China’s $4.5 Billion Headache: The Niger-Benin Pipeline and the Limits of Non-Interference
April 16th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a look at how the question is no longer whether Beijing is meddling in African affairs, but how much longer it can pretend that it isn’t: In February 2026, the Chinese Embassy in Niamey sent out a warning to its citizens in Niger, urging them to avoid high-risk areas and to activate their emergency […]
Read more »Why Did China Buy Up the World’s Ports?
April 15th, 2026
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a look at how Beijing’s port acquisition strategy is less focused on acquiring sovereign control, more so in assuring its own strategic security: After debating whether it was about regime change, nuclear weapons, or the defanging of regional proxies, the United States and Israel’s war with Iran reached an impasse at […]
Read more »How China Reinvented the BRI
April 3rd, 2026
Via Foreign Policy, a look at how Western tariffs accelerated the BRI’s transformation into a sophisticated extension of China’s industrial policy: Not long ago, Western policymakers were writing the obituary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). That verdict is now dangerously obsolete. The stark reality of 2025 has shattered the narrative of a Chinese retreat. […]
Read more »The Politics of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway
March 26th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a look at the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway: In late March 2026, during the celebration of the Central Asian new year, Nawruz, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov announced the latest target for the completion of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway: 2030. “If now we live in a ‘dead-end’ country between Europe and China, with the completion of the construction of […]
Read more »The Hungry Hegemon: China Is Running Short of Donkey for Dinner
March 2nd, 2026
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a report on how the shortage of a popular regional specialty is shaking global meat markets: A local news report revealing that high prices for donkey meat were forcing some restaurants in Henan province to switch to horse meat in their soup went viral on Chinese social media a few weeks ago. Reportedly, […]
Read more »China Spent Big on an African Media Empire, But No One’s Watching
March 2nd, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a look at China’s efforts to build a media footprint in Africa: China has spent nearly two decades building a media empire in Africa, but few people watch its broadcasters, newswires, and print publications. Africans prefer to watch the BBC, Al Jazeera, and CNN, and China’s media brands have barely figured in public […]
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.