Africa is high on China’s diplomatic agenda, says Howard French, author of Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War. China is winning in Africa for that reason, While the US is losing, he tells at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.Read More →

Former New York Times correspondent Howard French, author of  China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, discusses at the International Peace Institute how now two million Chinese immigrants and 2,500 Chinese companies build up an over US$200 billion trade between China and Africa.Read More →

Giant demographic changes in Africa have defined most of China’s strategic vision, says Howard French, author of China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, at a discussion at the National Bureau of Asian Research on the report by Nadège Rolland“A New Great Game? Situating Africa in China’s Strategic Thinking.”Read More →

China got itself into trouble a few times when lenders who got into problems paying back debts. When China offers the same loans commercial banks can offer but without political ties, China has not so much extra to give, says strategic analyst Harry Broadman about the country’s’ international debt policies in the Africa Report, taking Zambia as an example.Read More →

As the Black Lives Matter movement took over some of the headlines, China typically dismissed racism as a Western problem. Author Zhang Lijia begs to differ, in The Wire. “The Chinese government claims to have “zero tolerance” for racism, but there have been no reports that anyone has been punishedRead More →

Many stories about China and the Chinese in Africa are simply myths, says journalist and author Howard French, of China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa. He discusses how Chinese entrepreneurs ended up in Africa. “There was no big masterplan by the Chinese state to do so,” he says at The Columbia Global Centers in Nairobi.Read More →

One of the major global initiatives by China was the massive Belt and Road Initiative, reviving the old silk roads. In May 2017 a major international conference showed what our experts were already expecting: now all roads lead to China. Even countries who suffered from difficult relations with China, including both Koreas, appeared in Beijing.Larger than the former Marshall Plan after the Second World War, OBOR is going to redefine global trade.Read More →