National pride comes before a fall. Reports that Tokyo has routinely bribed at least six African countries to vote in support of its whaling policy have embarrassed the Japanese government. This...

Environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace have long protested about the links between voting at the International Whaling Commission and Japanese aid. That was before evidence that Japanese activities, including the paying...

Malawi has profitably switched its allegiance to China from Taiwan with a price tag of over US$350 million. In the past two years, China has taken over road and building...

A fly-by-night Indian company registered in Hong Kong has packed its bags and disappeared after mining diamonds and not paying taxes for more than four years. Kasaï Oriental's Direction Provinciale des...

The shadowy joint venture between Angola's state-owned oil company and the nebulous China International Fund has reached a new stumbling block in its three-year-old pursuit of a major stake in Tanzania's...

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile services company, at last acquired long-coveted African assets when it completed the purchase of Zain's Africa operations for US$10.7 billion on 8 June. Bharti Airtel...

Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, Taiwan has taken a low-key approach to international affairs in order to assuage China. For Taiwan's remaining African allies - Burkina Faso, Gambia,...

In early 2010, Hamidon Ali became President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which monitors UN progress on development goals. The ministerial session of the Council's annual meeting on...

A pillar of China's diplomacy is the cultivation of links between the Chinese Communist Party and the ruling parties of its allies. The strategy has become more nuanced, as seen...

Chinese companies are caught in the political crossfire between President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his opponents in the military and intelligence services led by General Mohammed ‘Tewfik’ Mediene. The main point...