Excerpts
05.19.23
Can Chinese Payment Apps Gain Traction Globally?
Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is a global phenomenon. Yet, for every TikTok, there is a WeChat, an app that is ubiquitous in China but that has failed to catch fire abroad. WeChat is just one of many Chinese apps incorporating financial...
The China Africa Project
05.16.19
Chinese and Africans are Having Totally Different Conversations About Their Relationship
Chinese news coverage and African and international reports are often starkly different from one another, even when discussing the same issues. With Chinese and African news consumers reading vastly different perspectives, what can be done to narrow...
The China Africa Project
01.11.19
China’s Economy is Slowing and That’s Really Bad News for Africa
Pretty much every major economic indicator suggests that the Chinese economy will continue its downward momentum in 2019. Industrial production, retail sales, and even the once red-hot property market are all showing real signs of weakness. Some...
Viewpoint
10.23.18
With an Influx of Blue Helmets and Cash, China’s Role in African Security Grows More Pervasive
China’s growing engagement with African countries got a publicity boost on September 3 and 4 with the latest Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. The triennial event brought leaders and officials from 53 African countries and the...
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08.08.18India as China’s Secret Business Weapon
As India rises on the global economic stage, foreign players are increasingly attracted to the seemingly unlimited and unexplored potential of the South Asian giant, which offers a market of 1.3 billion potential consumers.
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08.06.18Australia’s China Reset
It’s no secret that Professor Francis Fukuyama got it wrong in his classic “End of History” treatise, published in the dying days of the Cold War. More interesting is why he got it wrong. His conclusion that the Western model of...
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08.01.18China’s Plan to Win Friends and Influence Includes Ski Slopes and Spas
New York Times
In Thailand, a theater rigged with hydraulic seats will give moviegoers the sensation of flight. In Australia, an indoor ski slope is going up near the beaches of the Gold Coast. In the Czech Republic, a spa with Chinese medicine is under...
Conversation
07.12.18
Can China Replace the U.S. in Europe?
The G7 debacle reminded Europeans the problems with relying on a fraying transatlantic partnership. Meanwhile, China has been playing a larger role on the continent, increasing its investment and its political influence. On July 6-7, Bulgaria held...
Conversation
06.14.18
One Year After They Almost Went to War, Can China and India Get Along?
One year ago, the Chinese and Indian armies faced off at Doklam, a disputed Himalayan area on the border between China, India, and the tiny kingdom of Bhutan. While the two sides didn’t go to war over the border as they did in 1962, tensions were...
Viewpoint
03.27.18
Secretary Pompeo’s First China Briefing
Donald Trump’s national security documents frame China as the United States’ greatest long-term threat. This declaration caps a historic shift in America’s strategic disposition toward China. From the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979,...
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12.19.17West Grows Wary of China’s Influence Game
Financial Times
“Aodaliya renmin zhan qi lai! The Australian people have stood up,” the country’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in mangled Mandarin — a deliberate echo of Mao’s declaration in 1949 that the Chinese people had stood up.
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11.15.17China Could Sell Trump the Brooklyn Bridge
New York Times
There is a saying, “When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” and it perfectly sums up the contrast between China’s President Xi Jinping and President Trump.
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11.15.17‘Bloodless’ Takeover ‘Won’t Dampen’ Chinese Investment in Zimbabwe
South China Morning Post
China will continue to invest in its “all-weather friend” Zimbabwe despite a military takeover of the African country’s government, observers said.
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11.13.17Trump Humbled in China as Beijing Visit Underlines the New World Order in Asia
South China Morning Post
Of the stops on Donald Trump’s five-country trip to Asia, the one that stands out is Beijing. After all, China is considered America’s biggest regional rival, and often the object of the president’s non-stop tirades.
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11.10.17While We Obsess over Trump, China Is Making History
Washington Post
While news and analysis in the United States continue to be obsessed with President Trump’s daily antics and insults, halfway around the world, something truly historic just happened
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11.07.17Ex-Spy on What His CIA Experience Taught Him about China
NPR
Randy Phillips spent 28 years with the CIA, most recently serving as the chief CIA representative in China. He talks about what leverage the U.S. has when it comes to managing China's ambitions.
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10.19.17Move over, America. China Now Presents Itself as the Model ‘Blazing a New Trail’ for the World.
Washington Post
American presidents are fond of describing their nation as a “city on a hill” — a shining example for other nations to follow. But China is now officially in the business of styling itself as another polestar for the world, with a very different...
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10.18.17China Is Quietly Reshaping the World
Atlantic
The Pakistani town of Gwadar was until recently filled with the dust-colored cinderblock houses of about 50,000 fishermen. Ringed by cliffs, desert, and the Arabian Sea, it was at the forgotten edge of the earth. Now it’s one centerpiece of China’s...
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10.17.17How China's Financial Cracks Could Spread
Wall Street Journal
Can financial turmoil in China play havoc with the rest of the world? It has already happened.
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10.11.17China Treats Its Foreign Aid Like a State Secret. New Research Aims to Reveal It.
Washington Post
Since the turn of the century, China has become an unavoidable global provider of foreign assistance, funding everything from opera houses in Algeria to tobacco farms in Zimbabwe.
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09.13.17What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says about China’s Influence
New York Times
The four-lane highway leading out of the Sri Lankan town of Hambantota gets so little traffic that it sometimes attracts more wild elephants than automobiles. The pachyderms are intelligent — they seem to use the road as a jungle shortcut — but not...