China in Afghanistan: Rare Opportunity or Poisoned Chalice?
January 27th, 2023
Via Geopolitical Futures, commentary on China’s interest and role in Afghanistan: The foreign ministers of China and Afghanistan spoke for nearly an hour on Jan. 22 about Afghanistan’s economic development and ensuring the security of Chinese personnel involved in Afghan projects. This followed the signing on Jan. 5 of an oil extraction agreement between China’s […]
Read more »China: BRI Financing to Remain Low, Leaving Global South in the Lurch
January 27th, 2023
Via RANE Worldview, analysis of China’s BRI financing in 2023: What Happened: According to a study conducted by the Global Development Policy Center at Boston Univerity, China has significantly reduced the scale of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) financing in recent years as part of a strategic shift that has seen Beijing focus on more […]
Read more »North Korea Mines New Revenue Sources in Its Trade With China
January 27th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report on the latest data which shows Pyongyang is continuing to adapt to U.N. sanctions, while trade is beginning to rebound from pandemic lows: North Korea has spent much of the pandemic financing its weapons programs and imports with stolen cryptocurrency. However, with trade between North Korea and China expanding in 2022, there […]
Read more »China’s Huawei Looks to Ports, Factories to Reinvent Itself
January 26th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a look at how Huawei is reinventing itself as a supplier of self-driving cars and automated industrial tech after U.S. sanctions crushed its smartphone brand: As technicians in a distant control room watch on display screens, an automated crane at one of China’s busiest ports moves cargo containers from a Korean freighter […]
Read more »Beijing Summit Cements China’s Role as Dominant Outside Power in Turkmenistan
January 25th, 2023
Via the Jamestown Foundation, a report on China’s influence in Turkmenistan: Since gaining independence in 1991, Turkmenistan has typically attracted only sporadic international attention both because of its constitutionally mandated policy of strict neutrality and the extreme isolation Ashgabat has pursued with an authoritarianism so severe that it rivals that of North Korea. But the […]
Read more »Russia, China: Bringing North Korea In From The Economic ‘Cold’?
January 25th, 2023
Courtesy of East Asia Forum, a look at North Korea and the potential for improved economic growth in 2023: At the beginning of 2022, North Korea’s strategic position looked bleak. The regime clung to its zero-COVID claim, leading to an almost total closure of the border with China and bringing trade to record lows. There were strong indications that […]
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.