Chinese and Turkish Fishing Vessels Plunder Catch off Guinea-Bissau

 The Guardian published on 9 March 2026 an investigative report titled "How the 'Galapagos of West Africa' Is Plundered by Floating Fish Factories" by Davide Mancini.

Floating Chinese-owned factory ships longer than a football field illegally process sardinella for fishmeal in the waters off Guinea-Bissau.  The Chinese fishmeal factories are supported by Turkish purse seiners that illegally supply them with fish.  

The offshore fish processing operation has both negative food security implications for the people of Guinea-Bissau and for artisanal fisherman in the country.  Fish are the source of a third of animal protein consumed and the informal fishing industry employs 225,000 people from a population of 2.2 million.  

China Likely to Adapt to Latest West African Coup in Guinea-Bissau

 The South China Morning Post published on 15 December 2025 an article titled "Latest Coup Raises Stakes for Beijing's Economic Interests in West Africa" by Jevans Nyabiage.

Just days after the Chinese ambassador met Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo to donate airport security inspection equipment, a military coup overturned the government.  Political instability in West Africa has raised the stakes for China's vast economic interests in the region.  Nevertheless, China is likely to remain active in West Africa and adapt to the most recent coup in Guinea-Bissau.  

China Reaches Out to Guinea-Bissau

 The South China Morning Post published on 13 July 2024 an article titled "Guinea-Bissau and China Announce Strategic Partnership During State Visit" by Jevans Nyabiage.  

Guinea-Bissau's president made a state visit to Beijing where China made a number of general promises to assist his tiny country and made one specific pledge of $27.5 million for earmarked projects.

Chinese Private Security Companies in Africa

 The Jamestown Foundation published on 6 June 2023 an analysis titled "Chinese PSCs in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Cases of Francophone and Lusophone Africa" by Sergey Sukhankin.  

Chinese private security companies (PSCs) are gradually increasing their presence in Sub-Saharan Africa's Francophone and Lusophone countries.  They have become particularly engaged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique.  

China's Parliament Diplomacy in Africa

 Aljazeera published on 14 October 2022 an article titled "Analysis: Does China's 'Palace Diplomacy' Benefit Africa or Beijing?" by Thomas O'Falk.

China has been financing and building parliaments across Africa, most recently in Zimbabwe.  It has financed and built others in Mozambique, Lesotho, Guinea-Bissau, and Malawi.  It is often not clear if the financing terms are commercial loans, interest-free loans or grants, but China's goal is to gain political influence through these projects (and make a profit if the financing is based on commercial loan terms).

Turkey's Expansion in Africa

 African Business published on 17 March 2021 an article titled "Erdogan's Ambition Drives Turkey's Africa Surge" by Charlie Mitchell.

Turkey is opening its 43rd embassy in Africa this year in Guinea-Bissau.  Turkish President Erdogan has visited more African countries than any other non-African leader.  

US May Require Bonds from Visitors of 15 African Countries

Reuters published on 23 November 2020 an article titled "New Trump Rule May Require Some African Tourists to Pay Up to $15,000 in Bonds" by Ted Hesson. 

The outgoing Trump administration issued a new temporary rule that could require tourist and business travelers from 24 countries, including 15 in Africa, to pay a bond of as much as $15,000 to visit the United States.   

The Department of State published on 24 November 2020 the "Visa Bond Pilot Program."  Countries whose nationals have overstay rates of 10 percent or higher are included in the pilot program.  The 15 African countries are: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chad, DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sudan.  

Comment:  This is one more landmine left by the departing Trump administration.  The problem of visa overstays by tourists and business visitors dates back many decades and does tend to be higher for nationals of certain countries.  The problem with this solution is that it seems to be predicated on two premises:  payment of a bond before travelling to the US will discourage overstaying and foreign countries need to do more to prevent the practice.

Payment of a bond will prevent most low income visitors intending to remain in the United States from travelling to our shores.  They will find it difficult to pay the bond.  It will have little or no impact on the wealthy visitors who can afford to forego up to $15,000.  The idea that foreign countries can prevent this practice by their nationals is ludicrous.  This is a personal decision made by each person who obtains an American visa.  What can a foreign government do about that?  Finally, what is magical about the 10 percent overstay number?  If a country has a 9 percent overstay rate, there apparently is no problem. 

Welcome to America! 

China Buys Influence in Africa: Build Parliaments

Pulse.ng posted on 14 March 2019 a story titled "7 African Countries Whose Parliament Buildings Today Stand Tall Courtesy of Chinese Money".

In 2012, China funded and built the $200 million headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and recently agreed to fund and build the headquarters for the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja, Nigeria. In addition, China has built or rebuilt in recent years parliament buildings for the Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Gabon, and Sierra Leone.

Russia in Africa: New Focus

The Africa Research Program at Tel Aviv University published on 24 June 2018 a study titled "Russia in Africa" by Rina Bassist, Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation.

The author singled out two new guidelines that define Russia's emerging policy in Africa: identifying African markets where Russia enjoys an advantage vis-a-vis Africa's traditional partners and identifying zones of strategic interest, including the control of certain resources.

Western Africa's Missing Fish

London-based Overseas Development Institute published in June 2016 a report titled "Western Africa's Missing Fish: The Impacts of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Under-Reporting Catches by Foreign Fleets" by Alfonso Daniels, Miren Gutierrez, Gonzalo Fanjul, Arantxa Guerena, Ishbel Matheson, and Kevin Watkins.

The report concludes that overfishing in the world's oceans has reached catastrophic levels. Many major fish stocks are in decline. Some species are being pushed towards extinction. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is heavily implicated in overfishing. As much as one fifth of the world's fisheries catch may originate from IUU activity. Western Africa is at the epicenter of the tragedy. About 84 percent of the fish exported from western Africa leave the region in large refrigerated containers. China has the world's largest refrigerated fleet followed by Japan, Spain, South Korea, Russia, and Taiwan. The catches of the Chinese distant-water fleets are almost completely undocumented and unreported.

Bloomberg published on 18 July 2016 a short article titled "Cameroon Impounds Chinese-manned Vessel for Illegal Fishing" by Divine Ntaryike Jr. The article underscores the nature of the problem.

China's Relations with Lusophone Africa

Macauhub.com published on 30 January 2015 an article titled "A Diplomat with a Mission in China" by Filipa Queiroz.  It is a personal account by a Mozambican diplomat, recently appointed Assistant Secretary-General of Forum of Macao, on China's relations with the Lusophone countries in Africa.