China Archive

From May 16-17, Shanghai hosted an annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The Bank’s decision to meet in Asia for the first time in its history testifies to China’s growing hold over the African continent. During the past decade, China’s political, economic, and military presence on the continent has surged. Notwithstanding Africa’s declining share in world commerce, trade between Africa and China rose approximately 30 percent during each of the past five years. It now exceeds $50 billion annually, making China Africa’s third-largest trading partner. Sub-Saharan Africa currently supplies about 30 percent of […]

“St. Lucia is a sovereign state; an independent nation; we’re a democratic country, therefore what is the fuss all about? China or Taiwan, which one should it be? Which one should we tie? We must tie-one. I say we must tie-one.” — Edmund Estaphane, St. Lucian MP, speaking to parliament, April 30 SHENZHEN, China — Two different tussles took place in the Caribbean in the months of March and April; both involved the island-nation of St. Lucia to some degree, and both had such an air of inevitability that the final result elicited few gasps of surprise. One was the […]

KATMANDU, Nepal — In the thin air of Mount Everest base camp last week, a group of five American activists thumbed their frozen noses at the Chinese Government by holding their own “opening ceremony” on behalf of Tibet. They unfurled a banner that parodied China’s Olympic slogan: “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008,” it read. As a cameraman sent live images via the Internet, the activists even lit their own torch and sang the Tibetan national anthem — minutes before Chinese border guards took them into custody. The stunt was the latest effort to use next year’s Olympic Games […]

Gunmen launched a brazen pre-dawn raid on an oil field in southern Ethiopia on April 24, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers in their sleep. The attack was the direct result of the spreading instability on the Horn of Africa, where the violence in Somalia following Ethiopia’s invasion is bleeding across the border, back into Ethiopia. While the attack was apparently not aimed at China, it highlighted the growing backlash against China across Africa. As part of Beijing’s “Go Abroad” strategy, under which Chinese firms are encouraged to invest around the world to help fuel China’s rapidly expanding economy, […]