SUDANSOUTH SUDANCHINA Workers safe but oil at risk 10th February 2012 Oil fields around Bentiu, South Sudan, where mainly Chinese companies have been pumping oil. Image courtesy of Panos Pictures Oil rows and workers caught in the crossfire force Beijing to develop political and military tools to accompany its ever-growing economic muscle Sudan and South Sudan are dragging a reluctant China into their smouldering relations at a time when both sides say the situation is on the brink of open armed conflict. Beijing’s ‘win-win’ diplomacy in Africa serves it well when there are two winners. However, the case of Chinese workers held by the armed Sudanese opposition and the conflict between Juba and Khartoum over oil pose another test of Beijing’s commitment to non-interference.
SUDANSOUTH SUDANCHINA Oil flows eastward 10th February 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Tension in Sudan and South Sudan boosts the Kenyan backers of the Lamu port and corridor projects. South Sudanese officials had already been in talks to join their planned pipeline...
GABONCHINAAUSTRALIA China loses Bélinga 10th February 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site After four years of tough renegotiations, China’s deal of the century is finally cancelled Australia's BHP Billiton has won the rights to the US$5 billion Bélinga iron ore project from China Machinery Engineering Corporation. BHP and the Gabonese Mining Ministry agreed a...
GABONCHINAFORESTRY Illegal loggers taken to task 10th February 2012 Gabon’s government is scrutinising the activities of Chinese logging companies which have failed to respect international best practice. In an unprecedented move, the Gabonese Mini...
CONGO-KINSHASACHINABELGIUM Experts rate foreign aid 10th February 2012 Researchers from three continents analyse the impact of Belgian and Chinese aid projects and policies A new report from Belgian, Chinese and Congolese academics provides in-depth analysis on the contrasts between European and Chinese aid and trade policies in Congo-Kinshasa. Neithe...
CHADCHINABRIEFING Refining relations 10th February 2012 President Idriss Déby Itno’s government has finally reached an agreement with the Chinese owners of the troubled Djermaya refinery. Discussions between the government, led by Justi...
ANGOLACHINA Home, sweet Chinese home 10th February 2012 A Chinese-built, multibillion-dollar housing project near the capital will test Beijing-Luanda relations The government is under pressure to speed up construction projects to meet its promise to build a million houses in four years, ahead of September’s elections. The Nova Centralidad...
CONGO-KINSHASA Gécamines strikes again 10th February 2012 Gécamines has used strong-arm tactics once again, this time to block the investment plans of Australia’s Anvil Mining. The state-owned mining company’s decision to review its partn...
GHANACHINASOUTH KOREABRIEFING The emperor's new house 10th February 2012 A bruising election year in Ghana kicked off with President John Atta Mills’s 9 January announcement of the death of South Korean company STX Corporation’s US$10 billion housing pr...
ANGOLACHINA Capitalists and communists 10th February 2012 The Beijing government and China International Fund may be separate entities but the multiple links between the two become clearer with each new project. Two of the CIF’s general m...
CAMEROONSOUTH KOREABRIEFING The big diamond scam 10th February 2012 South Korean President Lee Myung-bak prides himself on his government’s resource diplomacy, but now a corrupt Cameroonian diamond deal has taken its first political casualties. The...
ZIMBABWEINDIABRIEFING Diamonds are a rough business 10th February 2012 The two-day state visit of India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma in mid-January gave Indian investors the opportunity to complain about the restrictions and obstacles that – despi...
THAILAND Nalinee 'Joy' Taveesin 10th February 2012 Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office Zimbabwe had an unexpected, dramatic effect on Thai politics in January. When Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced her new cabinet, the opposition Democrat Party suddenly r...
MALAWI Bingu wa Mutharika 10th February 2012 President Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma visited Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika on 21-24 January en route to last month’s African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia...
EGYPT Mohammed Saad al Katatni 10th February 2012 People’s Assembly Speaker In a victory for the long-frustrated ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood, the People’s Assembly has elected Mohammed Saad al Katatni, a stalwart of the MB’s political wing, as Spea...
