the Global South's Role in the U.S.-China Strategic Rivalry | 00:53:05 | |
With memories still fresh from the first Cold War, leaders in Africa, Asia, and across the Global South have repeatedly said they do not want any part of a second Great Power rivalry. But as tensions between the U.S. and China steadily deteriorate, the pressure on these smaller, non-aligned countries is going to surge. The geopolitical dynamics are changing very fast. Jane Perlez, a renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who spent more than thirty years reporting for The New York Times as a foreign correspondent, laid out the challenges in a new eight-part podcast series on the burgeoning U.S.-China strategic competition. Jane joins Eric & Cobus from Sydney to share her insights on where this competition is going and what impact she thinks it will have on developing countries. SHOW NOTES: Listen to Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China hosted by Jane Perlez: https://tinyurl.com/22kkfpu8 JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 18 Nov 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Is China Building a New Military Base in Cambodia? Maybe. Probably. | 00:45:48 | |
Chinese contractors have been renovating the Ream Naval Base in Cambodia for the past two years, leading to widespread suspicion that the upgraded facility could eventually serve as a future outpost for the PLA Navy in Southeast Asia. Despite compelling evidence that Chinese naval forces have been stationed at the base for much of the year, both the Chinese and Cambodian governments deny these claims. Christopher Woody, an independent defense journalist based in Bangkok, argues that while it seems the Chinese military is set to maintain a presence at the base, it may not resemble a traditional military installation. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 14 Jun 2024 | It's Time to Take the BRICS More Seriously | 00:50:40 | |
The BRICS group has existed since 2009 and has done little to distinguish itself in 15 years. They created a mid-sized development bank, but other than that, the bloc's accomplishments have been rather modest. That's now starting to change as the BRICS doubled in size to ten members, with around thirty other countries now on the waiting list. At the latest BRICS Foreign Ministers gathering in western Russia last week, new initiatives harmonizing AI standards, currency transfers, and developing new business parks were among the issues on the agenda. While these may seem trivial in this era of war and Great Power rivalry, getting lots of small things done is actually a big deal. Gustavo de Carvalho, a senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, is among the world's foremost scholars on the BRICS and joins Eric & Cobus from Johannesburg to discuss why it's time to start paying closer attention to this group. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 22 Aug 2024 | Energy is Going to be the Hot Topic at Upcoming China-Africa Summit | 00:44:58 | |
African leaders will soon travel to Beijing to participate in the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, which will begin on September 4th. Many of those heads of state will arrive in the Chinese capital with a rather long wish list of infrastructure development projects they're hoping to pitch to Chinese financiers. Many of those initiatives will be focused on energy generation and distribution, particularly renewable solutions that are more affordable and easier to deploy. Shuang Liu, China finance director at the World Resource Institute's Climate Economics and Finance Program, and Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, are among the world's foremost experts on Chinese energy finance. They join Eric & Cobus to discuss what African leaders must do to align with China's new overseas development finance priorities. SHOW NOTES:
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| 14 Mar 2024 | China's Slowing Economy Could be a Catalyst for Change in Africa | 01:04:31 | |
Angolan President João Lourenço kicked off a three-day visit to China this week that will take him to Beijing and Shandong Province. The timing of Lourenço's trip comes as the Chinese economy is facing enormous challenges amid a plunge in FDI, surging youth unemployment, and much slower growth. The easy Chinese money for African leaders is no longer there and that may not be a bad thing, says Gyude Moore from the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. Gyude wrote a column this month that said a slowing Chinese economy could force a lot of African governments to initiate badly needed reforms. Gyude joins Eric & Geraud to discuss his somewhat contrarian view on the rapidly changing China-Africa relationship. SHOW NOTES:
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| 17 Jan 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Guarding West Africa's Forests: Exploring Ways to Put an End to Illegal Chinese Timber Trade | 00:52:18 | |
Together, the United States and China import $40 billion worth of timber products each year, quite a bit of which is harvested illegally from West Africa's rapidly shrinking forests. But cracking down on this illicit trade is extremely difficult given that many of the region's governments are actively complicit. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an NGO based in the U.S. and UK, recently traced how Chinese merchants trafficked rosewood timber from the forests Equatorial Guinea back to China and eventually all the way to store shelves at Home Depot in the United States. Last year, EIA published their findings in a damning investigative report. Ma Haibing, an Asia policy specialist at EIA, was part of the team that worked on that report. He joins Eric & Cobus from Washington, D.C. to discuss the key findings and what he recommends can be done to crack down on this destructive trade. SHOW NOTES:
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| 08 Oct 2024 | Beyond Railways and Ports: China's Evolving Lending Strategy in Africa | 00:51:52 | |
Chinese lending to African countries rebounded in a big way in 2023 after seven consecutive years of decline. Last year, Chinese lenders approved loans totaling $4.61 billion to African borrowers, a dramatic increase over the $922 million lent in 2022, according to Boston University's Global Development Policy Center (GDPC). In the past, China lent billions to countries like Kenya and Nigeria to build massive infrastructure projects like ports and railways. That is no longer the case today as Chinese lending focuses on smaller, more sustainable initiatives, mainly in the energy, telecom, and logistics sectors. Kevin Gallagher, director of the GDPC, and Diego Morro, a data analyst at GDPC, join Eric & Cobus to discuss the latest trends in Chinese development finance in Africa and a few of the surprises their research uncovered about which countries are getting the most financing. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 28 Mar 2024 | Tang Xiaoyang on Why the U.S., Not China is to Blame for Africa’s Debt Problems | 00:50:44 | |
While many in the West still contend Africa's worsening debt crisis is largely due to excessive Chinese lending, Tsinghua University Professor Tang Xiaoyang argues that accusation just isn't true. Instead, the well-known China-Africa scholar contends the main problems facing African borrowers today are anchored in the United States. Most of Africa's debt is priced in U.S. dollars, which is now much more expensive than it was just a few years ago due to higher interest rates set by the Federal Reserve in Washington. Professor Tang joins Eric & Cobus from Beijing to discuss the current debt situation and what preparations are being made ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit that will take place later this year in Beijing. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 17 Oct 2024 | Global Gateway in Africa: Europe's Answer to China's Belt and Road | 01:00:03 | |
The European Commission's Global Gateway initiative will turn three years old in December. The $300 billion infrastructure initiative was launched with great fanfare to provide developing countries in Africa and elsewhere with an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Many European stakeholders also hoped that Global Gateway would catalyze a new EU foreign policy agenda for Africa, which many critics contend is now unmoored. Ahead of the upcoming anniversary, the European Centre for Development Policy Management, an independent think tank in Brussels, published a new report exploring African responses to Global Gateway. Mariella Di Ciommo and Pauline Veron, two of the report's authors, join Eric & Géraud to discuss the current state of Global Gateway and how it measures up against the BRI in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 26 Apr 2024 | WEEK IN REVIEW: The Chinese Supermarket Scandal in Nigeria | 00:47:18 | |
Nigerian consumer protection authorities shut a Chinese supermarket in the capital, Abuja after a video went viral showing the store refusing entry to local residents. The scandal sparked outrage online and was among the top stories of the week on national TV channels. Eric, Cobus, and Geraud discuss why this particular instance of alleged discrimination triggered such an emotional reaction. Plus, African Union officials met with Chinese diplomats in Addis Ababa this week as part of a regular human rights dialogue and conveyed a very gentle critique of Chinese labor practices in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 03 Sep 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Why the U.S. is Struggling to Compete in the Global Competition for Critical Resources | 00:56:54 | |
U.S. officials have spoken at length about the urgent need to end their country's dependency on China for the critical resources needed to power next-generation mobility and technology. Part of the solution, they say, is to compete directly with the Chinese for lithium, cobalt, and other critical mineral mining rights around the world. The problem is few U.S. mining companies today do that kind of work in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia where these resources are found. But the U.S. is geologically endowed, prompting loud calls to mine these resources at home — which raises another problem. In his new book "The War Below," Reuters correspondent Ernest Scheyder explains how powerful stakeholders have made it very difficult for U.S. mining companies to operate domestically. Ernest joins Eric & Géraud to explain why the politics of mining make it nearly impossible for the U.S. to compete with China for critical resources. PURCHASE THE WAR BELOW ON AMAZON: https://tinyurl.com/24ng24tm JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 23 Feb 2024 | What Exactly is the "Global South"? | 01:08:07 | |
Academics and think tank analysts, predominantly in the U.S. and Europe, spend a lot of time debating whether it's appropriate to use the nomenclature "Global South" to describe developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, among other regions. In those regions, it's actually less of an issue where framings like "South-South" are commonplace. The use of the word "South" doesn't seem to be as sensitive an issue as it is for those observers in the "Global North." This week, Jorge Heine, a research professor at Boston University and former Chilean ambassador to South Africa, India and China, joins Eric & Cobus to give a passionate defense of the "Global South" and why he feels it's more important than ever now to embrace the concept. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 18 Jul 2024 | China-Africa Relations as Seen From the United States | 00:39:36 | |
As Chinese engagement in Africa steadily increased over the past twenty-five years, the U.S. has struggled to respond. Africa has consistently been a low priority in U.S. foreign policy, even with China's growing presence on the continent, and that's especially true today as events in the Middle East, Russia, and the South China Sea dominate the agenda. For the past two weeks, Eric, Cobus & Géraud crisscrossed the U.S. capital to meet with scholars, analysts, diplomats, and policymakers to get firsthand perspectives on how the China-Africa relationship in 2024 is seen from Washington. These discussions took place at a critical time when the political momentum shifted in Donald Trump's favor and one month before Chinese President Xi Jinping will host an African leaders summit in Beijing. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 06 Jun 2024 | The Future of Chinese Development Finance in Africa | 00:42:11 | |
Chinese development finance in Africa today is a small fraction of what it was a decade ago when Beijing's policy banks provided billions of dollars in loans to countries across the continent. But while those heady days of easily accessible finance will likely never return, there are indications major Chinese lenders are once again gearing up to extend new financing for badly needed infrastructure projects in Africa. Tarela Moses and Tim Hirschel-Burns from Boston University's Global Development Center closely follow the latest Chinese financing trends and join Eric & Cobus to discuss why there's reason for modest optimism. SHOW NOTES:
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| 14 Nov 2024 | Chinese Lending to Africa is Way More Complicated Than You Think | 00:51:08 | |
It's widely believed that Chinese lending to African countries is predominantly done by a few state policy banks, such as the China Exim Bank and the China Development Bank. While that was true in the past, today the situation is far more complicated. New research found that a diverse array of Chinese creditors are now active in Africa, including commercial banks, state banks, and corporate actors, among many others. And contrary to the popular perception that Chinese lenders are monolithic, the reality is that each of these creditors has very different agendas. Tianyi Wu, a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford, and Yunnan Chen, a research fellow at ODI Global, join Eric & Cobus to discuss the diversity within the Chinese creditor market and why there are important pros and cons for African governments to consider when they borrow from these commercial banks. SHOW NOTES:
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| 27 Jun 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] The Crisis in the South China Sea Enters a Dangerous New Phase | 00:40:05 | |
The violent confrontation between China and the Philippines on June 17th near the Second Thomas Shoal marked a sharp escalation in tensions between the two countries over their rival territorial claims in the South China Sea. After the melee that severely injured one Filipino sailor, the two countries engaged in a second battle, this time in the media, to shape the narrative of what happened and where this burgeoning crisis goes from here. Alex Vuving, a professor at the Pentagon-backed think tank Asia-Pacific Security Studies Center in Honolulu, joins Eric to discuss why the events of June 17th have prompted Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to recalibrate his strategy. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 18 Jan 2024 | Chinese Weapons Are Becoming Increasingly Popular in Africa | 00:50:05 | |
Militaries across Africa are increasingly turning to China to source advanced weapons systems that were long unavailable from Western suppliers. Sophisticated Chinese-made drones, missile systems, and cyber-warfare technologies, among others, are now commonplace on African battlefields. Ekene Lionel, director of the defense news website Military.Africa joins Eric, Cobus, and Geraud to explain why Chinese weapons have become so popular with African militaries. Plus, the guys also discuss Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s four-nation tour that wrapped up this week. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 21 Feb 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China-Indonesia Ties in the New Prabowo Subianto Era | 00:31:14 | |
They're still counting the votes in Indonesia after last week's election but it's all but certain that Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto will become the country's next president. While some of the world's major powers like the U.S. and India are holding back their official congratulations, the Chinese weren't so reserved. Ambassador Lu Kang went to Prabowo's private residence on Sunday and was photographed playing with the likely-president's cat Bobby -- a clear signal Beijing is keen to build a close relationship with the new administration in Jakarta. CGSP's Southeast Asia Editor Antonia Timmerman joins Eric to discuss the geopolitics now swirling over the archipelago and what's ahead for China-Indonesia ties in the Prabowo era. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 17 May 2024 | WEEK IN REVIEW: China in the Sahel | ChatGPT's take on China-Africa | 00:56:07 | |
China somehow managed to get the oil flowing between Niger and Benin this week amid a bitter dispute between the two West African countries that had briefly shut down the pipeline. Eric, Cobus, and Geraud discuss how the Chinese seem to be navigating the Sahel's contentious politics with some finesse. Plus, ChatGPT launched a major new upgrade this week that they'll put to the test to hear how the AI frames the accusation that China engages in debt trap diplomacy in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 31 Jan 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's New Investment Priorities In Latin America And The Caribbean | 00:52:27 | |
For much of the past year, there's been a lot of talk about China's new leaner, more focused Belt and Road Initiative that goes by the mantra "Smart and Beautiful." The problem is very few people actually know what it looks like in practice. But that's starting to change, particularly in regions like Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) where two seemingly contradictory investment trends are taking place: overall Chinese FDI in the region is down but in key areas, so-called "new infrastructure," Chinese investments in LAC countries have been going up. Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington co-authored a new report on China's evolving investment priorities in the Americas and joins Eric to discuss why Chinese FDI today looks very different than it even just a few years ago. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 05 Nov 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Update on the State of the BRI in the New "Small and Beautiful" Era | 00:56:16 | |
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about the new "small and beautiful" doctrine that now guides China's Belt and Road Initiative. The problem is that a lot of people still do not understand what it actually means in practice. President Xi Jinping first unveiled the concept at the Third Belt-and-Road Symposium in 2021 when he said that China's overseas development finance would focus more attention on "better connectivity" for telecommunications, energy, and financial services. China has also had to scale down its financing of large-scale infrastructure projects because of economic challenges at home and debt sustainability issues among borrowing countries. Lui Kanyi, a Beijing-based project finance lawyer and head of China at a large international law firm, has been closely following the transformation of the BRI for many of his Chinese clients. Kanyi joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the "small and beautiful" trend and what people should know about the future direction of the BRI. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 21 Nov 2024 | Xi Took Center Stage at G20 While African Union Kept a Low Profile | 00:53:47 | |
This week's G20 summit wrapped up much the same way previous G20 gatherings have in recent years, with a weak final communiqué and lots of discord among the group's members. But this year's summit in Rio de Janeiro was nonetheless notable as it marked the African Union's debut as an official member of the body. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also a stand-out at the summit, where he took a number of veiled shots at the United States in his keynote address as he sought to bolster China's self-appointed role as spokesperson for the Global South. This week, Eric, Géraud, and Cobus discuss Xi's speech and whether African representatives should have been more outspoken now that they have a seat at the G20 table. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 08 Mar 2024 | A Call for African & Latin American Countries to Share Notes on Dealings With China | 00:50:46 | |
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed this week the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) conference that will take place later this year in Beijing will, in fact, be a leaders summit. Before the FOCAC summit, Latin American and Caribbean leaders will take part in a similar gathering known as the China-CELAC forum. It's rather unusual that both are taking place in the same year and that's got some analysts suggesting representatives from African and Latin American countries would benefit a lot if they got together to compare notes on their deals with China. Leland Lazarus, associate director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute of Public Policy at Florida University in Miami, and Paul Nantulya, research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., recently co-wrote an article that explains why this kind of South-South dialogue is so important. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 04 Jul 2024 | The Impact of Chinese Overcapacity on Developing Countries | 00:47:12 | |
South Africa this week joined a growing list of developing countries around the world to introduce tariffs on certain Chinese imports in a bid to protect local producers. Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil, among others, also introduced similar duties on Chinese steel and other products. While low-cost Chinese goods are a boon for Global South consumers, they're extremely problematic for manufacturers in these countries because it's almost impossible to match the "China Price." Chinese factories can produce goods at a scale and cost that remains unrivaled, and now, according to a new report by the consultancy Rhodium Group, they're flooding markets in Africa and other developing regions. Camille Boullenois, a director of Rhodium Group's China projects team, and Austin Jordan, a senior analyst at Rhodium Group, join Eric & Cobus to discuss their new report and why this trend is potentially debilitating for many of the world's least developed countries. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 27 Jun 2024 | WEEK IN REVIEW: Chinese Debt and the Anti-Government Revolt in Kenya | 00:53:41 | |
Protestors in Kenya this week expressed fury against the government and the IMF but interestingly made no mention of China during an unprecedented uprising in Nairobi. It's notable because the Kenyan Treasury spends more money to service its Chinese loans than any other single creditor. For years, across two administrations, the Kenyan government has pleaded with China to reschedule nearly $6 billion of outstanding loans, all to no avail. And the cost of servicing that dollar-denominated debt has skyrocketed due to the depreciation of the shilling. This week, Eric, Cobus & Geraud discuss the role that Chinese debt plays in Kenya's current economic distress and provide updates on the fate of a Chinese oil pipeline caught in the middle of a simmering conflict in West Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 15 Aug 2024 | African Priorities at the Upcoming China Summit | 00:54:31 | |
African leaders and their delegations are making final preparations to travel to Beijing soon for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that will begin on September 4th. This year's gathering comes at a critical time in the relationship between these two regions. African leaders are looking for ways to move their economies up the value chain in a bid to capture more revenue and generate higher rates of employment, particularly among young people. But to do that requires infrastructure, especially energy. So, they'll be looking to China for financial and technical assistance. But those requests will come at a sensitive time for the Chinese whose economy has slowed considerably over the past 10 years. Beijing is no longer writing those big checks to pay for large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa. So, it will be critical for African countries to have robust strategic plans going into this year's FOCAC summit, according to Sanusha Naidu, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Cape Town. Sanusha joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the need for African strategic thinking towards China and why it's so important. SHOW NOTES:
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| 05 Mar 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Surveying the Geopolitical Landscape in SE Asia With ASEAN Wonk Prasanth Parmeswaran | 00:56:19 | |
The escalating tensions between China, the Philippines and the United States in the South China Sea highlight how Southeast Asia is now the most dangerous frontline in the burgeoning Great Power competition between Beijing and Washington. But as this week's ASEAN summit in Australia highlights, there is no consensus in the region over how the Southeast Asian bloc's 11 member states are responding to the rapidly changing geopolitical environment. This week, Eric spoke with Prasanth Parmeswaran, a highly regarded analyst on Southeast Asian affairs and founder of the widely-read ASEAN Wonk newsletter, for some perspective on how different countries across the region are positioning themselves in this new era. Show Notes:
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| 20 Mar 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Author Jeremy Garlick on China's Strategic Advantage in the Global South | 00:54:42 | |
U.S. and European officials often lament that they've fallen behind China when it comes to engaging Africa, Asia, the Americas, and other developing regions. Western governments aren't set up to rapidly deploy the kind of money and resources that Beijing's done with its Belt and Road Initiative over the past ten years. While the U.S. and Europe are now trying to catch up, author Jeremy Garlick writes in his new book Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption that their efforts are hamstrung not only by money but also by history. Jeremy joins Eric & Cobus to explain why he thinks China's political system provides key systemic advantages over its Western rivals when it comes to engaging the Global South. Show Notes:
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| 01 Nov 2024 | Chinese Companies Engage in Massive "Forest Looting" in the DR Congo | 00:39:44 | |
Two Chinese logging companies are now the largest timber harvesters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with concessions sized at more than 3 million hectares. The firms, Wan Peng and Booming Green, are engaged in industrial-scale logging to export raw timber mostly back to China. But researchers at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) also discovered that both companies are engaged in a wide range of illegal activities, everything from illegal timber smuggling to bribery. Luke Allen, a campaign and advocacy officer at EIA, joins Géraud and Cobus to discuss the new report that details the various forestry crimes committed by the two Chinese companies and how the Chinese and DRC governments should respond. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 25 Sep 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Response to the Wars in the Middle East | 00:48:13 | |
The rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon prompted a strong reaction from the Chinese government this week. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib on Monday at the UN in New York and condemned Israel's actions as “indiscriminate attacks against civilians." It's notable, though, that neither Wang nor other Chinese officials made any mention of Hezbollah's missile strikes on targets in Israel, including those that hit civilian areas. The deteriorating security environment in the Middle East is a critical time for China, which is transitioning from a strategy of "hedging" to one that is increasingly focused on "wedging." Jonathan Fulton and Michael Schuman, senior nonresident scholars at The Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., join Eric & Cobus to discuss their new report on China's Mideast strategy and Beijing's new regional priorities. SHOW NOTES:
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| 21 Jun 2024 | How China's Changing Economy is Impacting Africa? | 01:05:20 | |
Back in the early 2000s, when Chinese engagement in Africa started to ramp up, China was enjoying double-digit growth and devoured vast quantities of African oil, minerals, and timber to feed its surging manufacturing sector. Fast-forward to the present, and China no longer relies on African resources as it once did. The Chinese economy has matured, and those heady growth days are long past. And now, with the BRI in place, China doesn't rely on Africa for resources anywhere near as much as it did 20 years ago. A new paper published by two of the world's leading scholars on China-Africa ties, Zainab Usman from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Professor Tang Xiaoyang from Tsinghua University in Beijing, details five key economic trends re-shaping the relationship between these two regions. Zainab joins CGSP Africa Editor Géraud Neema to discuss how this evolving economic relationship will impact African countries, in particular. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 27 Sep 2024 | Railroads and Rivalries in Southern Africa | 01:04:48 | |
The U.S. and China plan to spend billions of dollars refurbishing key railway lines in southern Africa that link critical resource mining hubs in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with ports on both sides of the continent. For the U.S., it's the Lobito Atlantic Railway that goes from the copper belt in Zambia 1,300km west across Angola to the Atlantic Ocean. However, China is looking in the other direction: proposing to spend upwards of a billion dollars to refurbish the TAZARA railway, which also begins in Zambia and heads almost 1,900km West to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salam on the Indian Ocean. But building and managing these railways isn't going to be easy given the complex politics in the region. Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, a former managing director of the TAZARA railway, and Solange Chatelard, a prominent China-Zambia scholar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, join Eric & Géraud to discuss why Beijing and Washington face such formidable challenges in this new logistics competition. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 06 Sep 2024 | [DOUBLE EPISODE] The China-Africa Summit Debrief | 01:31:40 | |
The three-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit wrapped up in Beijing on Friday. The big headline from this year's gathering was the announcement that China will provide $50.7 billion in financing to African countries over the next three years. Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the customary mega pledge as part of a ten-point action plan that will guide China's relationship with the continent through 2027. In this special double episode of the show, Eric, Géraud, and Cobus discuss key events from this year's FOCAC summit and why it's best not to focus too much on that big financial package. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 10 May 2024 | China-Africa Relations in the Era of Great Power Competition | 00:58:08 | |
A prominent French TV journalist was visibly surprised when DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi bluntly told him that he prefers to work with Chinese and Russian partners rather than those from the West. The exchange was posted this week on X and reveals the increasingly stark gap between African and Western perceptions over the major geopolitical changes that are taking place today as part of the Great Power rivalry and the various wars going on in Europe and the Middle East. International relations analyst Ovigwe Eguegu joins Géraud from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss how powerful geopolitical forces are impacting China's ties in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 28 Jul 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] The ASEAN Wonk on Great Power Politics in Southeast Asia | 01:00:29 | |
The foreign ministers from China, the U.S., Japan, and Russia, among others, all passed through the Laotian capital, Vientiane, over the past several days, ostensibly for an ASEAN gathering. But the real action took place on the sidelines of the meeting, where the ministers held a series of bilaterals that revealed the hardening battle lines among the major powers. The tense discussions highlight the frontline role that Southeast Asia now plays in this burgeoning geopolitical competition that appears to be intensifying over disputes related to Taiwan, the South China Sea, and surging Chinese influence in the region. Prashanth Paramaswaran, writer and creator of the popular ASEAN Wonk Substack newsletter, joins Eric to discuss what happened in Vientiane and the latest on the stand-off between Beijing and Manila over territorial rights in the South China Sea. SHOW NOTES:
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| 31 May 2024 | The Hidden World of Chinese Manufacturing in Ethiopia | 00:42:42 | |
Ethiopia's long-held ambition is to one day emerge as a major global manufacturing hub, benefiting from a wave of Chinese offshoring. The East African country's strategic location, abundant labor supply, and welcoming government are all very enticing for cost-conscious Chinese manufacturers. And while Ethiopia has been more successful than many African countries in attracting Chinese investors, the number of factories that have been established there is still relatively small. A new documentary that's making the rounds on the international film festival circuit provides fascinating insights into why that’s the case. The film, “Made in Ethiopia,” tells the story of a Chinese-backed industrial park outside of Addis Ababa that’s struggled mightily through the pandemic and later a civil war. Co-directors/producers Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan, both experienced journalists, join Eric & Cobus to discuss their new film and what it took to produce such a textured, complex story. SHOW NOTES:
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| 03 Apr 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Why a Chinese-backed Canal Project in Cambodia is Making Vietnam Very Nervous | 00:30:24 | |
Former Cambodian strongman Hun Sen was in Beijing last week lobbying the Chinese government to move forward with the $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal project which his son, President Hun Manet, has made the centerpiece of his new administration. The new canal would connect Phnom Penh's inland port to Kep province on the Gulf of Thailand, creating a new transport link for Cambodia's garment and agricultural exporters, among others. However, the project is also raising concerns in neighboring Vietnam. Officials there are worried the new canal will divert water from the fragile lower Mekong Delta ecosystem, which provides a vital lifeline for millions of farmers. The Vietnamese also stand to lose a lot of business and are concerned about the potential security implications of the new canal. Jack Brook, an independent journalist based in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, recently wrote about the canal for a story published in Nikkei Asia and joins Eric to explain why this project is generating so much controversy. SHOW NOTES:
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| 19 Sep 2024 | [WEEK IN REVIEW] Illegal Chinese Miners in Ghana Have Been Warned | 01:01:00 | |
China's new ambassador to Ghana, Tong Defa, spoke out forcefully this week to condemn the ongoing problem of illegal mining in the country and issued a fresh warning to his compatriots that if they are caught breaking the law, the embassy will not be there to bail them out. Also, Kenyan President William Ruto traveled to Germany where he was once again pressed by the media to answer the ridiculous question of whether he prefers Western or Chinese investment. Eric & Géraud also discuss a recent Congressional hearing in the United States about China's role in Africa and why the proceedings desperately needed a fact checker. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 09 Aug 2024 | China-Africa Summit Preview: What’s on the Agenda for FOCAC 9? | 00:39:12 | |
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit is now less than a month away. Chinese President Xi Jinping will host dozens of African leaders in Beijing in the first week of September for the triennial gathering that comes at a critical time for African countries and China. Africa needs China's support for continued infrastructure financing and to buy more of its goods, while China is looking to Africa as a vital supplier of critical resources and to develop new markets for its cars, solar panels, and other products that are increasingly shut out from G7 countries. But with very little visibility into the negotiating positions of the various stakeholders, it's difficult to tell what will emerge from this year's summit. Development Reimagined Policy Analyst Ovigwe Eguegu is closely following African preparations for FOCAC and joins Eric & Cobus to share some of his insights on what to expect. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 14 Oct 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Paying a High Cost for Its "All-Weather" Relationship With Pakistan | 00:51:00 | |
Chinese Premier Li Qiang is in Pakistan this week to get ties with its South Asian neighbor back on track after a series of terrorist attacks this year. The latest incident occurred earlier this month near the airport in the southern port city of Karachi when separatist militants with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) killed two Chinese nationals in a suicide bombing. Pakistan has vowed to crack down on the militants but, so far, to little avail. In turn, Beijing has become increasingly frustrated with Islamabad's inability to better protect Chinese interests in the country. Eram Ashraf, a China-Pakistan relations scholar, explained in a column published in The Diplomat how the violence is taking a toll on this vital Chinese diplomatic relationship. She joins Eric & Cobus to explain what's at stake for both sides if the Pakistani government can't contain the BLA. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 24 Oct 2024 | Stymied in the West, Chinese EV Brands Look to Expand in Africa | 00:41:19 | |
Just over a million new vehicles were sold in Africa last year, a relatively small number given the continent's enormous population, estimated at 1.5 billion. Chinese auto brands are looking at that discrepancy and think it provides a unique opportunity for rapid expansion, particularly in the budding electric vehicle market. BAIC Motors, BYD, Xpeng, and Neta are among a growing number of Chinese auto majors that have scaled up sales and manufacturing in Africa. But selling EVs in Africa is not going to be easy. In many countries, access to reliable electricity is a problem. Then there's the issue of charging stations and the high import taxes many governments impose on foreign-made cars. Even amid those challenges, Alex Mwanzo, general manager of Equator Mobile — a unit of the investment holding company Maris Africa — is optimistic about the prospects for Chinese EVs. Alex joins Eric & Njenga from Nairobi to explain why Chinese auto brands are well-positioned in the African market. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 22 Jan 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Why Vietnam is Not "In Play" in the U.S.-China Rivalry | 00:56:26 | |
There was a lot of speculation in the U.S. last year that an upgrade of diplomatic ties with Vietnam would prompt Hanoi to be more aligned with Washington in its rivalry with China. While Vietnam did embark on a flurry of diplomatic upgrades with China's rivals in Japan, South Korea and the United States, among others, China nonetheless remains the Southeast Asian country's primary foreign policy priority. And that's never going to change regardless of what the U.S. and others offer Hanoi, according to Khang Vu, a doctoral candidate in Vietnamese foreign policy at Boston College. Khang joins Eric to explain why a combination of geography and history requires the Vietnamese to always put China at the center of their international strategy. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 25 Jul 2024 | A New Vision for European Engagement in Africa (Beyond Confronting China) | 00:53:11 | |
Europe is Africa's largest trading partner and its largest source of foreign direct investment. But a lot of that economic engagement is powered by inertia, left over from Europe's long, painful history of colonial exploitation in Africa. Just as in the United States, Europe's politics are decidedly inward-looking where Africa, if it's on the agenda at all, is still largely seen as a "problem to be fixed." When policymakers do raise the issue of heightened engagement with the continent, it's often in the context of what the EU can do to counter China's influence in Africa. A new report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace aims to change that by outlining a more proactive, positive vision for why Europe should focus more attention on Africa in pursuit of a more balanced relationship. The report's editor, David McNair, an executive director at the anti-poverty NGO ONE.org, and contributor Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation, join Eric & Cobus to discuss why Europe needs Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 25 Jan 2024 | Noo Saro-Wiwa on "Black Ghosts" in China and the Complex Lives of the African Diaspora | 00:54:37 | |
Author Noo Saro-Wiwa had not spent much time in China when she heard that cities like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Yiwu, among others, were home to large, vibrant African migrant communities. But other than some of the headlines about the diaspora population that appeared during the COVID pandemic, she didn't know much about this faraway population. So, she set out on a three-month odyssey through China to meet the traders and other African merchants who make up the bulk of this community to find out more about their lives and what it's like for them to live in Chinese society. She tells the story in a fascinating new book "Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China" and joins Eric & Geraud from London to discuss the adventure she had in writing the story. BUY THE BOOK ON AMAZON: https://a.co/d/cemngH9 JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 26 Aug 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] View From Israel: China's Growing Influence in the Middle East | 00:33:26 | |
In September 2023, just weeks before Hamas' devastating terrorist attack on October 7th, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his foreign policy advisors were preparing for a summit meeting in China with President Xi Jinping. There were even whispers Beijing would help facilitate a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia much as it did between Riyadh and Tehran. Now, almost a year later, everything has changed. Sino-Israeli political ties have soured as China aligned with the Arab world and the rest of the Global South in opposition to Israel's war on Gaza. However, while China's standing in Israel has fallen since October 7th, it surged across the rest of the Middle East as more countries in the region regard Beijing as an emerging alternative to the United States. Gedaliah Afterman, head of the Asia Policy Program at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University, and Research Analyst Allie Weinberger tracked China's Mideast power trajectory in a new article published by the Australian Security Policy Institute. Gedaliah and Allie join Eric to discuss what's behind China's growing influence in the Mideast. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 13 May 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Indonesia's Role in the South China Sea Crisis | 00:36:20 | |
Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto will take office later this year at a critical time when regional tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea are surging. And this won't be just a foreign policy challenge for the new president. Chinese ships have crossed into Indonesia's exclusive economic zone near the Nantuna Islands at the bottom tip of Beijing's controversial ten-dash line. Managing the escalating crisis in the South China Sea is going to be a "pivotal" challenge for Prabowo, according to Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, director of the China-Indonesia desk at the Center of Economic and Law Studies. Zulfikar joins Eric from Jakarta to discuss how he thinks Prabowo is going to handle what's becoming a very volatile situation. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 11 Jul 2024 | Who Gets to Tell the Africa-China Story? | 00:58:29 | |
So much of the framing of Chinese engagement in Africa is done through the prism of Western media, academia, government, and civil society. Stories about debt traps, malign influence, and exploitation are all firmly embedded in the larger discourse about Africa's relations with China. Conversely, the relationship is also framed in equally binary terms by Chinese media and government narratives. But there's growing demand from African stakeholders to tell a radically different story about this relationship, one that is far more nuanced and puts African interests at the center. A new collection of papers published by the Africa Policy Research Institute explores the emergence of non-Western-centric narratives. Eric & Cobus spoke with Lina Benabdalla from Wake Forest Univeristy, Yu-Shan Wu from the University of Pretoria, Yunnan Chen from ODI, and Folashadé Soulé from Oxford University, four of the world's leading scholars in this field who contributed to this collection for their perspectives about what a new Africa-China story looks like. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 12 Apr 2024 | The State of Chinese Tech in Africa With Benjamin Dada | 00:49:32 | |
For much of the past ten years, Chinese technology in Africa focused largely on devices and infrastructure. But today, the conversations also include issues related to governance, online services, and the emergence of artificial intelligence. Benjamin Dada, founder of the popular African tech news site BenDada.com, joins Eric to discuss the latest Chinese tech trends on the continent and why Chinese firms are still outpacing their competitors. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 22 Mar 2024 | WEEK IN REVIEW: Why Angola is the "Vietnam of Africa" | 00:51:06 | |
Angolan President João Lourenço returned from a three-day visit to China loaded with goodies. He secured an upgrade in diplomatic ties, promises of new investment and, most importantly, a major reduction in monthly debt payments. Lourenço's success in China comes as Luanda is also luring massive engagement from the U.S., prompting some observers to suggest that Angola now joins a select group of middle-power states like Vietnam that are strategically benefitting from the rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Also, Eric, Cobus & Geraud discuss Chinese infrastructure spending in the DRC and whether China will benefit after the U.S. was expelled from Niger this week. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 22 Oct 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] India Claims Major Breakthrough in Border Stand-off With China | 00:50:22 | |
India and China have reached a deal to de-escalate tensions along their bitterly disputed border in the Himalayas, potentially ending a contentious four-year stand-off between the two Asian powers. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday that the two countries agreed to conduct joint military patrols along the border known as the Line of Actual Control. No details of the pact have been released and the Chinese government has yet to comment on the arrangement. If the two countries have, in fact, agreed to pull back their forces and disengage, it would have wide-ranging geopolitical consequences throughout Asia. Sushant Singh, a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University and contributing editor of The Caravan magazine in New Delhi, joined Eric & Cobus to discuss the ramifications of de-escalation along the Sino-Indian border. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 08 Nov 2024 | How Will Trump's Return to Power Impact China-Africa Ties? | 00:40:04 | |
The re-election of former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to significantly alter U.S. foreign policy, including its approach to Africa. As seen during Trump’s first term, U.S. engagement with the continent is likely to decrease, with a stronger emphasis on countering China's expanding influence in the region. The future of the U.S.-Africa free trade agreement, known as AGOA, is now uncertain, as the incoming administration has signaled plans to introduce protectionist policies. This week, Eric and Cobus are joined by Stewart Paterson, a senior fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, to explore how Trump's return to power could impact Africa and discuss Stewart's recent article on Chinese investments across the continent. SHOW NOTES:
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| 19 Apr 2024 | U.S.-China Competition for Africa's Critical Resources | 00:46:31 | |
China maintains a massive lead over the U.S. and other G7 countries in both mining and refining capacity in Africa, a key vulnerability that policymakers in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere say they're determined to rectify. A new report from the United States Institute of Peace lays out a roadmap for how the U.S. can close that gap with China to achieve mineral security while protecting local labor and environmental standards. Terence McCulley, a senior visiting expert for West Africa at USIP and a former U.S. ambassador to several African countries, joins Eric, Cobus & Geraud to discuss the new report and whether he thinks it's even possible for the U.S. to rival China's critical mineral supply chain. SHOW NOTES: USIP Senior Study Group Final Report: Critical Minerals in Africa: Strengthening Security, Supporting Development, and Reducing Conflict amid Geopolitical Competition: https://tinyurl.com/2yop8jcf JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 29 Oct 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Power Shift: China’s Role in Central Asia’s Renewable Energy Transformation | 00:59:28 | |
Even though the five countries in Central Asia are among the world's largest fossil fuel producers, the region faces chronic electricity shortages due to a lack of refining capacity. The energy crunch is further compounded by a reluctance to become overly dependent on Russian fuel. To solve both problems, several Central Asian governments are looking to source renewable energy technology from China. While wind and solar still account for a small share of Central Asia's total energy production, that may soon change as more affordable Chinese green tech enters the market. Yunis Sharifli, an independent Eurasia foreign policy analyst, recently explored this trend in an article published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Yunis joins Eric & Cobus to explain the geopolitics powering the green energy transition in Central Asia. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 26 Mar 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Chinese EV Brands Want to Dominate Global South Auto Markets | 00:43:31 | |
Enthusiasm for electric vehicles is waning in both the U.S. and China, but that is definitely not the case in other parts of the world where EV adoption rates are steadily rising. In fact, at the Bangkok Motor Show this week, Chinese EV brands are grabbing all of the attention. Throughout the Global South, Chinese EV brands are expanding their presence in both manufacturing and sales. And unlike U.S.-made EVs that are largely expensive luxury vehicles, the Chinese brands are focusing on small, affordable cars that are within the price range of consumers in Asia, Africa and Latin America, among other places. Lei Xing, a longtime China automotive journalist and host of the China EVs & More Podcast, joins Eric to discuss why Chinese automakers are looking to developing countries to drive EV sales. SHOW NOTES:
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| 06 Dec 2024 | Fact-Checking International Media Coverage of Biden's Africa Tour | 01:14:10 | |
Joe Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Cabo Verde and Angola this week, marking the first visit by a sitting U.S. President to Africa in almost ten years. Although Biden sought to lay out an expansive vision for U.S. foreign policy towards Africa, including increased U.S. funding for climate change mitigation, more humanitarian assistance, and new infrastructure development, very little of that message got through the media coverage. Instead, U.S., European, and Indian media outlets framed the visit as part of a larger great power struggle with China and Washington's effort to curtail Beijing's surging influence on the continent. Meantime, Chinese and African media channels largely ignored the story. Eric and Cobus review the different narratives that shaped the coverage of Biden's visit and fact-check a number of the misleading storylines that emerged in the reporting. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 26 Nov 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China, Indonesia and the Great Power Competition for Transition Minerals | 00:52:07 | |
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not a fan of the Biden administration's climate legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), describing it as a "green scam." Trump has promised to repeal it, which will undoubtedly be welcome news in Indonesia. Indonesia is home to the world's largest nickel reserves, a critical ingredient for manufacturing EV batteries. But the IRA aims to limit China's role in the battery supply chain, presenting a huge headache for Indonesian nickel suppliers given the outsized role that Chinese smelters play in the country's mining sector. Putra Adhiguna, managing director at the Energy Shift Institute, an independent non-profit energy finance think tank in Jakarta, joins Eric to discuss Indonesia's uncomfortable position squeezed between China and the U.S. in the race to dominate transition mineral supply chains. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social FOLLOW CGSP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 29 Feb 2024 | Chinese Diplomacy in Sierra Leone and Nigeria With Tobi Oshodi | 00:46:13 | |
Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio is in the midst of a five-day visit to China that included talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, among other high-level officials. While Bio is getting a lot of face-time with China’s political elites, the more pressing question is what he is actually getting out of the visit. Tobi Oshodi, a political science lecturer at Lagos State University and a long-time Africa-China scholar, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the visit and the current state of Chinese engagement in Nigeria. Tobi also shares his outlook on how Nigeria is preparing for this year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation gathering that will take place later this year in Beijing. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 13 Sep 2024 | Can China Help Africa Become the Next Factory of the World? | 00:46:25 | |
For decades, African governments have tried to lure Chinese manufacturing companies to set up factories in their countries with the promise of an abundant supply of low-cost labor. Other than a few high-profile companies, Chinese companies, for the most part, have balked — preferring instead to offshore production closer to home in Southeast Asia. But now that may be starting to change. With the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement now up and running, Chinese firms see an opportunity to manufacture goods for local and continental markets. Three scholars recently surveyed Chinese manufacturing trends in 34 countries between 2003 and 2014 and published their findings in a new Boston University Global Development Policy Center working paper. Keyi Tang, an assistant professor at the ESADE Business School in Barcelona and one of the report's authors, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss their findings and what it says about the future prospects for Chinese manufacturing on the continent. SHOW NOTES: Download the BU Global Development Policy Center Report: Chinese Economic Ties and Low-carbon Industrialization in Africa: https://tinyurl.com/26affcwq JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 12 Aug 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Westlessness: A New Era Where the West Still Matters, Just Not as Much | 00:51:30 | |
Chinese President Xi Jinping has long touted the East's rise and the West's decline, the kind of thinking that's triggered his supporters to fantasize about a post-Western geopolitical order. While it's indisputable that U.S. and European countries, which represent the foundational pillars of the Western system, have seen their power diminish in the post-Cold War era, there's little credible evidence of a full-blown collapse of Western influence. Instead, King's College scholar Samir Puri argues in his new book "Westlessness," that the role of the West in the international system is changing and not going away. Samir joins Eric & Cobus from London to discuss the emergence of a new, less Western global order. Show Notes: JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 24 May 2024 | Illegal Chinese Timber Trade Fuels Insurgency in Mozambique | 00:49:12 | |
Officially, Mozambique bans the export of raw timber in an effort to protect what's left of the country's rapidly shrinking forests. But whatever laws are in place are largely disregarded as more than 500,000 tons of timber leave the country each year — 90% of which goes to China, according to a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency. This illicit timber trade is also very lucrative, generating more than a billion dollars that helps to fund a deadly insurgency ravaging northern Mozambique. Alexandra Bloom, a senior trade and policy analyst at EIA, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss EIA's multi-year investigation that uncovered widespread corruption and negligence at every level of the timber supply chain. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 22 Apr 2024 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Should China Use Its Influence With Iran to Help the U.S. and Israel? | 00:38:30 | |
Senior U.S. leaders have once again called on China to use its considerable economic leverage to persuade Iran to change its behavior in the escalating conflict with Israel. Various U.S. have made this same request on several occasions already, going back all the way to the day after Hamas launched its assault on southern Israel on October 7th. Each time, though, those U.S. appeals have largely been ignored by the Chinese. That raises two important questions: why does the U.S. keep asking if nothing happens? And, even if Beijing was willing to do act, would the leadership in Tehran even listen? For some perspective on these two questions, Eric spoke with Iran-China scholar Bill Figueroa, an assistant professor at the University of Groningen, who explained why so many in Washington are misreading just how much influence China actually has in Iran. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 03 May 2024 | Insights From Hannah Ryder on This Year's China-Africa Summit | 01:00:05 | |
Chinese and African governments are beginning to negotiate the agenda for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that will take place in Beijing later this fall. Development finance, infrastructure, and green technology are all expected to be prominent themes, but this year’s event will be considerably different than previous summits, given that it comes at a time of considerable economic uncertainty for both China and African countries. Hannah Ryder, CEO of the international development consultancy Development Reimagined, recently co-hosted an African ambassadors retreat in China that brought together senior officials from both sides. Hannah joins Eric, Cobus, and Géraud to share a few insights from that retreat and what to expect in the run-up to the FOCAC summit. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON!
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| 11 Jan 2024 | China-Africa Relations in 2024: Insights From Six Experts | 01:11:18 | |
China's engagement in Africa is at a critical inflection point where many of the various stakeholders in this important relationship are re-evaluating what they want from the other. In this special episode, we speak with six prominent experts from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States who provide their forecasts for how this vital geopolitical relationship is going to evolve in 2024:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 29 Aug 2024 | David Monyae on the Politics of FOCAC | 00:29:01 | |
Final preparations are underway for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, which begins on September 4th in Beijing. This year's event comes at a particularly fraught time amid wars in Europe, the Middle East and the simmering Great Power rivalry between the United States and China. David Monyae, director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the politics that will frame the summit and why a growing number of African leaders increasingly see their interests aligned with China rather than the West. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: JOIN US ON PATREON! | |||
| 05 Nov 2021 | Why Perceptions of China Vary So Much Depending on Where You Live | 00:51:18 | |
[PLEASE NOTE THAT FROM TIME TO TIME THERE IS SOME AUDIO STATIC THAT APPEARS INTERMITTENTLY DURING SOME OF JOANNA'S ANSWERS. IT DOESN'T LAST LONG AND WE TRIED TO MINIMIZE IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. OUR APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.] Public perceptions of China vary markedly depending on where you live in the world. In wealthy advanced economies in the Global North, negative sentiment towards China is now at all-time highs and getting worse. But it's a very different story in many developing countries in the Global South, particularly in Africa, where public opinion surveys continually report more favorable views towards the Chinese. Of course, this is a complex issue where China provokes a diversity of opinions, making it nearly impossible to get a definitive sense of what people feel about Beijing's growing influence in their countries. Veteran journalist Joanna Chiu set out on a trans-continental odyssey to try and find out more about how people in Western countries perceive China for her new book "China Unbound: A New World Disorder." Joanna joins Eric & Cobus to share some of her findings and to discuss why she feels there's such a huge discrepancy between how people in the Global North view China compared to sentiments in the Global South. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @joannachiu JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 20 Jul 2023 | China's Tactics and Methods to Influence African Media | 00:44:56 | |
Confucius Institutes (CIs) were once known only for teaching Mandarin language and culture classes but the organization's mission has evolved recently to now include "training" sessions for African journalists on how to cover China. CIs are now part of a robust Chinese toolkit that Beijing uses to try and frame media narratives in Africa on certain international issues related to human rights, sovereignty, and its escalating feud with the United States among others. Emeka Umejei is a longtime scholar of Chinese media engagement in Africa who previously taught at Wits University in South Africa, the American University of Nigeria, and is now with the Centre for Analysis for Authoritarian Influence in Africa. He joins Eric & Cobus from Johannesburg to discuss the latest trends in China's efforts to influence African media. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander |@emekaumejei Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 25 Feb 2022 | U.S., European Tech Competition With China in Africa | 01:09:07 | |
Challenging China's dominance in Africa's tech sector was one of the key takeaways from this month's Europe-Africa summit and a key component of the EU's Global Gateway infrastructure agenda. But it's not going to be easy given the enormous breadth of Chinese technology engagement in Africa that goes back decades. Western governments are going to find it even more difficult to compete in this market given the rapid expansion of Chinese corporate activity in Africa's digital sector. University of Tampere researcher Motolani Agbebi mapped out the scope of that challenge in a new paper published in February on the Council on Foreign Relations website that details Africa's role in China's Digital Silk Road agenda. She joins Eric & Cobus to discuss her findings and explain what she thinks African stakeholders need to do to best take advantage of the brewing geopolitical tech rivalry. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @motolani_agbebi Motolani's Paper: China’s Digital Silk Road and Africa’s Technological Future -- https://on.cfr.org/36FJvoU JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 18 Aug 2021 | Gyude Moore Reflects on a Week of Democracy, Debt & Despair | 00:51:58 | |
A lot of major developments this week in the China-Africa space following Zambia's landslide election victory for opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema and new debt repayment challenges in Kenya for the embattled Standard Gauge Railway. Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, has been closely following these events and joins Eric & Cobus from Washington to also reflect on how what happened in Kabul might impact U.S. foreign policy towards Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @gyude_moore Apple Podcasts: Subscribe to Gyude's new podcast "Lagos to Mombasa" SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: 1. The world's only curated China-Africa News Feed with thousands of articles archive 2. Exclusive analysis of the day's top stories about China in Africa and the Global South 3. A copy of the popular China-Africa Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox by 6am Washington time M-F Try it free for 30-days and see if you like it. Subscriptions start at just $7 a month for students and teachers and $15 a month for everyone else. Subscribe here: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 29 Oct 2021 | Week in Review: Sudan Coup, Glasgow Climate Summit & G20 Debt Relief | 00:47:41 | |
This week Eric & Cobus discuss the Chinese response to the military coup in Sudan and how it differs from Beijing's reaction to September's coup in Guinea. Plus, Cobus explains why he's not optimistic about the outcomes for developing countries from the upcoming Glasgow climate summit and should African countries expect much regarding debt relief from this weekend's G20 leaders summit in Rome. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 22 Jun 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Fanciful Dream to Play Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaker | 00:49:33 | |
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wrapped up a visit to Beijing last week where he heard lofty promises from Chinese officials about their desire to mediate a settlement with Israel. While the visit made for some good headlines, the chances of China jump-starting the stalled peace process are close to zero. Tuvia Gering, a leading China watcher in Israel and a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Jerusalem, and Jony Essa, CGSP's Arabic Editor, join Eric and Cobus to discuss the key takeaways from the Abbas visit and explain why China is not well-positioned to broker a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander |@geringtuvia Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 10 Aug 2022 | Afrobarometer CEO Joseph Asunka on Public Perceptions of the U.S. & China in Africa | 01:03:05 | |
When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the White House's new strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, he referenced Afrobarometer polling data to validate Washington's renewed emphasis on democracy promotion. The following day, in criticizing the new U.S. policy towards Africa, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also used Afrobarometer data to make the case for Beijing's engagement strategy on the continent. What's interesting is that they're both right. The Afrobarometer polling data undermines the simple narratives that too often frame the discourse about how Africans view their ties with these two powers. Afrobarometer CEO Joseph Asunka joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what's behind these seemingly contradictory perspectives and which direction public opinion towards the U.S. and China is trending. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @joeasunka Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 18 Aug 2022 | Week in Review: Kenya elections, Chinese mining woes in DRC & Xi Jinping's travels | 00:48:59 | |
Kenya's got a new president who has vowed to get tough on the Chinese, particularly when it comes to publishing contracts and cracking down on illegal immigration. Plus, Chinese mining giant CMOC is encountering new difficulties at its massive cobalt mine in the southern DRC. Eric & Cobus break down some of the week's top China-Africa stories and discuss where in the world is Xi Jinping going. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 14 Jul 2021 | Tanzania Resumes Talks With China Over the Bagamoyo Port Deal. But Is It Too Late? | 00:48:45 | |
Tanzanian President Samia Hassan surprised a lot of people last month when she announced that talks with China had resumed over the controversial Bagamoyo port deal. This is the deal that President Hassan's predecessor, the late John Magufuli, famously halted back in 2019 when he said only a "drunkard" would accept the terms put forth by China Merchant Holdings International. Things have changed a lot since then and apparently, even Chinese President Xi Jinping is now open to the idea of restarting negotiations over the multibillion-dollar port expansion project. But President Hassan faces a tough challenge. First, the Chinese aren't spending the kind of money on big infrastructure projects as they used to in Africa. Secondly, there's a lot of port capacity now in East Africa, from Djibouti to Durban, so the economic feasibility of a big project like this remains an open question. Thabit Jacob, a post-doctoral researcher in the department of political science at the University of Gothenberg, and Muhidin Shangwe, a lecturer in the political science department at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, join Eric & Cobus to discuss the politics and economics surrounding the Sino-Tanzanian Bagamoyo port deal. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @thabitsenior | @shangweberia SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: 1. The world's only curated China-Africa News Feed with thousands of articles archive 2. Exclusive analysis of the day's top stories about China in Africa and the Global South 3. A copy of the popular China-Africa Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox by 6am Washington time M-F Try it free for 30-days and see if you like it. Subscriptions start at just $7 a month for students and teachers and $15 a month for everyone else. Subscribe here: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 17 Mar 2021 | How Smaller Countries Can Negotiate More Effectively With China | 00:59:39 | |
China's enormous size affords it tremendous advantages in its relations with smaller countries, particularly developing states in the global south. Beijing regularly leverages its huge economy, growing military power, and diplomatic muscle in international organizations to both cajole and even coerce other countries in pursuit of its own interests. China's behavior towards smaller states is by no means exceptional. In fact, it's quite standard among the world's major powers. The more pressing question, though, is how do these smaller countries respond to a more assertive China? In many instances, there is no response. Many developing countries have been slow to shift their focus from traditional power centers in Washington, London and Brussels to Beijing and, as such, have not built up the internal competencies within their governments to effectively negotiate with China. But in Argentina, that's starting to change. Santiago Bustelo is a China advisor in the Ministry of Development who brings almost a decade of experience in Chinese politics and economics to help the government in Buenos Aires form a more effective engagement strategy with Beijing. Santiago joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the particular challenges that smaller states like Argentina face in crafting a China policy. SHOW NOTES: Tips for African Negotiators Doing Deals with China: Rebalancing Asymmetries by Hervé Lado and Folashadé Soulé: https://bit.ly/3cLeijE JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @doctortaber SUBSCRIBE TO THE CAP'S DAILY EMAIL NEWSLETTER Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: 1. A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. 2. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network 3. Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscriptions start at just $7 a month. Use the promo code "Podcast" and get a 20% lifetime discount on your annual subscription: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 21 Dec 2023 | The Africa-China 2023 Year in Review | 00:52:11 | |
2023 was a transformative year for China’s ties with Africa. Chinese investment, trade, and diplomatic engagement were either flat or declined sharply over the past year, highlighting how this once-vibrant relationship is now entering a new, more austere period. In our annual year-in-review episode, Geraud, Cobus, and Eric look back at the stories and trends of the past 12 months and provide their forecast of what to expect in 2024. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! | |||
| 22 Feb 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Wang Huiyao on 'China's Misunderstood Foreign Policy' | 00:50:23 | |
Senior-level Chinese stakeholders often contend that one of the main reasons for today's heightened geopolitical tensions between China and the West is due to "misunderstandings" of its foreign policy objectives by outsiders. Chinese distrust is also fueled by a longstanding feeling of victimization by the West and a sense that they've lost the "narrative battle" in international media. Wang Huiyao, president and founder of the Beijing-based think tank Centre for China and Globalisation, wants to change that. In a recent column published in the South China Morning Post newspaper, Wang called on Chinese scholars, analysts, and others to "embrace the global internet if it wants to reclaim its narrative." Wang joins Eric & Cobus to discuss why he thinks China has such a difficult time in communicating its agenda with the rest of the world. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @huiyaowang Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 11 Aug 2022 | Week in Review: Kenya Elections, Zambian Debt & Blinken's Africa Tour | 00:58:02 | |
The Chinese government pushed back this week against the U.S. and its new foreign policy strategy for Africa. The Foreign Ministry dismissed Washington's emphasis on democracy as mere rhetoric, while the railways, roads, and other infrastructure that China's built speak for itself. Also this week, a senior U.S. official again accused China of engaging in predatory lending in Africa without apparently knowing that Beijing also led a landmark debt restructuring deal for Zambia. Emmanuel Matambo, research director at the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, has been closely following these events and joins Eric & Cobus to share his insights on what was a very busy week. Plus, he also reflects on the politics in Kenya where voters went to the polls to select a new president. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @ekmatambo Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 08 Dec 2023 | Chinese 'Illegal Mining Queen' Jailed in Ghana | 00:42:57 | |
Aisha Huang -- a Chinese national with the notorious nickname "Galamsey Queen" -- is now sitting in a Ghanaian prison cell after she was sentenced this week by the High Court in Accra for running a massive illegal mining operation. The verdict dominated the media this week in Ghana but rather than focus on Huang and her offenses, commentators directed their ire towards wealthy landowners and the government who they feel enable people like Huang and other illegal miners to destroy the environment. Francis Xavier Tuokuu is a Ghanaian scholar who has done extensive research on illegal mining in West Afric and joins Eric & Cobus to explain why so many people in Ghana were disappointed in the court's verdict and why Huang should spend more time behind bars. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 25 May 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Key Lessons From Indonesia's China-Backed Mining & Infrastructure Ventures | 00:48:46 | |
Indonesia is a pioneer among developing countries for its efforts in moving up the EV battery metal value chain. Whereas most other countries like the DR Congo and Chile export raw commodities that are processed elsewhere, Indonesia now requires all of the nickel mined in the country to be processed locally. But just as in the DRC where the Chinese dominate the cobalt mining sector, a similar dynamic is now playing out in Indonesia. CGSP's Southeast Asia Antonia Timmerman joins Eric & Cobus from Jakarta to talk about China's controversial role in the Indonesian mining business plus how a new Chinese-backed high-speed railway is generating more concern than excitement. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @timmerman91 Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 01 Aug 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Is China Setting the Agenda for Global South Debt Restructuring? | 00:53:18 | |
In June, Zambia reached what's been described as a landmark debt restructuring deal that for the first time brought together the country's bilateral creditors including China, traditional Paris Club lenders and bondholders. While the deal is no doubt unprecedented, it also reveals that China was very effective in successful in getting the parties to agree to many of its demands. Matt Mingey, a senior analyst at the consultancy Rhodium Group, is among the world's foremost experts on Chinese lending and debt issues. He joins Eric & Cobus from Washington, D.C. to discuss whether China is, in fact, setting the agenda for debt restructurings in the Global South. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander |@mattmingey Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 30 Mar 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Lending Money Again to Countries in the Americas | 00:43:10 | |
Chinese lending to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean is gaining momentum. For the second year in a row, China's two largest policy banks have increased lending to countries in the region, albeit in much smaller amounts than what they did a decade ago. At the same time, there's word that China has spent close to a quarter trillion dollars over the past twenty years to bail out dozens of countries struggling to stay afloat under the weight of such much debt. Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., and Rebecca Ray, two of the world's leading experts in Chinese overseas development finance, join Eric to discuss how these two seemingly divergent trends actually align with one another and why the Americas is emerging as a key market for Chinese creditors. SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @myersmargaret | @bubeckyray Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 30 Sep 2022 | Nosmot Gbadamosi on US-China Competition in Africa, Debt and "Preventative Infrastructure" | 00:59:15 | |
Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia commissioned a new road this week built by the Chinese conglomerate Sinohydro and paid for as part of a $2 billion bauxite barter deal with the company. The timing of this new road opening, though, is critical as Ghana grapples with the effects of climate change and a rapidly deteriorating economy. Nosmot Gbadamosi, writer of Foreign Policy's widely-read Africa Brief newsletter, joins Eric & Cobus from Lagos to discuss why this kind of infrastructure that the Chinese built in Ghana in just 13 months is so important for West Africa's ongoing battle against the effects of climate change. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Sign up for Foreign Policy's (free) Africa Brief newsletter: https://bit.ly/3rk65uk Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @nosmotg Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 17 Feb 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China, Latin America, and the Rise of a New Non-Aligned Movement | 00:53:32 | |
During the first Cold War, a large group of developing countries sought to distance themselves from the ideological battle between the United States and the Soviet Union to create a Non-Aligned Movement. Today, three decades later, at the dawn of yet another Great Power competition, this time between the U.S. and China, Global South countries are once again saying they don't want any part of it. Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador to China and now a research professor at Boston University joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the new book he co-edited about how this new movement is taking root in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Show Notes:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @jorgeheinel Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 06 Dec 2022 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] Why U.S. Diplomacy is Struggling to Compete With China in the Global South | 01:00:52 | |
40 countries around the world currently do not have U.S. ambassadors. The corner offices have been empty for months, even years at U.S. embassies in major regional powers like India and Saudia Arabia. Even Italy, a G7 country, doesn't have a U.S. ambassador in place. The hold-up in getting ambassadors confirmed by the Senate is the consequence of Washington's dysfunctional politics that's adversely impacting the U.S. and its effort to compete with China for influence around the world, particularly in developing countries. Politico's Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Nahal Toosi traveled to Panama earlier this year to report on how U.S. diplomacy is struggling to keep up with China's engagement in the region. She joins Eric & Cobus from Washington, D.C. to discuss her special report on the issue. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @nahaltoosi Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 21 Nov 2023 | [GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Response to the Israel-Hamas War | 01:02:22 | |
Prior to the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas in southern Israel, China had positioned itself as a new power broker in the Middle East. Chinese officials were brimming with confidence after they finalized a détente between Iran and Saudi Arabia earlier this year, hinting they could do the same in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in the wake of a full-scale war that's now underway, those same Chinese officials are much more circumspect. In this week's episode, CGSP Middle East Editor Jony Essa and Eric speak with three of the world's leading China-Mideast scholars to discuss China's response to the war between Israel and Hamas. First, Gedaliah Afterman, head of the Asia Policy Program at the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, and Jonathan Fulton, associate professor of political science at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, discuss how the war has impacted China's foreign policy towards Israel and Persian Gulf countries. Then, Bill Figueroa, one of the world's foremost experts on China-Iran relations at the University of Groningen, joins the conversation to talk about whether Beijing can leverage its influence with Iran to sway Hamas. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 16 Jun 2021 | Chinese Entertainment is Finding New Audiences in Africa | 00:50:43 | |
Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee kung fu movies have long been popular in Africa. Now, however, Chinese entertainment content is expanding beyond martial arts to include sports and even soap operas. Chinese television dramas are now starting to find audiences in Africa and the Middle East thanks in part to the growing popularity of the pay-TV service StarTimes that dubs programs into dozens of African languages and tech companies like iQiyi that now Arabic language packages. Even the nascent Chinese Super League is starting to build a following on the continent. More African soccer players are competing in the Chinese professional league with games broadcast twice a day during the season to millions of homes across the continent on StarTimes. Freelance tech and digital culture journalist Chu Yang recently co-authored an article with journalist Soila Kenya published on the Chinese news and lifestyle website Sixth Tone that explores how Chinese digital trends are finding their way to Africa and other emerging markets. Chu joins Eric & Cobus from Denmark to discuss her latest report about whether Chinese so-called “C-Dramas” are gaining popularity in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @chuyang_journ | @solia_kenya SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: 1. The world's only curated China-Africa News Feed with thousands of articles archive 2. Exclusive analysis of the day's top stories about China in Africa and the Global South 3. A copy of the popular China-Africa Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox by 6am Washington time M-F Try it free for 30-days and see if you like it. Subscriptions start at just $7 a month for students and teachers and $15 a month for everyone else. Subscribe here: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||
| 09 Sep 2022 | Week in Review: Illegal mining in Ghana, US Disillusionment in the DRC & #ChinaAfricaSpaceTalk | 00:53:26 | |
Aisha Huang, aka the "Galamsey Queen," surprised everyone when she was arrested again for illegal mining in Ghana. What does her arrest say about the government's efforts to combat illicit Chinese mining? Plus, a new report says the U.S. is "disillusioned" with the Congolese government for not doing more to push back against Chinese mining companies. And, African youth in 8 countries get the chance to speak with astronauts aboard the Chinese Space Station. Francophone Editor Christian-Geraud Neema joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the top China-Africa stories of the week plus the latest installment of "Where in the world is Xi Jinping going?" SHOW NOTES:
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. | |||