The China in Africa Podcast

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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @bendada_ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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:

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @leixing77 Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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.

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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:

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @leixing77 Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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.

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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:

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @jeremy_garlick Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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:

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @christiangeraud | @eric_olander | @gyude_moore Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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.

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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:

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @aseanwonk Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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.

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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:

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 Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat

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

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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @folasoule Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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

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: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @folasoule Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander | @myersmargaret Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject|  @Eric Olander | @christiangeraud | @noosarowiwa Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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: X: @ChinaGSProject| @stadenesque| @eric_olander | @khangxvu Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth

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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.

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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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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:

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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.

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Ethiopia is the latest African country that is now teetering on the verge of default after the government announced this week that it would not be able to make a $33 million bond payment. Eric speaks with Mark Bohlund, a senior research credit analyst at REDD Intelligence, for his take on the situation and the larger debt landscape across the continent.

Plus, Cobus and Geraud break down China's position at the COP28 that wrapped up this week and what impact it will have on Beijing's engagement in the African energy sector.

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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.

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Zambia's debt restructuring deal that was hailed earlier this year as a "landmark" breakthrough for developing countries is now in shambles. Talks broke down a couple of weeks ago when bilateral creditors led by China and France objected to the terms that bondholders were negotiating with Lusaka on the grounds that private creditors were getting more out of the deal.

Now, three years into this process, Zambia is once again stuck in limbo as rival creditors feud over who will get paid first and how much.

Rachel Savage, Africa senior markets correspondent at Reuters, has been covering the story on a near-daily basis and joins Eric & Geraud to explain why the deal collapsed and what happens next.

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Zambia suffered a major setback this week in its nearly three-year odyssey to restructure $32 billion of debt when the country's bilateral creditors led by China and France pushed back against bondholders. Plus, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a rare diss against China in a commencement speech for new diplomats when he said he tried to avoid Africa being "taken hostage" by China.

Eric, Cobus, and Geraud discuss those issues and are also joined by Bongiwe Tutu, project coordinator at the Africa-China Reporting Project at Wits University, to discuss a series of fascinating journalism conferences that took place this week in Johannesburg.

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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.

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U.S. lawmakers met this week to discuss how to combat the use of child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's cobalt mining sector which they claim is largely controlled by Chinese mining companies. The issue is part of a larger debate over what the U.S. needs to do to better compete with the Chinese around the world to secure the critical resources that will power next-generation mobility and technology.

The timing of this week's hearings on Capitol Hill coincides with the release of a new report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) about how African countries can become more engaged in the U.S. clean energy supply chain.

The report's authors, Zainab Usman, director of the Africa program at CEIP, and Alex Csnadi, a research assistant in the Carnegie Africa program, join Eric & Geraud from Washington to discuss how they think the U.S. can close the gap with China for access to Africa's critical resources.

SHOW NOTES:

Read the Carnegie report: How Can African Countries Participate in U.S. Clean Energy Supply Chains?: https://bit.ly/46iXaLN

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Amid a slowing economy at home, more Chinese companies are now looking to invest abroad in search of higher returns. While there's been a lot of hope in recent years that some of that money would find its way to Africa and other less-developed regions, that's not happening.

Instead, Chinese companies are investing in countries closer to home in Asia, according to Chim Lee, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Chim joins Eric & Cobus from Beijing to discuss the latest trends in Chinese overseas FDI and why Chinese companies are focusing more attention on "de-risking" their investments.

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There's a widely-held perception in many parts of the U.S., Europe, and India that debt and geopolitics have led to the demise of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But a landmark new study from AidData proves otherwise, revealing not only that the BRI is still very much alive but it's also undergone major reforms to make it even more competitive.

AidData pored through 21,000 Chinese-backed projects over the past twenty years in 165 countries valued at more than $1.3 trillion.

Ammar Malik, a senior research scientist at AidData, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the new report and how China is moving to de-risk the BRI as part of a larger effort to outflank its competitors.

SHOW NOTES:

Download the full AidData report: Belt and Road Reboot: Beijing’s Bid to De-Risk Its Global Infrastructure Initiative -- https://bit.ly/47i0tUm

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Two years ago, China introduced a series of new so-called "green guidelines" that it hoped would promote more sustainable development abroad. But in Africa, according to a new research report, it appears those higher environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have been difficult to meet.

Researchers from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, the Fudan University Green Finance and Development Center, the South African Institute of International Affairs, and LSE IDEAS teamed up to examine ESG standards at five Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Egypt, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.

Two of the scholars on that team, Cecilia Han Springer and Christoph Nedopil, join Cobus (who also contributed to the research) to discuss their findings and explain why Chinese companies continue to struggle to meet minimum ESG standards in Africa.

SHOW NOTES:

Read the full report: Elevating ESG: Empirical Lessons on Environmental, Social and Governance Implementation of Chinese Projects in Africa: https://bit.ly/46ZHL4d

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Eat Bitter is a new documentary making the rounds of the international film festival circuit that tells the story of two men, one from China and the other from the Central African Republic (CAR), who work on opposite ends of the construction business in the CAR.

The film is generating considerable buzz for the way it humanizes the main characters, providing long-overdue relief from the caricatures that typically frame the China-Africa relationship.

Ningyi Sun, one of Eat Bitter's co-directors, and producer Mathieu Faure join Eric & Geraud to provide a behind-the-scenes perspective on how they conceptualized the documentary and what they're going to do to get it seen by a large, global audience.

SHOW NOTES:

Find out if Eat Bitter is playing at a theater near you: https://www.eat-bitter.com/

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China's media presence in Africa is far more pervasive today than it was a decade ago, but not in the conventional way. Very few people consume China's traditional media offerings on the continent but millions, often unaware, engage with Chinese-produced messaging online on a near-daily basis.

The Chinese government has become very sophisticated in distributing its content to African news outlets which is then published on websites and social media platforms. Beijing also does extensive media outreach across Africa, providing journalists with training, equipment, and complementary trips to China.

Dani Madrid-Morales, a journalism lecturer at the University of Sheffield, has been tracking Chinese media engagement in Africa for more than ten years and joins Eric & Cobus to provide an update on the latest trends.

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Five of the 24 heads of state who attended this week's Belt and Road Forum in Beijing were from African countries, highlighting the prominent role the continent played at the event.

Many of the themes that emerged from the two-day forum align neatly with key African priorities related to new development finance and greater access to the Chinese market.

Join Geraud, Cobus, and Eric for a lively discussion on the key takeaways from this year's forum and whether African countries really do stand to benefit from the next iteration of the Belt and Road Initiative.

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Across Africa, public opinion about China has been quite positive overall with favorability ratings surpassing those of other major powers, including the United States. But not in Zimbabwe, at least among the country's elites, according to a new survey.

Only 37% of urban, educated Zimbabweans felt positive about China's impact on their country, significantly lower than the 63% favorability score that Afrobarometer recorded just a couple of years ago.

The new poll was conducted earlier this year by William Hautungimana and Haruka Nagao, both assistant professors at Oklahoma State University in the United States. William joins Eric & Cobus from Stillwater, Oklahoma to explain why China's approval rating is comparatively low and what's fueling the skepticism about the Chinese in Zimbabwe.

SHOW NOTES:

The Conversation: We asked 1,000 Zimbabweans what they think of China’s influence on their country − only 37% viewed it favorably: https://bit.ly/3rN8iCo

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China's economy emerged from the pandemic much weaker than before. Unemployment is up, exports are down and a burgeoning property crisis is having a devastating impact on local government finances.

These changes in the economy are happening very fast, so quickly that's it difficult for experts to keep pace with what's happening, much less among those who don't closely follow Chinese economic trends -- particularly in developing countries.

Michael Pettis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is one of the world's foremost scholars on the Chinese economy. He joins Eric this week to discuss how the dramatic changes that are now taking place in China will impact countries throughout the Global South.

SHOW NOTES:

Amazon: Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace: https://amzn.to/46Iiqel

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Only a handful of universities around the world teach area studies courses in China-Africa relations. It's a field that was once quite popular but less so today as interest in studying Chinese affairs more broadly has fallen precipitously.

Student enrollment, for example, in Chinese language classes in U.S. and European universities has plunged by at least 20% over the past ten years and is still largely non-existent in most higher education programs in the Global South.

But if you're one of the fortunate few to attend Harvard University, you can still study Mandarin and sign up for the class "China and the African Continent." The course instructor, Daniel Koss, an associate senior lecturer and research scholar in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, joins Eric & Cobus from Cambridge to discuss the key themes that he's covering in this semester's class.

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Dramatic scenes this week in Italy where 7,000 people, mostly from Africa, came ashore after making the dangerous trek across the Mediterranean. It was a similar situation along the U.S.-Mexico border where 9,000 people crossed in a single day.

Poverty, in many cases, is fueling this latest migration surge due in part to the worsening economic conditions in many of these countries, particularly in Africa which is now the epicenter of twin climate and debt crises.

David McNair, executive director of Global Policy at the UK-based One Campaign, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss his latest research on African debt repayments and how stark inequities make it impossible for many of the world's poorest governments to do anything to mitigate the effects of climate change.

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The Chinese economy is in trouble. Exports, manufacturing output, and investment are all down. Unemployment, particularly among young people is up. Provincial debt is now at a record $8 trillion while a burgeoning property crisis has eliminated a once reliable source of revenue for local governments.

The financial difficulties that China is now experiencing have direct implications on dozens, if not hundreds of developing countries around the world that have come to rely on Chinese demand to bolster their own economies.

Lizzi Li, an economist and reporter at the Chinese language television network Wall Street TV, joins Eric & Cobus from New York to discuss what's behind the economic slowdown in China and why it's critical that policymakers and other stakeholders in the Global South learn quickly how to adapt to the new economic realities that are taking shape.

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Chinese lending to African countries plunged to below a billion dollars in 2022, the lowest level in two decades, according to new data from the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. The findings confirm that the era of Beijing financing large-scale infrastructure projects on the continent is now officially over.

Instead, Chinese creditors are focusing on smaller, more sustainable initiatives in green energy and telecommunications, among others. But this new, austere engagement strategy is going to fundamentally change China's relationship with the continent that, in many ways, was buttressed by once-generous loans.

Oyintarelado (Tarela) Moses, data analyst/database manager at the BU Global Development Policy Center, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the new lending figures and explain what's behind the downturn.

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There was a glimmer of hope last month that China and India would pull back from their increasingly contentious standoff when military commanders concluded talks along their disputed border on a somewhat optimistic note. The hope was that these talks would pave the way for leaders from both countries to meet while they were together at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did meet briefly in South Africa but it did nothing to stall the downward spiral in relations between the two Asian powers.

Ananth Krishnan, an associate editor at The Hindu newspaper in New Delhi and one of the foremost experts on Sino-Indian relations, joins Eric & Cobus to explain why ties have soured so badly and what to expect going forward.

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The Chinese Foreign Ministry was among the first major governments this week to welcome the African Union as the newest member of the G20. The big question now is what will the AU do now that it has a seat at the table?

Plus, Kenya's already dire economic situation gets worse and a new big-budget Chinese medical drama set in a fictitious African country released this week on major Chinese streaming platforms, the latest installment in the burgeoning genre of "Chinese savior" narratives.

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China's Belt and Road Initiative marked its 10th anniversary this month, prompting a lot of discussion about what's next for Beijing's controversial development agenda. While BRI spending in Africa and the Americas has plummeted in recent years that is not the case closer to home in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia, in particular, stands apart from other countries in terms of its growing dependence on Chinese economic engagement -- both from government-backed BRI projects and private investors who have transformed major cities like Sihanoukville (not always for the better).

Wang Yuan, an assistant professor at Duke Kunshan University, and Linda Calabrese, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, published a paper last month that examined China's hugely important economic presence in Cambodia and join Eric & Cobus to discuss what lessons other developing countries can learn from Phnom Penh's experience.

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There's been a surge of activity in Africa-ASEAN relations in recent weeks highlighted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo's recent African tour and the Singapore-Africa Business Forum that took place earlier this month in the Lion City. Closer trade and investment ties make sense for both regions as the traditional engines of economic growth in China and Europe continue to slow.

Amit Jain, director of the Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Technological University, joins Eric & Cobus from Singapore to discuss the growing interest in Africa among Southeast Asian investors and why they've been so reluctant until now to get more engaged.

Plus, in their postscript, Eric & Cobus discuss this week's Africa Climate Summit and why it turned out to be yet another disappointing climate conference.

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Over the past 20 years, tens of thousands of kilometers of new railway lines have been built across Africa - much of it constructed and financed by China. But the days when Beijing paid big bucks to build these kinds of large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa have come to an end.

Today, China's development priorities on the continent are focused more on fostering industrialization and building smaller, greener projects mostly in the energy and telecommunications sectors. But even without the Chinese, a number of African governments are moving forward with ambitious plans to build vast regional rail networks.

Tim Zajontz, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Dresden, and Mandira Bagwandeen, a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town, join Eric & Cobus to discuss their new book on Africa's railway renaissance and China's indispensable role.

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The failure of G20 countries last month to agree on a plan to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 highlights a key problem in the ongoing debate over how to respond to climate change: the institutions that are designed to help solve this problem are failing.

It's not clear what China's role was in that debate at the G20 but elsewhere Beijing's actions on combatting climate change are somewhat contradictory. While China is by far the world's leader in renewable energy and green transportation, it's also the world's largest polluter, thanks in part to its reliance on coal power.

This week, Byron Tsang, a London-based senior policy advisor at the independent climate change think tank E3G, and Madhura Joshi, a senior research associate for E3G in Mumbai, join Eric & Cobus to discuss the current state of global climate diplomacy.

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The once lifeless BRICS bloc got a big boost of energy this week with the addition of six new members including two additional African states from Egypt and Ethiopia. Together, African countries will now account for nearly a third of the 11-member group -- far more than any other international multilateral organization.

The announcement to enlarge the bloc came at the end of a high-profile three-day leaders summit in Johannesburg.

Adhere Cavince, a Nairobi-based China-Africa researcher, spent much of the week in Johannesburg attending events on the sidelines of the summit and joins Eric & Geraud to discuss what a new beefed-up BRICS means for Africa and the Global South more broadly.

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China's critics contend the Belt and Road Initiative is dead or dying due to a mix of gross mismanagement and hubris. The data, however, reveals a very different story. While lending has definitely decreased considerably from its peak in 2016, the BRI is very much alive -- it just looks very different today than it did even a few years ago.

Instead of expensive large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, Chinese lenders are now focusing more on smaller initiatives related to technology, renewable energy, and connectivity. In fact, Chinese creditors lent more money to finance green energy initiatives in the first half of the year than in any other 6-month period since the BRI launched a decade ago.

Christoph Nedopil, founding director of the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University has been closely tracking the evolution of the BRI and joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what the latest data on BRI lending reveals about its future.

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The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed President Xi Jinping will travel to South Africa to attend the upcoming BRICS summit, the first time he'll visit Africa since 2018. Xi will be joined by three other of the group's leaders along with Russian President Vladimir Putin who will attend remotely.

The two main priorities at this year's gathering will be expanding the bloc's membership to include any of the two dozen countries that have applied to join and the creation of a new BRICS currency as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

Emmanuel Matambo, research director at the University of Johannesburg's Africa-China Studies Centre, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the upcoming summit and whether anything substantive will emerge from the discussions.

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For much of the past 20 years, China sought to radically expand its presence beyond its traditional spheres of influence to new regions in Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East. China lent billions to countries in these regions and devoted considerable diplomatic capital to building political influence there as well.

But now, in this new era of Great Power competition with the United States and Europe, China is once again shifting its focus, this time closer to home in Asia. Its so-called "near abroad" is now by far the most consequential region for China both in terms of trade and, increasingly, new security challenges.

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute and a visiting senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, is one of the world's leading experts on China's relations in Central Asia and joins Eric & Cobus to discuss why this region, in particular, is now so important to Beijing.

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The Chinese government has been noticeably quiet in response to the turbulent events in Niger where President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed last month in a military coup.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has issued three pro-forma statements about what happened in Niamey that are very different in both tone and substance to Beijing's response to a similar uprising in Guinea in 2021.

CGSP's Francophone Africa Editor Geraud Neema joins Eric to explain why Beijing's reaction to this latest is far more understated and what he thinks is at stake more broadly for Chinese interests in West Africa.

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For years, Nigerian politicians and media reports have issued breathless warnings about the dangers of becoming too indebted to China, fearing the dreaded "debt trap" and the risk of surrendering the country's strategic assets.

While the economic risks associated with taking on too much debt are indeed relevant in Nigeria today where the government now owes creditors more than $100 billion, China, though, is not the problem. Chinese loans, in fact, account for just around 4% of total public debt.

So what's behind the Nigerian anxiety over Chinese loans? Zuhumnan Dapel, an economist and non-resident senior fellow at the University of St. Andrews' Nigerian Economic Summit Group, joins Eric & Cobus to explain what's driving this narrative and how it fits within the larger Nigerian debt debate.

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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.

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The Kenyan government's controversial decision to end certain subsidies and raise taxes sparked days of violent protests in Nairobi. While the move sparked a massive backlash, President William Ruto nonetheless clearly felt he had no other choice if he wanted to avoid defaulting on the country's ballooning national debt.

A sizable portion of that debt, around 10%, is owed to Chinese creditors for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Kenya's largest-ever infrastructure project.

Now, a series of documentaries and research initiatives are revealing the complex politics behind this massive infrastructure and that Kenyan stakeholders had much more agency in the negotiations with China than many presumed.

Soundbites to African Uncensored - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8SSOIb3zzK8e9e9rLPEe-UQxv_IZep_K

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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.

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The China-Global South Project is proud to announce the first-ever mapping of the Chinese cobalt supply chain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

CGSP launched a new interactive map this week that includes a full breakdown of mining data by Chinese and other firms, an overview of the main logistics routes, and five years of export data that details precisely where the cobalt goes when it leaves Africa.

CGSP Francophone Editor Geraud Neema led this pioneering research initiative that took nine months to compile. Geraud joins Eric & Cobus to share the key findings from the data that reveal China's vast and complicated role in the race to control what is now one of the world's most important resources.

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Three Chinese warships made ports of call in Ghana and Nigeria this month, prompting a new wave of speculation about Beijing's military ambitions in Africa. The PLA Navy visit followed reports that Chinese miners in the Central African Republic were rescued by a group of Russian mercenaries which also triggered questions as to whether the controversial Wagner Group is now working more closely with Chinese entities on the continent.

All of this is set against a backdrop of increasingly close military-to-military ties between the PLA and their counterparts in Africa.

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., is among the foremost experts on Chinese military engagement on the continent. He joins Eric & Cobus to discuss his latest research on the increasingly close ties between Chinese and African militaries for training and education which are also closely linked to increased Chinese weapons sales.

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After nearly two years of painful, drawn-out negotiations, Zambia finally closed a deal to restructure its bilateral external debt. The announcement was made last week at a global development finance summit in Paris and the new agreement is widely seen as a landmark deal since for the first time it brought together traditional lenders, private sector lenders along with new creditors like China, India, and Saudi Arabia.

The terms of the deal though are also groundbreaking and, in many ways, look a lot like China's restructurings in other developing countries. Geraud, Cobus, and Eric this week dive into the details of the deal and discuss whether China did, in fact, set the agenda here or if Beijing was merely one among many actors that worked collaboratively to reach a consensus.

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The South China Sea is one of the world's most strategically vital maritime zones where more than $5 trillion of trade passes through each year -- a whopping 60% of the globe's total maritime commerce. It's also the epicenter of an increasingly contentious geopolitical dispute among more than half a dozen countries over territorial boundaries and who ultimately controls this enormous body of water.

Chinese sovereignty claims over the whole of the South China Sea have provoked furious responses from its regional neighbors and sparked a dangerous duel with the U.S. and other major navies over continued freedom of navigation through the area.

Ray Powell, a former U.S. Air Force colonel, tracks the maneuvers of ships and other vessels operating in the South China Sea on a daily basis as the team lead for Stanford University's Project Myoushu. Ray joins Eric & Cobus from Palo Alto to break down the different territorial claims and why this burgeoning maritime conflict is so incredibly important.

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Over the past six months, there's been a noticeable increase in the number of green energy deals announced by Chinese private and state-owned enterprises in Africa. But unlike the earlier era of Chinese-financed infrastructure development in Africa, this new push into renewable energy is much smaller in scale and far more targeted.

This week, Geraud and Cobus join Eric to discuss what's behind the recent surge in green energy initiatives across the continent and how renewable power projects are emerging as a new form of Chinese soft power in Africa -- a new "green diplomacy" agenda.

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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.

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Since the end of the Cold War in the early 90s, Africa has largely been an afterthought in Washington where it was never regarded as a top-tier priority.

That changed last year when the Biden administration launched a new foreign policy for the continent and declared that it was "all in" in boosting ties with African countries. A key part of that strategy was also to reduce the intense focus on confronting China and instead focus more attention on bolstering U.S. economic engagement.

Judd Devermont, a special assistant to the president and the senior director for African affairs on the National Security Council, was one of the chief architects of that new strategy and joins Eric & Cobus from Washington to discuss Africa, China, and of U.S. foreign policy in the region.

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While many countries around the world, particularly G7 states, have largely outlawed the use of Chinese surveillance technology made by companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision among others, that is not the case in Africa. Dozens of governments across the continent have installed so-called "Smart City" initiatives that use networked camera systems, including some powered by AI.

While there are concerns among some civil society groups that Chinese-made surveillance technology will be misused by authoritarian governments, those concerns are often overshadowed by the need for improved security, traffic management, and other benefits promised by Smart City manufacturers.

Bulelani Jili, a research fellow at Harvard University and one of the foremost scholars on the use of Chinese technology in Africa, contends that too often in the debate over the deployment of surveillance tech, in particular, outsiders tend to focus more on the supplier rather than the customer. Bulelani joins Eric and Cobus to discuss his latest research on the topic.

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This week CGSP Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins Eric & Cobus to discuss DR Congo President Félix Tshiskedi's state visit to China which comes at a critical time for the Congolese leader. Tshisekedi is going to pressure his Chinese hosts to renegotiate two massive mining deals but Geraud explains why time may be the president's biggest problem.

Also, Eric & Cobus discuss the latest allegations of Chinese cyber espionage in Africa, this time in Kenya. Reuters reported this week that for the past three years, Chinese hackers penetrated networks in eight Kenyan ministries with the intent to monitor the East African country's debt situation.

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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.

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For 70+ years, development economists have been touting the idea that if lesser developed countries trade and invest collaboratively, it would serve as a pathway out of poverty. But today, the notion of so-called South-South cooperation is facing unprecedented challenges as developing countries confront a series of converging economic, health, and geopolitical crises.

But two economists at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) contend that at the dawn of another Great Power rivalry and massive economic uncertainty, Global South countries working together is now more important than ever.

Richard Kozul-Wright, director of UNCTAD's globalization and development strategies division, and Alex Izurieta, head of the South-South cooperation unit at UNCTAD, join Eric & Cobus intra-Global South trade provides a critical safety net for some of the world's poorest countries.

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In the old days, a small group of Kenyan elites dominated the business of importing low-cost products from China that they would then turn around and sell for two or three times the cost. But that once-lucrative business is now under threat from Chinese merchants who sell the same products at a lower price direct to consumers, cutting out those Kenyan middlemen.

That tension boiled over earlier this year in Nairobi when Trade Minister Moses Kuria mobilized street protests against a Chinese merchant that ultimately backfired. But now, Chinese expatriates in the country are complaining they're the targets of a backlash.

CGSP China Editor Han Zhen and Nairobi-based Climate Editor Njenga Hakeenah join Eric, Cobus, and Geraud to discuss how Chinese merchants are challenging deeply entrenched local business cartels in Kenya and other African countries.

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PLA Navy warships facilitated China's third major evacuation from a war-ravaged MENA country this week when two vessels ferried more than a thousand Chinese and Pakistani nationals to safety. Chinese state media glorified the evacuations using music and language that echoed recent blockbuster movies about the government's heroism in rescuing stranded Chinese nationals from fictional war-torn North African countries.

Plus, Eric, Geraud, and Cobus discuss Kenyan President William Ruto's objection to Africa + 1 summits like FOCAC and how China has become a defining issue in the Senate confirmation battle for Stephanie Sullivan to become the next U.S. ambassador to the African Union.

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The widely debunked Chinese debt trap narrative re-surfaced again in Washington, D.C. when the top U.S. military commander for Africa General Michael Langley testified before Congress -- highlighting the urgent need for better information about Chinese lending practices in developing countries.

In the second of our two-part series this week examining China's role in the burgeoning Global South debt crisis, Eric & Cobus are joined by Shang-Jin Wei, the N. T. Wang professor of Chinese business and economy at Columbia University, and Ishac Diwan, research director at the Finance Development Lab at the Paris School of Economics to discuss Beijing's position in the ongoing negotiations over debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

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There was a lot of excitement earlier this month at the IMF and World Bank's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. about rumors that the impasse between China and multilateral development banks (MDBs) had been resolved. That stalemate between the Chinese and the MDBs, namely the World Bank, has impeded debt restructuring deals in Sri Lanka, Zambia, and now Ghana among other countries.

But now, two weeks later, there's still no official confirmation from either China or the MDBs that they've settled their differences.

Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, attended the Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., and joins Eric & Cobus to give an update on the current state of debt relief for some of the world's poorest countries.

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Many African countries are confronting unprecedented challenges from a convergence of forces far beyond their control. Africans are suffering disproportionately from the effects of climate change, global economic disruption and are being pushed to the middle of yet another Great Power rivalry.

The problems facing the continent are big and the solutions need to be even bigger. Ghanaian entrepreneur and public intellectual Bright Simons is applying his extensive background in social science, political economy, and technology to develop new pathways for African policymakers in this uncertain era.

Bright joins Eric & Cobus from Accra to discuss his latest thinking on everything from the role of China to artificial intelligence in African development.

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The U.S. and China are waging a hard-fought battle today for dominance of global technology standards, particularly in emerging sectors like 5G mobile telecommunications. While China's access to markets in advanced economies is increasingly limited, tech companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Bytedance are rapidly expanding in the Global South.

But the U.S. Congress is adamant to try and limit China's expansion in developing markets by effectively telling countries if you want to work with the U.S., then you can't use Chinese tech.

John Lee is closely following this unfolding competition from Berlin where he's a director at the technology consulting firm East West Futures. John joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what developing countries need to do to avoid becoming collateral damage in the expanding U.S.-China tech duel.

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Elephants, rhinos, and lions usually come to mind first in discussions about the China-Africa animal trade, not donkeys. But surging demand for donkey hides used to manufacture a Chinese traditional medicinal product is having a devastating impact on rural populations across Africa that depend on this essential farm animal.

In countries like Kenya, illegal poaching and unregulated slaughterhouses have led to a near-50% plunge in the number of donkeys.

Lauren Johnston, a consultant senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, joins Cobus to discuss her latest research on the topic and why the illicit China-Africa donkey trade is having a disproportionate impact on women in rural African farming communities.

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When China announced in March that it had brokered a landmark agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic ties, it took a lot of people by surprise. They just didn't see it coming.

But now, a month later, it appears that the deal is solid. Just last week, the foreign ministers from both countries reconvened in Beijing to finalize the pact and begin the process of reconciliation.

While all of this is very encouraging, William Figueroa, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and one of the world's foremost Sino-Iran scholars, joins Eric & Cobus to explain why it's still too early to tell if China's new role as the preferred Mideast mediator will succeed.

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While Vice President Kamala Harris worked hard to keep the focus on U.S.-Africa relations during her recent tour of the continent, reporters in the traveling press corps kept bringing up China -- much to the chagrin of her hosts in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia.

But unlike previous high-level U.S. visits where African leaders politely side-stepped questions about the U.S.-China rivalry on the continent, this time they went out of their way to challenge the Western narrative about the Chinese presence in their countries.

Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins Eric & Cobus this week to discuss an unprecedented response by senior African officials in Ghana, Nigeria, DR Congo, and Zambia over the Western "obsession" with China.

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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim both wrapped up state visits to China last week and their discussions with President Xi Jinping revealed some fascinating linkages between contemporary Chinese foreign policy objectives and Beijing's historical perception of its role as Asia's central power.

Antoine Roth, an international relations scholar at Tohoku University in Japan explores those themes in his new book "A Hierarchical Vision of Order: Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy in Asia." He joins Eric & Cobus from Sendai to discuss what lessons can be drawn from China's diplomatic history in Asia that can inform a better understanding of contemporary trends in Chinese foreign policy in other parts of the world.

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China's share of Ghana's $55 billion public debt is quite small at just $1.7 billion or 3% of the total, but Beijing nonetheless plays a critical role in Accra's efforts to revive its economy. The Ghanaian government needs China's support in order to secure an emergency financial package from the International Monetary Fund.

While that may sound straightforward, it's not.

Zambia is up against a similar challenge and its debt restructuring process has stalled, largely because of a stand-off between China and multilateral creditors over who should take losses on their loans.

Isaac Kofi Agyei, a research and data analyst at Joy News -- one of Ghana's leading broadcasters and news outlets -- is closely following all of the developments in this story and joins Eric from Accra to discuss China's role in Ghana's unfolding economic crisis.

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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.

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One week after a brutal attack on a Chinese mining site in the Central African Republic (CAR) that killed nine people and injured two others, it's still not clear who is responsible and why they did it. All Chinese personnel in the country have been ordered to evacuate remote areas and those in the capital Bangui are sheltering in place.

Meantime, Chinese embassies in both Nigeria and South Africa issued urgent security warnings to their citizens in those countries to take immediate precautions against the threat of kidnapping and assault.

Alessandro Arduino, an affiliate lecturer at King's College London and one of the world's foremost experts on Chinese private security issues, joins Eric, Cobus and Geraud to discuss the recent spate of attacks and whether the uptick in violence against Chinese nationals in Africa and elsewhere is part of a larger trend.

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Reporting on China is difficult even for the most experienced journalist who's spent years living there and speaks the language. So, it's not surprising that reporters in Africa who've had limited exposure to the country often struggle to cover China-related news.

In this special episode produced in conjunction with the Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP) at Wits University in Johannesburg, Eric is joined by veteran China Watcher, Kaiser Kuo, founder and host of the popular Sinica podcast, to discuss how African journalists can improve their reporting on China.

The interview with Kaiser was recorded during a live online workshop hosted by ACRP Project Coordinator Bongiwe Tutu that included questions from African journalists who participated in the event.

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It's been a momentous past two weeks for Chinese foreign policy with major a breakthrough in the Sri Lanka debt impasse and the landmark announcement that Beijing helped to broker the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Meantime, China also reacted strongly to the announcement that Australia plans to purchase nearly $400 billion of nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. and the UK.

In this new, more contentious era of great power rivalries, the question of where Africa fits into China's political priorities is now more relevant than ever.

Beijing-based corporate attorney Kai Xue is well-positioned to know. He's been advising Chinese clients for years on Belt & Road projects in Africa and he joins Eric & Cobus to discuss why he thinks the continent is no longer as important to Chinese policymakers as it once was.

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This month's surprise announcement that China brokered the restoration of diplomatic relations between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia prompted widespread excitement in Beijing and considerable consternation among U.S. conservatives. The implication for both is that China's role in the process symbolized the decline of U.S. influence in the region.

Not so says Mohammed Soliman, one of the leading Arab political analysts in Washington, D.C. based at the Middle East Institute and also a manager at McLarty Associates Middle East North Africa Program. Mohammed joins Eric to explain why he thinks the U.S. should not overreact and what lessons policymakers should take from what happened.

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New details are emerging about the landmark diplomatic deal brokered by China for Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations. The initial excitement about the prospects for peace between these two Persian Gulf rivals has given way to a more sober assessment that effectively says the agreement is a good first step but that's about it.

The key test is going to be whether both sides are going to pull back from their proxy fights in places like Yemen. Until that's done, it's still too early to be overly optimistic.

But what does this all say about China's emergence as a key diplomatic power broker? Tuvia Gehring, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and Jacinto Scito, a policy fellow at the London-based Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, are two of the world's foremost scholars on China-Mideast relations and join Eric & Cobus to discuss their reactions to the deal and what it means for China and the wider Middle East.

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There was a major breakthrough this week in China's months-long standoff with the World Bank, IMF, and other multilateral creditors when Beijing agreed to fully back Sri Lanka's debt restructuring. The move now clears the way for Colombo to secure $2.9 billion in emergency IMF funding and to put the South Asian country on the path toward recovery.

Now, everyone wants to know whether China will extend a similar offer to Zambia, Ghana, and Ethiopia which are also in the midst of similar debt restructuring talks or will it stick to its hardline position that multilateral lenders must also agree to accept losses on their loans to these countries.

Yunnan Chen, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London, and Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, two of the world's leading experts in this field, join Eric & Cobus to discuss China and the debt crisis in a number of African countries.

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In just the past twenty years, China's trade with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean surged 26-fold to almost half-a-trillion dollars. The region is also now a major destination for Chinese foreign investment and becoming a critically important new front in China's geopolitical confrontation with the United States.

While there's no dispute that China is now a major player in the region, knowledge about Chinese engagement in the Americas nonetheless remains surprisingly low, particularly among key stakeholders in Latin America.

A new book, China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics by two scholars at the London School of Economics (LSE) aims to change that. Álvaro Méndez, director of LSE's Global South Unit and International Relations Professor Chris Alden join Eric & Cobus to discuss why the Americas is now central to China's global strategy.

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The G20 finance ministers meeting in India came and went without any progress on the debt standoff between China and the IMF/World Bank over who should take losses on loans to the world's poorest countries.

Meantime, France announced another "new" strategy to revive its Africa strategy, partially in response to China's growing influence on the continent.

CGSP Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins Eric & Cobus to share his perspective on those stories plus an update on the controversial joint naval exercises that South Africa hosted with China and Russia.

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Controversial joint naval exercises among South Africa, Russia, and China got underway this week off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, prompting a fierce backlash from critics who blasted Pretoria for legitimizing Russia on the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.

Also this week, Ghana's finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta traveled to Beijing hoping to restructure its debt and Chinese mining companies in the DR Congo negotiated a demand for $17 billion of new infrastructure down to just $500 million.

Development Reimagined Policy Analyst Ovigwe Eguegu joins Eric, Cobus, and Geraud this week to discuss these stories and the rest of the week's top China-Africa headlines.

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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.

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China is no longer in the game of providing African countries with enormous loans to finance large-scale infrastructure projects. In fact, BRI financing last year for projects in Africa plunged more than 50% to just $7.5 billion.

But that doesn't mean Chinese companies still aren't building big things in Africa.

Stella Hong Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation joins Eric & Cobus to discuss her new research on the Port of Lekki in Nigeria and why this venture may hold some important clues about the future of Chinese development financing in Africa and around the world.

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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.

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Thousands of African students are back in class again in China following a three-year absence due to the pandemic and Beijing's strict COVID Zero travel restrictions.

But doctoral students from Africa and elsewhere are confronting new challenges in completing their degrees, according to research done by a trio of Oxford University scholars.

David Mills, Anding Shi, and Natasha Robinson join Eric, Cobus, and Geraud to discuss how Chinese universities are "moving the goal posts" for doctoral students by introducing new publishing requirements that make it difficult for them to complete their degrees.

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U.S. officials are speaking out about the urgency to diversify supply chains for critical resources that are now largely dependent on China, particularly rare earths, cobalt, and lithium that are all essential ingredients in manufacturing electric vehicle batteries.

It's a hot topic this week at Africa's largest mining conference that's taking place in Cape Town. Although senior U.S. diplomats speaking at the conference haven't actually said the word "China," the "C" word is nonetheless clearly on their minds.

CGSP Francophone Editor Christian-Geraud Neema, a leading expert in Congolese mining issues, joins Eric to discuss U.S.-China resource competition in Africa and whether Washington's plan to narrow China's lead will actually work.

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China is by far the world's dominant producer of solar power technology which is becoming increasingly popular in places like Africa that are under mounting pressure to transition from reliance on fossil fuels to new, greener renewable sources of energy.

Nicola Licata, a Shanghai-based project manager at the U.S. consultancy Clean Energy Associates, and her Washington, D.C.-based colleague, Associate Engineer Raiene Santana, discuss China's outsized role in the solar power supply chain and the challenges that U.S. and European governments are going to face in financing "Just Energy Transition" projects on the continent that don't include Chinese solar tech.

Also, Eric & Cobus try to figure out why one of the Biden administration's top diplomats, Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is so off-base when it comes to China in Africa.

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There was a time when Chinese lending to developing countries rivaled the World Bank. Those days are now long gone as Chinese overseas development lending has been on a steady downward trajectory.

New data from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center (GDPC) reports that in 2020-2021, China granted just 28 loan commitments worth just $10.5 billion -- a small fraction of what was lent in the early 2010s.

Rebecca Ray, a senior researcher at GDPC, and Tarela Moses, a data analyst at the center's Global China Initiative join Eric from Boston to discuss the latest trends in Chinese development finance and specifically why Beijing has become much more risk-averse.

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This was a big week for both the U.S. and China in Africa as both major powers' new, more robust engagement strategies were on full display. For the U.S., two cabinet secretaries toured the region this week, while Chinese officials in several African countries were on hand to commission a suite of large infrastructure projects.

Ken Opalo, an assistant professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, joins Eric & Cobus from Washington to discuss how the heightened activity from both the U.S. and China indicates an important evolution of their foreign policies towards the continent.

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Near record high levels of youth unemployment in China is prompting more young graduates to look abroad for work, particularly in Africa. Recruiters say they can't find enough people to work in both private companies and Chinese state-owned enterprises as translators, accountants, and other administrative roles.

While moving so far away from home isn't ideal for a lot of young people, it's also hard to resist the higher salaries, generous benefits, and the adventure of living overseas, according to freelance journalist Li Yijuan for a story she wrote last month on this trend for the English-language Chinese news site Sixth Tone.

Yijuan, herself a soon-to-be young graduate, joins Eric & Cobus from the eastern Algerian city of Amenas to discuss her own experience and why Africa is becoming a popular destination for young Chinese professionals.

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