The China in Africa Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

U.S. officials have spoken at length about the urgent need to end their country's dependency on China for the critical resources needed to power next-generation mobility and technology.

Part of the solution, they say, is to compete directly with the Chinese for lithium, cobalt, and other critical mineral mining rights around the world. The problem is few U.S. mining companies today do that kind of work in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia where these resources are found.

But the U.S. is geologically endowed, prompting loud calls to mine these resources at home — which raises another problem.

In his new book "The War Below," Reuters correspondent Ernest Scheyder explains how powerful stakeholders have made it very difficult for U.S. mining companies to operate domestically. Ernest joins Eric & Géraud to explain why the politics of mining make it nearly impossible for the U.S. to compete with China for critical resources.

PURCHASE THE WAR BELOW ON AMAZON: https://tinyurl.com/24ng24tm

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This year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit comes at a critical time for governments in both regions. While China is embroiled in an increasingly contentious great power duel with the United States, African governments are under mounting economic and social pressures.

These challenges are prompting Chinese and African scholars to wonder aloud whether it's time to introduce new reforms into the FOCAC process, particularly more transparency and accountability.

Last month, University of California at Irvince scholar Paa-Kwesi Heto and Paul Nantulya, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., convened an independent working group of some of the world's foremost Africa-China scholars to discuss this week's FOCAC summit.

Normally, these gatherings are conducted off the record, but this time, the participants agreed to allow CGSP to record the discussion and share some of the highlights for the podcast. In this special bonus edition, you'll hear insights from:

• Li Hangwei, Senior Researcher, German Institute of Development and Sustainability
• Pamela Carslake, Executive Director, Sin-Africa Centre of International Relations
• Sanusha Naidu, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Global Dialogue
• Cliff Mboya, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Johannesburg Centre for Africa-China Studies
• Frangton Chiyemura, Lecturer in International Development Education, The Open University

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Become a CGSP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CGSP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

Europe is Africa's largest trading partner and its largest source of foreign direct investment. But a lot of that economic engagement is powered by inertia, left over from Europe's long, painful history of colonial exploitation in Africa.

Just as in the United States, Europe's politics are decidedly inward-looking where Africa, if it's on the agenda at all, is still largely seen as a "problem to be fixed." When policymakers do raise the issue of heightened engagement with the continent, it's often in the context of what the EU can do to counter China's influence in Africa.

A new report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace aims to change that by outlining a more proactive, positive vision for why Europe should focus more attention on Africa in pursuit of a more balanced relationship.

The report's editor, David McNair, an executive director at the anti-poverty NGO ONE.org, and contributor Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation, join Eric & Cobus to discuss why Europe needs Africa.

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The widely debunked Chinese debt trap narrative re-surfaced again in Washington, D.C. when the top U.S. military commander for Africa General Michael Langley testified before Congress -- highlighting the urgent need for better information about Chinese lending practices in developing countries.

In the second of our two-part series this week examining China's role in the burgeoning Global South debt crisis, Eric & Cobus are joined by Shang-Jin Wei, the N. T. Wang professor of Chinese business and economy at Columbia University, and Ishac Diwan, research director at the Finance Development Lab at the Paris School of Economics to discuss Beijing's position in the ongoing negotiations over debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

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There was a lot of excitement earlier this month at the IMF and World Bank's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. about rumors that the impasse between China and multilateral development banks (MDBs) had been resolved. That stalemate between the Chinese and the MDBs, namely the World Bank, has impeded debt restructuring deals in Sri Lanka, Zambia, and now Ghana among other countries.

But now, two weeks later, there's still no official confirmation from either China or the MDBs that they've settled their differences.

Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, attended the Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., and joins Eric & Cobus to give an update on the current state of debt relief for some of the world's poorest countries.

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Many African countries are confronting unprecedented challenges from a convergence of forces far beyond their control. Africans are suffering disproportionately from the effects of climate change, global economic disruption and are being pushed to the middle of yet another Great Power rivalry.

The problems facing the continent are big and the solutions need to be even bigger. Ghanaian entrepreneur and public intellectual Bright Simons is applying his extensive background in social science, political economy, and technology to develop new pathways for African policymakers in this uncertain era.

Bright joins Eric & Cobus from Accra to discuss his latest thinking on everything from the role of China to artificial intelligence in African development.

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The U.S. and China are waging a hard-fought battle today for dominance of global technology standards, particularly in emerging sectors like 5G mobile telecommunications. While China's access to markets in advanced economies is increasingly limited, tech companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Bytedance are rapidly expanding in the Global South.

But the U.S. Congress is adamant to try and limit China's expansion in developing markets by effectively telling countries if you want to work with the U.S., then you can't use Chinese tech.

John Lee is closely following this unfolding competition from Berlin where he's a director at the technology consulting firm East West Futures. John joins Eric & Cobus to discuss what developing countries need to do to avoid becoming collateral damage in the expanding U.S.-China tech duel.

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Elephants, rhinos, and lions usually come to mind first in discussions about the China-Africa animal trade, not donkeys. But surging demand for donkey hides used to manufacture a Chinese traditional medicinal product is having a devastating impact on rural populations across Africa that depend on this essential farm animal.

In countries like Kenya, illegal poaching and unregulated slaughterhouses have led to a near-50% plunge in the number of donkeys.

Lauren Johnston, a consultant senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, joins Cobus to discuss her latest research on the topic and why the illicit China-Africa donkey trade is having a disproportionate impact on women in rural African farming communities.

SHOW NOTES:

• South African Institute of International Affairs: China, Africa, and the Market for Donkeys: Keeping the Cart Behind the Donkey by Lauren Johnston: https://bit.ly/3mykKTW
• Nikkei Asia: China must tame its donkey trade for Africa's sake by Lauren Johnston: https://s.nikkei.com/408AXg8
• The Standard: Donkey population has gone down by 800,000 by Antony Kitonga: https://bit.ly/4162xMA

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When China announced in March that it had brokered a landmark agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic ties, it took a lot of people by surprise. They just didn't see it coming.

But now, a month later, it appears that the deal is solid. Just last week, the foreign ministers from both countries reconvened in Beijing to finalize the pact and begin the process of reconciliation.

While all of this is very encouraging, William Figueroa, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and one of the world's foremost Sino-Iran scholars, joins Eric & Cobus to explain why it's still too early to tell if China's new role as the preferred Mideast mediator will succeed.

SHOW NOTES:

• William Figueroa on Academia.edu: https://bit.ly/3odawsn
• The Diplomat: China and Iran Since the 25-Year Agreement: The Limits of Cooperation by William Figueroa: https://bit.ly/41mfOjN

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Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!

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While Vice President Kamala Harris worked hard to keep the focus on U.S.-Africa relations during her recent tour of the continent, reporters in the traveling press corps kept bringing up China -- much to the chagrin of her hosts in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia.

But unlike previous high-level U.S. visits where African leaders politely side-stepped questions about the U.S.-China rivalry on the continent, this time they went out of their way to challenge the Western narrative about the Chinese presence in their countries.

Francophone Editor Geraud Neema joins Eric & Cobus this week to discuss an unprecedented response by senior African officials in Ghana, Nigeria, DR Congo, and Zambia over the Western "obsession" with China.

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JOIN US ON PATREON!

Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!

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