Via The Diplomat, a report on how Chinese FDI in Africa has been growing at a rapid clip: The Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a gathering of Chinese and African officials that has been held seven times (including three leaders’ summits) since its inauguration in 2000, has always been known – and occasionally chastised – for being […]
Read more »Via The Jamestown Foundation, a report on how the fate of China’s rail line to Uzbekistan will likely be decided in Kyrgyzstan: As a part of its Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese plans to construct a railway from Xinjiang through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and onward to Turkmenistan has been under discussion for two decades. If realized, […]
Read more »Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report on how the BRICs fared in the two decades since they were named: Jim O’Neill wasn’t trying to change the way investors and executives looked at the world twenty years ago. He just wanted to prove he was up to his new job. Then 44 years old and the just-named […]
Read more »Via the Asia Times, an article on BRI activity in Central Asia: The information war is so intense nowadays that unsung melodies are often more alluring than the sung ones. The lines from English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous ode To a Skylark come to mind: “In the broad day-light / Thou art unseen, but yet I […]
Read more »Via The South China Morning Post, an article on why Angola struggles to shake off its economic dependence on China: When João Lourenço was sworn in as Angolan president in 2017, there was a lot of public optimism that better days were ahead. Lourenço, a former defence minister and independence fighter, promised to curb corruption and diversify […]
Read more »Via The Asia Times, a report on China installation of a fibre optic network in certain remote locations of the western Himalayas, giving them new near-real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) capabilities in the area: At the height of the border standoff with India in 2020, China installed a fibre optic network at certain remote locations of […]
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