Trump, the Panama Canal and the Hong Kong Firm at the Heart of a Showdown
February 7th, 2025
Courtesy of The New York Times, a report on how the Panama Canal’s two biggest ports are operated by a Hong Kong company with global reach. The Trump administration sees a Chinese threat to U.S. security. President Trump’s claim that China controls the Panama Canal has placed a Hong Kong tycoon and his conglomerate at […]
Read more »Made In Morocco: How China’s EV Battery Makers Are Powering Past Western Tariffs
February 5th, 2025
Via South China Morning Post, a report on how a Chinese-African joint venture is latest company to find way past Western trade barriers while leveraging region’s abundant battery materials: An electric vehicle (EV) battery parts maker has become the latest Chinese company to begin production in Morocco to target lucrative European and North American markets, […]
Read more »The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and the Limits of China’s BRI Agency
February 4th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a report on how CMEC and other Chinese business activities in Myanmar show how exposed China is to escalating conflict risks, and offer insight to the role it is playing in the ongoing civil war: Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the country has experienced a resurgence of political violence. Fighting […]
Read more »How China Aligned Itself with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030
February 3rd, 2025
Via the Carnegie Endowment, commentary on how China has aligned its cooperation model with Saudi Arabia’s own priorities, most notably since the kingdom unveiled its Vision 2030. Although China announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, the big push in relations happened only after the ascendance of King Salman to the throne in 2015 […]
Read more »A Taliban highway Could Lead To The Future. But It’s Stuck In The Past.
February 2nd, 2025
Via The Washington Post, an article on Taliban plans to turn one of the country’s remotest corners into a global trade hub by linking the Afghan heartland with China: More than three years after the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan remains economically decrepit and politically isolated. But now, the Taliban government has a plan to turn one […]
Read more »Beijing-Backed Lending Boosts China’s Dominance In Clean Energy Minerals
January 31st, 2025
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on Chinese entities that loaned billions to create mining and processing supply chains: China has built up control of critical minerals across the developing world over the course of two decades through a network of at least 26 state-backed financial institutions, according to a new report that traces […]
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.