China signed an extraordinary $20 billion loan agreement with Guinea earlier this month, providing the West African country with much-needed financial resources over the next two decades in exchange for concessions and access to its abundant deposits of bauxite, an industrial aluminum ore that is in high demand. The first phase of the deal involves three separate Chinese mining infrastructure projects in the northwestern town of Boffa: a planned alumina refinery and two bauxite extraction operations. China is currently a top global consumer of bauxite, an industrial ore that is first refined into alumina, also known as aluminum oxide, and [...]
As a candidate, President Donald Trump vowed to revitalize America’s infrastructure and promised $1 billion for transportation projects. But while Washington only tepidly contemplates such spending, China is rapidly moving ahead to transform transportation on its terms. China’s leadership is codifying the next generation of transportation technologies into an ambitious national strategy and matching policy with billions for innovation and deployment. Recognizing that the sector is shifting toward low carbon options worldwide, Beijing is planning to uproot America’s competitive edge in the global market. Unless it is willing to cede the remaking of the transportation industry to China, the United [...]
When Iran signed the international agreement in 2015 to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani’s administration believed the deal would usher in badly needed foreign direct investment to relieve Iran’s economic woes. Two years on, the promise of an economic renaissance has not fully panned out. In an email interview, Sanam Vakil, professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe in Bologna and associate fellow at Chatham House in London, discusses what Iran has achieved since the sanctions were lifted, the ongoing political wrangling between reformers and hard-liners, and whether or [...]
