298 episodes

Twice-weekly discussion about China's engagement across Africa and the Global South hosted by journalist Eric Olander and Asia-Africa scholar Cobus van Staden in Johannesburg.

The China in Africa Podcast The China-Global South Project

    • News
    • 4.6 • 189 Ratings

Twice-weekly discussion about China's engagement across Africa and the Global South hosted by journalist Eric Olander and Asia-Africa scholar Cobus van Staden in Johannesburg.

    China's Slowing Economy Could be a Catalyst for Change in Africa

    China's Slowing Economy Could be a Catalyst for Change in Africa

    Angolan President João Lourenço kicked off a three-day visit to China this week that will take him to Beijing and Shandong Province. The timing of Lourenço's trip comes as the Chinese economy is facing enormous challenges amid a plunge in FDI, surging youth unemployment and much slower growth.
    The easy Chinese money for African leaders is no longer there and that may not be a bad thing, says Gyude Moore from the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
    Gyude wrote a column this month that said a slowing Chinese economy could force a lot of African governments to initiate badly-needed reforms. Gyude joins Eric & Geraud to discuss his somewhat contrarian view on the rapidly changing China-Africa relationship.
    SHOW NOTES:
    Center for Global Development: Is There a Silver Lining for Africa in China’s Slowdown? by W. Gyude Moore: https://tinyurl.com/2yu4vka8 The CGD Podcast: Lagos to Mombasa: https://tinyurl.com/2c8oxz82 JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @pnantulya I @LelandLazarus 
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth
     

    • 1 hr 4 min
    A Call for African & Latin American Countries to Share Notes on Dealings With China

    A Call for African & Latin American Countries to Share Notes on Dealings With China

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed this week the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) conference that will take place later this year in Beijing will, in fact, be a leaders summit.
    Before the FOCAC summit, Latin American and Caribbean leaders will take part in a similar gathering known as the China-CELAC forum. It's rather unusual that both are taking place in the same year and that's got some analysts suggesting representatives from African and Latin American countries would benefit a lot if they got together to compare notes on their deals with China.
    Leland Lazarus, associate director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute of Public Policy at Florida University in Miami, and Paul Nantulya, research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., recently co-wrote an article that explains why this kind of South-South dialogue is so important.
    JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @pnantulya I @LelandLazarus 
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

    • 50 min
    [GLOBAL SOUTH] Surveying the Geopolitical Landscape in SE Asia With ASEAN Wonk Prasanth Parmeswaran

    [GLOBAL SOUTH] Surveying the Geopolitical Landscape in SE Asia With ASEAN Wonk Prasanth Parmeswaran

    The escalating tensions between China, the Philippines and the United States in the South China Sea highlight how Southeast Asia is now the most dangerous frontline in the burgeoning Great Power competition between Beijing and Washington.
    But as this week's ASEAN summit in Australia highlights, there is no consensus in the region over how the Southeast Asian bloc's 11 member states are responding to the rapidly changing geopolitical environment.
    This week, Eric spoke with Prasanth Parmeswaran, a highly regarded analyst on Southeast Asian affairs and founder of the widely-read ASEAN Wonk newsletter, for some perspective on how different countries across the region are positioning themselves in this new era.
    Show Notes:
    Subscribe to the ASEAN Wonk newsletter on Substack: https://www.aseanwonk.com Subscribe to the Sinica Podcast newsletter on Substack: https://sinica.substack.com JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @aseanwonk
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

    • 56 min
    Chinese Diplomacy in Sierra Leone and Nigeria With Tobi Oshodi

    Chinese Diplomacy in Sierra Leone and Nigeria With Tobi Oshodi

    Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio is in the midst of a five-day visit to China that included talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, among other high-level officials. While Bio is getting a lot of face-time with China’s political elites, the more pressing question is what he is actually getting out of the visit.
    Tobi Oshodi, a political science lecturer at Lagos State University and a long-time Africa-China scholar, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the visit and the current state of Chinese engagement in Nigeria. Tobi also shares his outlook on how Nigeria is preparing for this year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation gathering that will take place later this year in Beijing.
    JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @tobioshodi
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth
     

    • 46 min
    [GLOBAL SOUTH] China and the Indonesia Nickel Trade: Measuring the True Labor and Environmental Cost

    [GLOBAL SOUTH] China and the Indonesia Nickel Trade: Measuring the True Labor and Environmental Cost

    A lot of EV consumers bought new battery-powered cars in the hope it would be better for the environment than a vehicle with a conventional internal combustion engine that runs on fossil fuels. By some measures, that's no doubt true.
    But many of these early adopters are also unaware their supposedly "green" cars aren't quite as carbon neutral as promised and that there are serious labor and human rights problems related to the metals used to manufacture the batteries that power those EVs.
    Krista Shennum, a climate and human rights researcher at Climate Rights International, joins Cobus & Antonia to discuss the situation in Indonesia where Chinese mining companies dominate the all-important nickel sector that's rife with labor and environmental abuses.
    SHOW NOTES:
    Climate Rights International: Nickel Unearthed -- The Human and Climate Costs of Indonesia's Nickel Industry: https://cri.org/reports/nickel-unearthed/ JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander 
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

    • 43 min
    What Exactly is the "Global South"?

    What Exactly is the "Global South"?

    Academics and think tank analysts, predominantly in the U.S. and Europe, spend a lot of time debating whether it's appropriate to use the nomenclature "Global South" to describe developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, among other regions.
    In those regions, it's actually less of an issue where framings like "South-South" are commonplace. The use of the word "South" doesn't seem to be as sensitive an issue as it is for those observers in the "Global North."
    This week, Jorge Heine, a research professor at Boston University and former Chilean ambassador to South Africa, India and China, joins Eric & Cobus to give a passionate defense of the "Global South" and why he feels it's more important than ever now to embrace the concept.
    JOIN THE DISCUSSION:
    X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject
    YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth
    FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC:
    Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine
    Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat
    JOIN US ON PATREON!
    Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth

    • 1 hr 8 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
189 Ratings

189 Ratings

T Drinker ,

Appreciate environmental updates

Thank you for your insights and enthusiastic reporting. I appreciate the environmental reporting you have completed. Climate change and biodiversity loss cannot be separated from political discourse. And welcome back Cobus!

lrhhrl ,

Great show until

They ruin it with the climate apocalypse stuff. “We are all going to die” …. Ugh. Nonsense.

Traveler at large ,

One of the best podcasts on this topic

If not the very best. And I say that as someone who has worked in China and holds a degree in East Asian regional studies.

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