Networking the “Belt and Road”
September 2nd, 2019
Via the Mercator Institute for China Studies, commentary on the digital Silk Road: Innovation and the Digital Silk Road are moving to the forefront of Beijing’s efforts to develop the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Second BRI Forum in April 2019 spoke of cooperation in the digital economy and innovation-driven development as priority areas for the BRI. The accompanying policy report “The Belt and Road Initiative Progress, Contributions […]
Read more »China’s Footprints Across Africa
August 30th, 2019
Via Quartz, a visual look at China’s infrastructure investment in Africa: The growth of Chinese investment in Africa over the past two decades has been unprecedented and unparalleled. Despite what one might believe, China is not the leading foreign investor in Africa, nor is it the biggest donor. Both honors still belong to the US. What makes China’s […]
Read more »China’s Belt and Road Initiative: An Updated Look
August 28th, 2019
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), a look at China’s BRI: It’s billed as the new Silk Road, but China’s Belt and Road Initiative is much more ambitious than that, as countries on every continent have signed up to partner with Beijing on massive infrastructure projects. From Jamaica to New Zealand and Pakistan to Uruguay, countries have […]
Read more »All May Not Be Smooth Along China’s Digital Silk Road
August 21st, 2019
Via The Lowy Institute, commentary on the digital Silk Road: Make no mistake about China’s vast and continuous trajectory of technological expansionism. Even as the US aims to ring-fence Huawei’s reach into the US and overseas consumer markets, a “digital silk road” paved by Chinese tech giants has long been built to span from the Asia-Pacific to […]
Read more »Russia: In Danger Of Being Overrun By China’s Belt and Road
August 20th, 2019
Via Asian Nikkei Review, commentary on a new Eurasian order is in the making, with Beijing in the driver’s seat: Russia greenlighted in early July a 2,000-km highway construction project connecting the country’s border with Kazakhstan to Belarus. The four-lane highway will run west from Orenburg Province to the former Soviet republic of Belarus via several […]
Read more »Chinese Private Security Moves Into Central Asia
July 8th, 2019
Via The Diplomat, a look at the expansion of private Chinese security companies in Central Asia: As Kyrgyz President Soornbay Jennbekov pushed efforts to make the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway a reality, a private Chinese security company signed deals to protect the contested project for China Railway Group. The 2016 Chinese embassy bombing in Bishkek heightened risk perception among […]
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.