Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Africa Project (CAP), an independent, non-partisan media initiative dedicated to exploring every facet of China’s engagement in Africa. Eric is also the co-host, along with Cobus van Staden, of The China in Africa Podcast, a member of the Sinica Podcast Network by SupChina.
At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Senegal, Chinese leader Xi Jinping unveiled nine initiatives to help Africa combat COVID-19 and spark economic growth. A pledge to donate 600 million vaccine doses and produce an additional 400 million locally caught the most attention.
“We don’t want to make you choose” between the U.S. and China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a three-nation tour in Africa, playing down the zero-sum messaging of his predecessors. But with mixed signals from elsewhere in the U.S. government, will African countries take up Blinken’s offer of deeper partnership?
China’s reach and influence in the Middle East and North Africa continue to grow.
"It feels like a slap in the face." Runako Celina and Seron Tamerat, two of the managers of Black Livity China, react to the latest in a series of incidents of anti-Black racial insensitivity in China.
A new wave of Chinese propaganda, pushing back on claims of genocide and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, is being promoted widely in Africa. Here are a few reasons why Africa might be a focus of this messaging campaign.
New rules from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology make clear that Beijing aims to tighten export controls on rare earth metals, a group of minerals essential to manufacturing electronics. Meanwhile, China has been on a cobalt buying binge, particularly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
What might China's goals be in paying visits to Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Tanzania, and the Seychelles?
African governments are becoming more interested in public-private partnerships with Chinese companies.
Are China’s activities in Africa focused on furthering domestic political objectives rather than on providing what the continent needs most right now, capital and infrastructure?
Comments from a high-ranking official at China's National Development and Reform Commission are the clearest signal so far that Beijing is serious about linking its own multinational trading regime with Africa's.