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PODCAST

The China in Africa Podcast

The China-Global South Project

Twice-weekly discussion about China"s engagement across Africa and the Global South hosted by journalist Eric Olander and Asia-Africa scholar Cobus van Staden in Johannesburg.

news politics

All Episodes

50:22

[GLOBAL SOUTH] India Claims Major Breakthrough in...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/22

India and China have reached a deal to de-escalate tensions along their bitterly disputed border in the Himalayas, potentially ending a contentious four-year stand-off between the two Asian powers. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday that the two countries agreed to conduct joint military patrols along the border known as the Line of Actual Control. No details of the pact have been released and the Chinese government has yet to comment on the arrangement. If the two countries have,

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01:00:03

Global Gateway in Africa: Europe's Answer to China's...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/17

The European Commission's Global Gateway initiative will turn three years old in December. The $300 billion infrastructure initiative was launched with great fanfare to provide developing countries in Africa and elsewhere with an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Many European stakeholders also hoped that Global Gateway would catalyze a new EU foreign policy agenda for Africa, which many critics contend is now unmoored. Ahead of the upcoming anniversary, the European Centre for

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51:00

[GLOBAL SOUTH] China's Paying a High Cost for Its...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/14

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is in Pakistan this week to get ties with its South Asian neighbor back on track after a series of terrorist attacks this year. The latest incident occurred earlier this month near the airport in the southern port city of Karachi when separatist militants with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) killed two Chinese nationals in a suicide bombing. Pakistan has vowed to crack down on the militants but, so far, to little avail. In turn, Beijing has become increasingly frustrated

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01:00:24

Judd Devermont on the State of U.S. Foreign Policy in...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/11

U.S. President Joe Biden was supposed to be in Angola this week, fulfilling a pledge to visit the continent he made back at the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. But with massive hurricanes pounding the southern United States, the president was forced to postpone the visit. The trip to Angola would have marked a major milestone for Biden. The southwestern African country is the showcase for the president's global infrastructure investment program, which is widely seen as Washington's effort to rival

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51:52

Beyond Railways and Ports: China's Evolving Lending...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/08

Chinese lending to African countries rebounded in a big way in 2023 after seven consecutive years of decline. Last year, Chinese lenders approved loans totaling $4.61 billion to African borrowers, a dramatic increase over the $922 million lent in 2022, according to Boston University's Global Development Policy Center (GDPC). In the past, China lent billions to countries like Kenya and Nigeria to build massive infrastructure projects like ports and railways. That is no longer the case today as

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39:16

Negotiating Chinese Infrastructure Deals: Lessons...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/10/04

Africa is the only region in the world where access to electricity is actually shrinking. Prolonged drought across large swathes of the continent has severely impacted hydropower production, triggering large-scale electricity outages — most notably in Zambia. China plays a critical role in this crisis, both as a major financier of African power infrastructure development and as one of the largest contractors that builds new facilities like the Karuma Power Station in Uganda, which came online last

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01:04:48

Railroads and Rivalries in Southern Africa

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/27

The U.S. and China plan to spend billions of dollars refurbishing key railway lines in southern Africa that link critical resource mining hubs in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with ports on both sides of the continent. For the U.S., it's the Lobito Atlantic Railway that goes from the copper belt in Zambia 1,300km west across Angola to the Atlantic Ocean. However, China is looking in the other direction: proposing to spend upwards of a billion dollars to refurbish the TAZARA

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48:13

China's Response to the Wars in the Middle East

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/25

The rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon prompted a strong reaction from the Chinese government this week. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib on Monday at the UN in New York and condemned Israel's actions as “indiscriminate attacks against civilians." It's notable, though, that neither Wang nor other Chinese officials made any mention of Hezbollah's missile strikes on targets in Israel, including those that hit

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01:01:00

[WEEK IN REVIEW] Illegal Chinese Miners in Ghana Have...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/19

China's new ambassador to Ghana, Tong Defa, spoke out forcefully this week to condemn the ongoing problem of illegal mining in the country and issued a fresh warning to his compatriots that if they are caught breaking the law, the embassy will not be there to bail them out. Also, Kenyan President William Ruto traveled to Germany where he was once again pressed by the media to answer the ridiculous question of whether he prefers Western or Chinese investment. Eric & Géraud also discuss a recent

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35:07

[GLOBAL SOUTH] How Persian Gulf Countries Are...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/16

For much of the past thirty years, since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been largely unrivaled in its power in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Today, that is no longer the case as the U.S. faces new challenges both from regional powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as international competitors, including China and Russia. This transition to multipolarity is transforming the region and served as the thesis of a special edition of the academic journal Middle East Policy that

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46:25

Can China Help Africa Become the Next Factory of the...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/13

For decades, African governments have tried to lure Chinese manufacturing companies to set up factories in their countries with the promise of an abundant supply of low-cost labor. Other than a few high-profile companies, Chinese companies, for the most part, have balked — preferring instead to offshore production closer to home in Southeast Asia. But now that may be starting to change. With the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement now up and running, Chinese firms see an opportunity to

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01:31:40

[DOUBLE EPISODE] The China-Africa Summit Debrief

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/06

The three-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit wrapped up in Beijing on Friday. The big headline from this year's gathering was the announcement that China will provide $50.7 billion in financing to African countries over the next three years. Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the customary mega pledge as part of a ten-point action plan that will guide China's relationship with the continent through 2027. In this special double episode of the show, Eric, Géraud, and Cobus

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56:54

[GLOBAL SOUTH] Why the U.S. is Struggling to Compete...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/03

U.S. officials have spoken at length about the urgent need to end their country's dependency on China for the critical resources needed to power next-generation mobility and technology. Part of the solution, they say, is to compete directly with the Chinese for lithium, cobalt, and other critical mineral mining rights around the world. The problem is few U.S. mining companies today do that kind of work in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia where these resources are found. But the U.S. is

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59:00

[BONUS EPISODE] Chinese, African Perspectives on the...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/09/03

This year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit comes at a critical time for governments in both regions. While China is embroiled in an increasingly contentious great power duel with the United States, African governments are under mounting economic and social pressures. These challenges are prompting Chinese and African scholars to wonder aloud whether it's time to introduce new reforms into the FOCAC process, particularly more transparency and accountability. Last month, University

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29:01

David Monyae on the Politics of FOCAC

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/29

Final preparations are underway for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, which begins on September 4th in Beijing. This year's event comes at a particularly fraught time amid wars in Europe, the Middle East and the simmering Great Power rivalry between the United States and China. David Monyae, director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the politics that will frame the summit and why a growing number of African

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33:26

[GLOBAL SOUTH] View From Israel: China's Growing...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/26

In September 2023, just weeks before Hamas' devastating terrorist attack on October 7th, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his foreign policy advisors were preparing for a summit meeting in China with President Xi Jinping. There were even whispers Beijing would help facilitate a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia much as it did between Riyadh and Tehran. Now, almost a year later, everything has changed. Sino-Israeli political ties have soured as China aligned with the Arab world and

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44:58

Energy is Going to be the Hot Topic at Upcoming...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/22

African leaders will soon travel to Beijing to participate in the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, which will begin on September 4th. Many of those heads of state will arrive in the Chinese capital with a rather long wish list of infrastructure development projects they're hoping to pitch to Chinese financiers. Many of those initiatives will be focused on energy generation and distribution, particularly renewable solutions that are more affordable and easier to deploy. Shuang Liu,

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54:31

FOCAC 9: African Countries' Strategic Goals at...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/15

African leaders and their delegations are making final preparations to travel to Beijing soon for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit that will begin on September 4th. This year's gathering comes at a critical time in the relationship between these two regions. African leaders are looking for ways to move their economies up the value chain in a bid to capture more revenue and generate higher rates of employment, particularly among young people. But to do that requires

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51:30

[GLOBAL SOUTH] Westlessness: A New Era Where the West...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/12

Chinese President Xi Jinping has long touted the East's rise and the West's decline, the kind of thinking that's triggered his supporters to fantasize about a post-Western geopolitical order. While it's indisputable that U.S. and European countries, which represent the foundational pillars of the Western system, have seen their power diminish in the post-Cold War era, there's little credible evidence of a full-blown collapse of Western influence. Instead, King's College scholar Samir Puri argues in

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39:12

China-Africa Summit Preview: What’s on the Agenda for...

The China in Africa Podcast ·

2024/08/09

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit is now less than a month away. Chinese President Xi Jinping will host dozens of African leaders in Beijing in the first week of September for the triennial gathering that comes at a critical time for African countries and China. Africa needs China's support for continued infrastructure financing and to buy more of its goods, while China is looking to Africa as a vital supplier of critical resources and to develop new markets for its cars, solar

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433 results

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