The China in Africa Podcast

As South African policymakers plot their country's economic revival from the past several years of worsening economic crisis, boosting the country's tech industry is going to play a pivotal role in their plans. Grace Yuehan Wang, a researcher at the South African National Research Foundation and a postdoctoral scholar at Stellenbosch University says China's mega technology hub Shenzhen could offer some valuable insights. Plus, CAP's Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins us to discuss the 20-year prison sentence that was handed down to a Chinese national for brutally beating a Rwandan employee last year. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @jorgeheinel Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week marks the 67th anniversary of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia which brought together 29 Asian and African countries at the height of the Cold War and marked the beginning of what would later become the Non-Aligned Movement. Back then, more than a hundred countries were a part of this movement to avoid being drawn into the U.S.-Soviet dual and to foster greater ties within the so-called "Third World." Today, as Russia's ties with the U.S. revert to their Cold War chilliness and the U.S. standoff with China intensifies, there are new calls to revive the Non-Aligned Movement among developing countries. Former Chilean Ambassador and Boston University Research Professor Jorge Heine is among the most vocal proponents of creating what he calls "Non-Aligned 2.0." Ambassador Heine joins Eric & Cobus to explain why the time is right for countries in the Global South to start working more closely together with one another. SHOW NOTES: Africa, Latin America and the Active Non-Alignment Option by Jorge Heine: https://bit.ly/37pI0fq Ukraine Sanctions and the New Non-Aligned Movement by Cobus van Staden: https://bit.ly/3kcHdkN JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @jorgeheinel Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Acclaimed China scholar Elizabeth Economy join Eric & Cobus this week to discuss her new book for 2022 "The World According to China." It's important to note the interview with Elizabeth was recorded before Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the expanded outbreak of COVID-19 in China but it's nonetheless fascinating to see how prescient many of her comments were in the context of the current situation. Also, Cobus and Eric provide an update on the latest Chinese trade figures and how the severe flooding in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province may impact China's trade with Africa in the weeks ahead. Finally, CAP's Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins the guys for an update on the new challenges facing Chinese mining companies in Guinea. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @lizeconomy | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's an emerging consensus among many leading international relations scholars that Russia's invasion of Ukraine marked the official end of the post-Cold War era and the beginning of, well... actually... no one's actually sure what's coming next but whatever it is China is definitely going to play a central role. China's framing of this emerging alternative international order is happening right now in Africa and the Middle East, according to a new book by Dawn Murphy, an associate professor at the U.S. Air War College. She joins Eric & Cobus from Alabama to discuss why these two regions, in particular, are so important to China's long-term geopolitical agenda. SHOW NOTES: Sandboxx: China Wants a Navy Base in Africa That Would Put America’s East Coast in Reach by Alex Hollings: https://bit.ly/37MnxkI JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @DawnMurphyChina Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: www.akhbaralsin-africia.com | @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

During the last major Global South debt crisis in the late 1980s, the United States pioneered an initiative that bundled together all of these countries' debts into a bond that would then be re-packaged and sold to investors. These so-called "Brady Bonds" were very effective in giving many of the poorest, most indebted countries the breathing room they needed to recover. Now, as developing countries are confronting yet another debilitating debt crisis, an update to the Brady Bond idea is now circulating but this time it's coming from China, not the U.S. Just like a Brady Bond, the so-called Shanghai Model would roll up poor countries' debt into a bond asset and then sell it to investors. But there's a catch: rather than price it in dollars, the Shanghai Model would use Chinese yuan. Economists Ying Qian and Yan Wang from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center have been writing a lot lately about the Shanghai Model and exploring its viability. Ying joins Eric & Cobus from Washington, D.C. to discuss whether it really can replicate the success of the Brand Bond. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque  Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfrica Project FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While the war in Ukraine has done a lot to repair the West's once frayed alliance, it's also brought together a disparate group of countries throughout the Global South who have resisted condemning Russia for the invasion and Moscow's brutal assault on civilian populations. To those small and mid-sized countries, picking a side in this conflict is a luxury many feel they simply cannot afford given the powerful geopolitical currents that are now in motion. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa where around half the continent sought to abstain from the two UN votes to condemn Russia and many more have sought to stay out of the fray among the competing power centers in Moscow, Beijing, Washington, and Brussels. Sam Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, is one of the world's foremost experts on Russia's ties with Africa and other Global South regions. He joins Eric & Cobus from Oxford to discuss the dramatic impact that the war is having on the geopolitical landscape in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @SamRamani2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfrica Project FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine عربي: @AkhbarAlSinAfr JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In less than six years, China's financing of overseas energy projects in the Global South plunged from $35 billion to zero, according to new data released this week from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. BU's findings mirror a broader pullback in official Chinese lending in other sectors as well, indicating a profound change in Chinese international development finance. To be sure, China is still extending loans to developing countries but they're smaller and require much more rigorous feasibility studies. Kevin Gallagher and Cecilia Han Springer from the Global Development Policy Center join Eric & Cobus this week to discuss their new dataset on Chinese energy financing and share some of their insights published in an accompanying policy brief on the latest trends in Chinese development finance. SHOW NOTES: China's Energy Finance Database: https://bit.ly/3ukFlLi Outlier or New Normal? Trends in China’s Global Energy Finance : https://bit.ly/35cR1r0 JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @kevinpgallagher | @han_cecilia | @gdp_center JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Both China and the European Union have identified renewable energy as a key part of their engagement strategies with Africa. At FOCAC last year, the Chinese vowed to increase investment in solar, hydro, and other green technologies while the EU made sustainability a centerpiece of its new Global Gateway development initiative. With both sides pursuing similar objectives, it's not surprising renewable energy is now being seen as yet another front in the larger great power rivalry dynamic with African countries stuck in the middle. But a trio of authors at the European Center for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), a Brussels-based think tank, argues in a new report that it would be a huge mistake for EU leaders to frame green energy transition initiatives in Africa in competition with China. One of the authors of that report, Alfsono Medinilla, ECDPM's Head of Climate and Green Transition, joins Eric & Cobus to explain why. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @amedinil | @ecdpm JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

China's ambassador to Kenya Zhou Pingjian sat down with a local reporter Eliud Kibii from The Star newspaper earlier this month for a rare one-on-one interview. Chinese diplomats tend to be quite media shy so it's news whenever they do speak in unscripted environments with the press. Eliud joins Eric & Cobus from Nairobi to discuss his exchange with the ambassador and to get an update on the current state of Sino-Kenyan ties. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @eliudkibii JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New research from AidData at the College of William & Mary in the United States provides the first insight into the loan contract between China Exim Bank and the Ugandan government for the expansion of the Entebbe International Airport. This is the same airport at the center of an almost year-long controversy over whether China would seize the facility due to a loan default. That allegation is, of course, not true and the contract confirms that the airport was never in jeopardy of being surrendered to China Exim Bank. But what researchers did find is a deal that was heavily weighted in favor of the lender with some very intrusive clauses. AidData Executive Director Brad Park joins Eric & Cobus from Williamsburg, Virginia in the U.S. to discuss his team's findings after carefully reviewing an unredacted version of the loan contract. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @aiddata AidData Report on the Chinese Loan Contract for the Entebbe Airport Expansion Project: https://bit.ly/35BQiiE JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaafricaproject See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.