China’s CATL Confronts Triple Threat to its EV Battery Leadership
August 8th, 2023
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, an article on how China’s CATL is taking on challenges to its battery leadership by taking on mining projects, expanding overseas, and developing new technology: China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s leading supplier of electric-vehicle batteries, is trying to head off three risks to its business by securing crucial minerals, […]
Read more »China’s Big Gamble in Pakistan: A 10-year Scorecard for CPEC
August 8th, 2023
Via the Lowy Institute, a review of China’s BRI engagement with Pakistan: A flagship for China’s much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative, the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been underway for a decade. Signed by Pakistan’s then prime minister Nawaz Sharif following a July 2013 meeting in Beijing with China’s President Xi Jinping, the two leaders pledged the now all-too-familiar homilies […]
Read more »Saudi Arabia To Ramp Up Oil Investments In China As It Competes With Russia
August 7th, 2023
Via Middle East Eye, an article on Saudi Arabia’s plan to ramp up oil investments in China as it competes with Russia: Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Aramco, will plough ahead with new investments in China, despite posting a 38 percent drop in profit as lower oil prices and production cuts bite. Aramco announced on Monday […]
Read more »This Club Isn’t Big Enough for Both India and China
August 4th, 2023
Via Bloomberg, commentary that tensions between the Asian rivals will likely prevent the BRICS bloc from ever posing a coherent challenge to the West: For an acronym coined by an investment bank in a decades-old report notable mainly for being wrong, “BRICS” has had a good run. It was once an idea, then a summit, and […]
Read more »China’s Global Economic ‘Island Hopping’ Strategy
August 4th, 2023
Via Foreign Policy Research Institute, commentary on China’s use of economic inducements and threats to forge relationships with island states across the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, and the South Pacific: BOTTOM LINE China employs similar tactics—economic inducements and threats, as well as the occasional bribe—to forge relationships with island states across the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, and […]
Read more »Afghanistan in China’s Grand Strategy
August 4th, 2023
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a look at how China’s active engagement in the country’s affairs is driven by Afghanistan’s strategic position at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, coupled with its abundant natural resources: China’s grand strategy encompasses several goals, including safeguarding its economic interests, expanding global influence, and ensuring stability within its borders and periphery. […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.