The China Africa Project
07.17.19

Where is the Evidence of Debt Traps in Africa?

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

To discuss accusations that China engages in so-called “debt trap diplomacy,” Eric and Cobus spoke with Deborah Brautigam, a Johns Hopkins University Professor and Director of the China-Africa Research Initiative in Washington, D.C. The “debt...

Conversation
04.24.19

Is This the End of Belt and Road, or Just the Beginning?

Nadège Rolland, Adrian Zenz & more

On April 25-27, China’s government will host the leaders of dozens of countries to celebrate the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the signature foreign policy program of Xi Jinping. Since its founding in October 2013, the BRI now covers more than...

The China Africa Project
08.29.18

Is This Really the Best Time for a China-Africa Summit?

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

Does it still make sense for China to put on big, expensive mega-summits with African leaders, like FOCAC, which will take place in Beijing in September? Facing a slowing economy and a potentially devastating trade war with the U.S., maybe China...

Huge Increase in Chinese Aid Pledged to Pacific

Australia has traditionally been the most significant donor to the Pacific, but in 2017 China committed to spending more than four times as much as Australia, data from the Lowy Institute thinktank published today shows.

China Hasn’t Delivered on Its $24 Billion Philippines Promise

Of the 27 deals signed between China and the Philippines during Duterte’s visit to Beijing in October 2016, China originally agreed to provide $9 billion in soft loans, including a $3 billion credit line with the Bank of China, with a further $15...

The China Africa Project
06.08.18

Somalia Aims to Be Heard at Upcoming China-Africa Mega Summit

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

Around 50 African leaders are expected to be in Beijing in September for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. While Africa’s largest and most strategically important countries will likely do very well, receiving huge...

The China Africa Project
01.03.18

Industrial Parks Are Africa’s Latest Gamble to Lure Chinese Manufacturers

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

Freelance journalist William Davison joins Eric and Cobus to discuss his reporting from the Hawassa Industrial Park in Ethiopia, which is the latest high-stakes gamble taken by a number of African countries to lure Chinese manufacturers....

China Is Investing $57 Billion into Pakistan

Chinese entrepreneurs are looking to explore opportunities in Pakistan, where Beijing has pledged to spend $57 billion on infrastructure projects as part of its “Belt and Road” initiative.

Balance of Power: China Extends Its Reach

President Xi Jinping is spending more than $50 billion in an economic corridor in Pakistan, Afghanistan’s neighbor. The highways and gas pipelines, designed to provide China an alternative land route to the high seas, also give it an interest in...

The China Africa Project
05.10.17

China Appears to be Losing Interest in Africa

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

Beijing-based investment attorney Kai Xue joins Eric and Cobus to discuss why he thinks Africa is no longer appealing to Chinese companies. Kai Xue is a longtime Sino-African affairs analyst and carefully monitors trade, foreign...

Caixin Media
05.05.17

Belt and Road: A Symphony in Need of a Strong Conductor

In just a few weeks, the Chinese president will host the Belt and Road summit—Xi Jinping’s landmark program to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Reactions to the project have...

The China Africa Project
04.26.17

The U.N.’s Role in China’s African Development Agenda

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

China’s embrace of multilateral diplomacy in Africa is a relatively new phenomenon. For years, Beijing rejected the Western aid model, preferring instead to work bilaterally with African governments where they often employed aid (...

The China Africa Project
04.14.17

China Conducts Foreign Policy in Africa without Judgment

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

In this edition of the China in Africa podcast, we pull the focus back to look at China’s rapidly evolving foreign policy agenda in this new era of Western populism led by Donald Trump in the United States.

François...

China Tech Investment Flying under the Radar, Pentagon Warns

China is investing in Silicon Valley start-ups with military applications at such a rapid rate that the United States government needs tougher controls to stem the transfer of some of America’s most promising technologies, a Pentagon report says...

The China Africa Project
03.31.17

China Spends Billions in Egypt to Woo the Middle East

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s recent state visit to Beijing is the latest evidence that China is maneuvering to play a bigger role in the Middle...

China Should Learn the Golden Rule

The truth is that Chinese companies looking to invest abroad are treated now—as they’ve been for years—far better than China treats foreign investors.

Viewpoint
03.01.17

Is the U.S.’s Withdrawal China’s Gain in Latin America?

Latin Americans can’t afford to wait four years to see when the United States will be willing to have an honest and reciprocal conversation about economic prosperity in the Western Hemisphere. Luckily for the U.S.’s southern...

Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China’s Help

China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.

Conversation
01.18.17

U.S.-China Flashpoints in the Age of Trump

Zha Daojiong, Isaac Stone Fish & more

Over the past year, Donald Trump has vowed to “utterly destroy” ISIS, considered lifting sanctions on Russia, promised to cancel the Paris climate agreement and “dismantle” the Iran nuclear deal. But many of his most inflammatory statements are...

Record Flows and Growing Imbalances

Mercator Institute for China Studies

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become an increasingly important part of the E.U.-China economic relationship. European companies have invested hundreds of billions of euros into the Chinese economy since the 1980s, and have made big bets on...

Books
12.20.16

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom

John Pomfret

From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap for Chinese tea, to the U.S. warships facing off against China’s growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations.

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