LIBYAASIA Beijing and Delhi change tack 31st March 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The crisis in Libya is exposing foreign policy contradictions across the world – including among Asia’s rising powers China and India, like many Western and African states, have torn up their diplomatic rule books as the crisis in Libya moves from revolution to civil war. First to go was Beijing’s and New Delhi’s hallowed principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. Beijing’s initial reaction had been to call for calm and avoid denunciations of Libyan leader Moammar el Gadaffi and his regime.
LIBYAASIA Solid foundations 31st March 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Chinese traders in Tripoli are watching closely to see how the Western-led attacks on Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi’s regime will affect business in the short term. South Korean and C...
CHADCHINA Campaigns made in China 31st March 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site President Déby is campaigning in April’s presidential polls on the back of infrastructure and natural resource projects supported by China Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno is choosing the same political strategy as Congo-Kinshasa’s President Joseph Kabila: he has opened the country’s doors to numerous development pr...
NIGERCHINA Do it by the deadline 31st March 2011 After managing a transition which led to the election on 12 March of new President Mahamdou Issoufou, the military junta has announced that it will not hand over power on 6 April w...
CAMEROONNIGERIACHINA Good neighbours 31st March 2011 Addax, a British-listed oil and gas company controlled by China’s Sinopec, may benefit from this month’s decision by the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments to collaborate in the ...
ZAMBIACHINATAIWAN Friends and benefits 31st March 2011 Veteran oppositionist Michael ‘King Cobra’ Sata often accuses President Rupiah Banda and the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy of being too cosy with China. Now Sata stands ...
CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Surveying Sicomines 31st March 2011 The Congolese authorities are having trouble holding their Chinese partners to account while new barter deals and contracts pile up Concerns are rising over the opacity of the US$6 billion Sicomines deal between the Congolese government and a group of Chinese companies. Congolese civil society groups and opposi...
MALAWIASIA Road builders 31st March 2011 Japan and China both want to get their hands on Malawi’s transport infrastructure. The Chinese are building roads, while the Japanese announced in February their US$18 million reha...
CONGO-KINSHASACHINA All roads lead to Beijing 31st March 2011 Chinese construction companies are not just carrying out Beijing-backed projects, they are also winning contracts from international donors. The first phases of telecommunications ...
SUDANCHINA A new nation 31st March 2011 Once an opponent of South Sudanese secession, then diplomatically agnostic, China is now making up for lost time in shoring up relations with the soon-to-be-independent Government ...
TAIWAN Jen-Chih 'Robert' Huang 31st March 2011 Chief Executive Officer, Mpisi 74 South Africa has been a land of opportunity and peril for Taiwan’s Robert Huang, an essential link in a series of deals connecting Asian companies to the presidential family. He fi...
INDONESIA Franky Oesman Widjaja 31st March 2011 Chairman, Golden Agri-Resources Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the world’s largest palm oil company by land under cultivation, will increase its size by almost 50% with a 220,000 hectare plantation in Liberia. The ...
SUDAN Salva Kiir Mayardit 31st March 2011 President, Southern Sudan Investors in Sudan’s oil wealth – China, Malaysia and India among them – closely watch Southern Sudan’s preparations for independence. The government has crucial decisions to take ...
CHINA Liu Zhiming 31st March 2011 Chairman, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation The Tazara Railway that links Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia, to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was built under arduous conditions by thousands of African and Chinese labourers between 1970 and 1...
