China’s Evolving Strategy in South and Central Asia
October 16th, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a look at how China’s growing footprint in South and Central Asia has been made possible by the influx of grants, loans, mergers, and economic concessions for projects: In the middle of the Pamir mountains, near the remote Tajik-Afghan border area of Badakhshan, I find myself staring at a large red banner […]
Read more »Beijing: Making Inroads in North Africa
October 15th, 2024
Via the Atlantic Council, commentary on China’s growing engagement with North Africa: Talk of China in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) rarely focuses on the latter, but Beijing has made significant gains in its recent outreach to the Maghreb. This was highlighted in September when the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial Conference […]
Read more »‘China Is Not Cuba’s Sugar Daddy’
October 15th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on Havana’s economic collapse is hampering relations with Beijing: It is the only communist nation in the Americas, was the first in the western hemisphere to recognise the People’s Republic of China and is described by Beijing as “good brother, good comrade, good friend”. But despite their shared […]
Read more »China’s Ports Edge
October 14th, 2024
Via The Wire, a look at how Chinese ports continue to outperform their American counterparts: For three days last week, dockworkers no longer dotted the terminals at ports across the U.S.’s eastern and Gulf Coasts. The short-lived strike ended after the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents the port operators, agreed to raise salaries, allaying fears […]
Read more »China’s Zijin and Australia’s AVZ Grapple Over DRC’s Lithium
October 14th, 2024
Via The Africa Report, a report on the tussle between China’s Zijin and Australia’s AVZ over the DRC’s lithium: Home to one of the largest untapped lithium deposits in the world, the Manono site in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the scene of a fierce commercial battle. To the naked eye, these thousands […]
Read more »Two Paths: Why States Join or Avoid China’s Belt and Road Initiative
October 12th, 2024
Courtesy of Oxford Academic, an interesting new paper examining why countries join or avoid China’s BRI: Abstract Although China’s motives for developing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have been well studied, scholars have yet to comprehensively examine why states seek to join the initiative. We fill this gap by examining how and why states […]
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.