China

Despite talk of slower growth and less investment in China over the medium term, Chief Country Risk Analyst at the Export-Import Bank of China Zhao Changhui predicts that...

Governments from three continents have launched an unprecedented cooperative effort against the illegal forestry trade in Africa. Officials from Africa, Asia and Europe discussed ways to crack down...

With the national population reaching 174 million this year, the the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria estimates the housing deficit at 17 mn. units. However, talks led by...

In a policy paper entitled L’Afrique est Notre Avenir (Africa is Our Future), the Senate sought to lay out France’s Africa policy and respond to China’s growing influence...

Congo-Kinshasa is bidding to host the 2019 African Cup of Nations, the continent’s most important football tournament. The Kinshasa government is counting on China’s help to win that...

The Hong Kong-listed property developer announced in November an investment of about US$8 billion to transform the Modderfontein suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, into a metropolis to rival...

Prime Minister Gabriel Costa is walking a fine line by encouraging investment from both China and Taiwan. Chinese oil companies play a crucial role in oil exploration, but...

São Tomé e Príncipe’s Agência Nacional do Petróleo signed a production-sharing contract with the Hong Kong-registered private oil company Sinoangol for Block 2 in its Exclusive Economic Zone...

It had seemed that the big-ticket investors in African countries sponsored by China would be free to run rough-shod over investment and other legislation, given the fervour with...

China Power Investment, which plans to build an alumina refinery at Boffa in western Guinea, is on the verge of succeeding where many other companies have failed or...

While Beijing is getting ready to take its turn at the presidency of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, Chinese companies are busy launching a new investment drive in...

Like many other mining companies, Mwana Africa and its Chief Executive Officer Kalaa Mpinga are not just counting on one company for finance for future mining projects. With...

The inability of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government to maintain sufficient levels of food production, energy and water supplies is a major problem for locals and...

Ethiopia has launched an investigation into the illegal import of US$13 million in telecommunications equipment in the name of Ethio Telecom by Huawei Technolgies. The inquiry will determine...

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterparts from 40 African governments came together for the Third Round of Political Consultations during the meeting of the United Nations...

China’s Kingho Energy has clinched an agreement with the Ministry of Energy for the construction of one thermal and three hydroelectric power plants in Sierra Leone. Minister of...

Diplomats from Beijing continue their courtship of the South Sudan government, with substantive talks about new billion-dollar loans and promises of Chinese diplomatic support. All this is intended...

Such is the competition for Mozambique’s mining permits that the government has threatened to revoke licences from companies that do not quickly develop their concessions. Mining legislation requires...

Protestors celebrated a victory in September after China Union, Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation and the China-Africa Development Bank agreed to employ more local people and do more...

Chad has frozen the activities of China National Petroleum Corporation after inspectors found the company was dumping waste oil in holes dug in the ground in the Bongor...

Angola's Vice-President Manuel Domingos Vicente is facing demands for his impeachment, following revelations that he secretly renewed his official position on the board of China Sonangol International Holding,...

On 18 August, the acting Chief Executive Officer of state-owned telecoms operator Ethio Telecom, Andualem Admassie, signed the second of two US$800 million deals that will drastically improve...

China’s trade and investment in Africa continues to rise rapidly since it became the continent’s largest trading partner in 2009, new Chinese government statistics show. On 29 August,...

President Goodluck Jonathan’s state visit to China delivered much-needed finance for infrastructure projects but the final amount was rather less than his officials had originally envisaged. Ahead of...

Political and financial concerns have stalled or forced the reformulation of many of the major projects trumpeted since 2008. Back in May 2010, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation...

As Nigerian exporters have trouble selling crude in the United States because of the fracking revolution and South African economists study movements of China’s yuan for their impact...

Uncertainty hangs over three controversial deals with China that President Dioncounda Traoré’s outgoing transitional government had hoped to conclude before the first round of national elections held on...

China is sending troops to the new United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in late June that it would dispatch its...

Chinese companies, both private and state-owned, are set to carve out major stakes in Sierra Leone’s economy. Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma ended a six-day trip to...

In July, Development and Planning Minister Albert Mabri Toikeusse revealed that negotiations are under way between the Abidjan government and China’s state-run policy banks that will provide the...

With more Chinese nationals and businessmen in Africa than ever before, the Beijing government has much to do when it comes to protecting its citizens. After a wave...

India and China are offering to help President Joseph Kabila’s government secure its eastern borders following a series of bilateral meetings in June in Kinshasa. These offers follow...

Ghana’s expulsion of some 200 Chinese accused of involvement in illegal gold mining and more delays in disbursements from the China Development Bank for the gas plant in...

A high-profile Hong Kong court case could reveal more details about the business dealings of the secretive China International Fund and China Sonangol. Nicknamed the ‘88 Queensway Group’...

Punitive action against a Chinese oil company following a tax dispute has not undercut Libreville-Beijing ties. Although the government revoked Sinopec-owned Addax Petroleum’s oil permit in Obangue in...

Major Chinese investments, such as the new US$10 billion port to be built north of Dar es Salaam in Bagamoyo, are raising concerns amongst both the opposition and...

Chinese entrepreneur Han Fang, new President of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce in South Africa, moved to the country two decades ago and has since established a business...

In early May, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon sent shockwaves through Kinshasa when he told the United Nations-backed Radio Okapi that the partnership between Congo-Kinshasa and China...

Zimbabwe's new constitution finally passed into law on 22 May and the way is now clear for elections. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is pushing for the...

China’s Kingho Energy has big ideas for Sierra Leone, but such plans could go the way of many other ambitious investments. The US$6 billion agreement the company signed...

Hu Huaibang, outgoing Chairman of Shanghai-based Bank of Communications, replaced Chen Yuan as Chairman of China Development Bank in May. As of February, the CDB had...

Li Baodong called on Western countries to help African governments strengthen the institutions that are designed to fight terrorism. He told the Xinhua Chinese news agency in May...

In opposition, he lambasted the role of Chinese companies in the Zambian economy, but President Michael Chilufya Sata’s April state visit to China marked a point of closure...

In April, Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata was in China praising the Beijing government. Vice-President Guy Scott was doing much the same thing in mid-March – but at...

Thanks to a contract signed in Kinshasa on 18 March by Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Corporation’s Vice-President Bai Ziangqian, State Assets Minister Louise Munga Mesozi and Mines Minister...

The Ghana Immigration Service is to tighten up security at the country’s borders to stop the illegal entry of Chinese artisanal and small-scale miners (ASMs). Police Commissioner Peter...

Sinopec, the lead contractor on Ghana’s US$850 million gas project, halted work on 30 April citing payment delays and disputes with Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC).

China’s top Africa policymaker, Lu Shaye, took to the pages of the officially sanctioned China International Studies in March to slam the interventions by Western governments in Central...

More eye-catching Chinese loans to South Sudan hit the headlines in April, as did more uncertainty about what exactly has been agreed. A year to the day since...

The government cancelled the bidding for Uganda’s biggest hydropower project, the Karuma Falls Dam, pending a procurement review, after the selected bidder lied to the Ministry of Energy.

Jin-Yong Cai, Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Finance Corporation, wants the IFC to source more private-sector funding for infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

New Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to the BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, via Tanzania, one of Beijing’s closest partners on the continent. His consistent message was...

On 15 March, President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir sent a message of congratulations to China’s new President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who officially assumed...

On 15 March, Guinean President Alpha Condé sent a message of congratulations to China’s new leader, Xi Jinping. Apparently, the President had not yet fully digested the bad...

Guinea’s former National Director of Large Mining Projects, Tidiane Diallo has been sidelined by President Alpha Condé and problems are now besetting the most advanced Chinese mining project...

A Liberian politician has accused a presidential appointee – who secretly recorded him making comments suggestive of corruption – of misappropriating government funds. Representative Edward Forh of the...

China Development Bank is lending a hand to the agricultural investment plans of Golden Veroleum, controlled by Singapore-based Golden Agri-Resources. In March, the CDB extended a US$500-million loan...

The SWAPO government has turned down a request from a Chinese state-backed company for unlimited numbers of work permits. Eastern China Non-Ferrous Metals Investment Holding (ECE) is developing...

Trades unions may still have problems operating independently in China but Chinese workers and entrepreneurs are more ready to take industrial action on African projects.

Despite its troubles with the Congolese authorities last year, the Chinese group Fametal has now established a dominant position in Ituri’s gold belt. In March, Fametal President Wang...

One of the longest and most problematic Chinese takeover sagas is finally drawing to a sorry end for Sichuan-based Hanlong Mining and Australia’s Sundance Resources. The main attraction...

Addax Petroleum, the Swiss-based oil company acquired by China’s Sinopec in August 2009, is the latest firm to enter into a dispute with Gabon as President Ali Bongo...

'China wholeheartedly welcomed by Africa,’ crowed the state-owned China Daily on 5 March. Yet China’s ever-growing relations with the continent face a complex environment of political and economic...

The fall of Libya’s Moammar el Gaddafi was a wake-up call both for Beijing and for Chinese companies operating in high-risk environments. While the Chinese were not the...

After declining previous invitations, on 15 February President Michael Chilufya Sata announced his maiden trip to China would finally take place in April. China has invited the President...

According to a mining industry expert, much has changed since the September 2011 election of President Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front government. ‘Under the MMD [Movement for...

In the last few years, Chinese builders have won contracts for more than 18 government-funded infrastructure projects for roads, stadiums‚ schools‚ hospitals‚ airports and public buildings in Botswana....

President Ian Khama has been slow to stamp out shadowy deals between Chinese investors and government institutions, in particular the murky business of the 500 million pula (US$62...

The United States Government Accountability Office released a detailed report last month, which reveals the different impacts of its African strategies and those of China. Interestingly, the GAO’s...

Official Chinese statistics vastly underestimate the number and value of private Chinese investments in Africa, according to a recent World Bank report. Private Chinese Investment in Africa: Myths...

Sticking to the plan that he set out on taking the helm at Gécamines in 2011, Chief Executive Officer Albert Yuma Mulimbi travelled to China in February to...

Uranium-rich Namibia is still rolling out the red carpet for Chinese mining and exploration firms. Back in January, it was announced that Zhonghe Resources (Namibia) Development had received...

Gao Jianke revealed in late January that Wesizwe Platinum had received a US$650 million loan from the China Development Bank for the expansion of the Bakubung mining project,...

China Union is embroiled in land-rights disputes as it struggles to rehabilitate the Bong iron-ore mines and begin exports (China Union under fire in Bong County). In 2009,...

In December 2012, the World Bank published an in-depth study of Chinese investors in Ethiopia. Based on interviews with the executives of 69 companies operating there, the study...

The once-ardent relationship between Namibia and China appears to be cooling. Over the past six months, the Windhoek government has cancelled two tenders, amounting to about US$500 million,...

Namibia is dragging its heels with two other state-owned Chinese companies (see Raw deals for Windhoek), China Gezhouba Group (CGG) and China National Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC),...

A US$100 million investment in Mauritania is in the balance after the Nouakchott authorities suspended a contract with a Chinese fishery. Officials from the Ministry of Fishing and...

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Lamido Sanusi took to the stage at the World Economic Forum (23-27 January) in Davos, Switzerland, to argue that Africa’s relationship with China...

Chinese businesses use personal ties to Mozambican politicians and officials to run a network of illegal timber exports that mask the environmental impact of logging. So concludes the...

The year 2012 was a tumultuous one, as might be expected from a Year of the Dragon. However, while the run-up to the Chinese leadership transition was nothing...

The pace of multibillion dollar Chinese deals seems to have slowed after the stalled US$23 billion refinery investment in Nigeria in 2010 and the Sicomines joint venture deal...