China Mobile Activates 2Africa Submarine Cable

 TechAfrica News posted on 7 November 2025 an article titled "China Mobile Activates 2Africa East Submarine Cable to Strengthen Africa's Digital Backbone" by Kay-Lyne Wolfenden.

China Mobile has activated the 2Africa East Segment of its submarine cable system, marking a major milestone in enhancing Africa's digital infrastructure.  The 2Africa project connects 33 countries across Africa, Europe, and Asia.  

Commercial Ship Apparently Responsible for Red Sea Cable Cutting

 The Associated Press published on 8 September 2025 an article titled "Commercial Shipping Likely Cut Red Sea Cables that Disrupted Internet Access, Experts Say" by Jon Gambrell.

A commercial ship dragging an anchor likely cut the four undersea cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

The Future of World Order in the Trump Administration

 Project Syndicate published on 4 March 2025 a commentary titled "The Future of World Order" by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

The author concluded that if the international order is eroding, America's domestic politics are as much of a cause as China's rise.  The question is whether we are entering a totally new period of American decline, or whether the second Trump administration's attacks on the American Century's institutions and alliances will prove to be another cyclical dip.  We may not know until 2029.

Global Diplomacy Index: China Pulls Ahead of US

 Australia's Lowy Institute has released its "2024 Global Diplomacy Index."

China pulled ahead of the United States in global diplomatic missions in 2019 and maintained a small lead through 2023.  Russia's war in Ukraine has resulted in a significant reduction in Moscow's diplomatic representation.  Türkiye and India have significantly expanded their representation in recent years.  There has been a recent focus on the establishment of diplomatic missions in Pacific Islands countries.  

Impact on Shipping of Houthi Red Sea Attacks

 The Italian Institute for International Political Studies published on 24 November 2024 a paper titled "Blue Economy and the Mediterranean: How the Red Sea Crisis is Shaping the Region's Maritime Future (and What Is Next)" by Mario Mattioli.

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping reduced transit through the Suez Canal by about 50 percent in 2023 and 70 percent in the first half of 2024.  Transit around Africa's Cape of Good Hope adds 3,000 to 3,500 nautical miles to voyages connecting Europe and Asia, increasing travel time by about 10 days.  This results in higher costs for fuel, wages, insurance, and freight borne by shipping companies.

US-China Rivalry in Asia and Africa

 The US Institute of Peace published in June 2024 a paper titled "US-China Rivalry in Asia and Africa: Lessons from the Cold War" by Gregg Brazinsky, George Washington University.  

This report examines the US-China rivalry in Asia and Africa during the Cold War and today.  It offers insights and lessons that can guide US policy makers as they navigate the contemporary competition.  Although today's rivalry is not an exact replay of the Cold War, lessons from the earlier competition offer critical insights into how the new contest between China and the United States may evolve.

China's Effort to Replace the Western-led Liberal International Order

 The Pacific Review published in December 2023 a study titled "China's 'Do-as-I-Do' Paradigm: Practice-based Normative Diplomacy in the Global South" by Jeremy Garlick, Prague University of Economics and Business, and Fangxing Qin, Beijing Foreign Studies University.  

This study argues that China expects partner countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to model their behavior and discourse on the example set by Beijing without significant disagreement.  Countries in the Global South have begun to alter their behavior (e.g. frequent reference to win-win cooperation) along the normative lines expected by Beijing rather than those enshrined in the Western-led liberal international order.  Nevertheless, there is still space for counter initiatives from the West.  

China's Belt and Road Initiative: Not What It Once Was

 Foreign Affairs published on 7 February 2023 an article titled "China Hasn't Given Up on the Belt and Road" by Matt Schrader and J. Michael Cole, both with the International Republican Institute.  

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure program became an important part of its foreign policy.  Major financing cutbacks are, however, changing the focus of the initiative.  While China is not giving up on it, the BRI has become "a less splashy, less expensive model of engagement predicated on cultivating ties more organically in fields such as trade, telecommunications, green energy, and academia."  The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the lowest funding to African governments since 2004, although the shift in focus of BRI had started even earlier.  

Asia Will Juice Africa's GDP Growth in 2023

 African Business published on 19 January 2023 an article titled "AFDB: Africa Will Grow 4% in 2023 as China Recovers" by Leo Komminoth.

Africa's GDP grew 3.8 percent in 2022 and is expected to increase to over 4 percent in 2023 with a risk of a continent-wide recession close to zero.  The African Development Bank believes the continent can reach this number partly because Asia and especially China are recovering after 3 years of COVID-19 polices.  Asia accounts for 40 percent of Africa's merchandise exports.

US-China-Russia Security Assistance Competition

 The RAND Corporation has just published a major report titled "Security Cooperation in a Strategic Competition."  It looks at the current role of security cooperation as a tool in the emerging strategic competition among the US, Russia, and China.  It contains chapters on China and Russia's global security activities.  While Africa does not loom large in the report, there is useful information on security cooperation with the continent.  

China's Rail Construction in Africa

 The Center for Strategic and International Studies China Power Project recently published a study titled "How Are Foreign Rail Construction Projects Advancing China's Interests?"

This study looks at China's rail construction contracts around the world.  From 2013-2019, Africa accounted for 34 percent of China's rail contracts, the second highest percentage by region after Asia.  Nigeria was the world's largest recipient of Chinese rail construction during this period.  

Asian Industrialization Model May Not Work for Africa

African Arguments posted on 31 January 2019 an analysis titled "The African Model: Asia's Path May Not Work, But There Is an Alternative" by Marlous van Waijenburg, University of Michigan, and Ewout Frankema, Wageningen University.

Most African countries are not in a position to compete, including labor costs, in export-focused industrialization with countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. On the other hand, African countries may be able to compete by producing goods for their rapidly growing domestic markets.

African Students Forsake US for China

Foreign Policy posted on 2 October 2018 an article titled "Forget Stanford, Tsinghua Beckons: America Is Losing African and Asian Students to China" by Cheng Li and Charlotte Yang, MA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Since 2014, the total enrollment of African students in China has surpassed that of the United States. The Fulbright Program, a hallmark of U.S. cultural diplomacy since 1946 has faced calls for funding cuts since the Obama administration. In the meantime, China has employed a number of policy tools to promote higher education, with a special focus on attracting students from Africa and Asia.

Will Chinese Light Manufacturing Move to Africa?

Peking University's Center for New Structural Economics and the UK-based Overseas Development Institute published in December 2017 a landmark study titled "Adjusting to Rising Costs in Chinese Light Manufacturing: What Opportunities for Developing Countries?" by Jiajun Xu, Stephen Gelb, Jiewei Li and Zuoxiang Zhao.

Accelerating real wage growth in China from the mid-2000s has raised the possibility of relocation of jobs from export-oriented labor-intensive light manufacturing industries on China's east coast to low-income countries in Africa, other parts of Asia, and even within China. The study surveyed 640 privately-owned Chinese firms in four sectors--home appliances, garments, footwear, and toys--that collectively employ about 16 million workers in China. Only 10 percent of the firms had invested abroad in the past or intended to do so in the next three years. Southeast Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia) was the most frequent destination. So far, only three firms had invested in Africa, all in footwear in Ethiopia. Only two firms indicated Africa was a preferred destination for planned foreign direct investment.

While the sample surveyed in China is relatively small, this report suggests that all of the recent hype concerning the potential movement of Chinese light industry to Africa should be treated with a great deal of caution. The study concluded that Southeast Asia remains a much more likely destination for China's outward investment in light industry than does Africa.

Chinese Environment Lawyer Urges Legal Requirements, Not Guidelines for Foreign Investment

ChinaDialogue published on 1 December 2017 an interview titled "China Needs Urgent Oversight of Investments" with Zhang Jingling, an environmental lawyer and visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington.

The author did research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on the role of Chinese foreign investment. Noting that Chinese companies are not transparent, she concluded that China needs to establish legal requirements rather than voluntary guidelines for Chinese foreign investments. This recommendation is important for Africa, which has somewhere between $34 billion and $83 billion of Chinese FDI.

Social and Environmental Impacts of Chinese Overseas Investment

Yale's School of Forestry and the Environment has released a summary of the conference proceedings of the 2nd Yale Symposium on Chinese Overseas Investment and Its Environmental and Social Impacts that took place at Yale University on 3-4 April 2015. 

The World's Greatest Geopolitical Challenges in 2015

George Washington University's GW Today published on 16 March 2015 a piece titled "The World's Greatest Geopolitical Challenges."  Drawing on six members of the teaching staff at GWU, it contains brief contributions that look at the major challenges facing Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the United States in 2015.  I did the piece for Africa and focused on upcoming elections and conflict/terrorism. 

East Asia's Lessons for Africa

Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz posted a piece titled "East Asia's Lessons for Africa" on Project Syndicate 3 June 2013.  He suggests Africa draw lessons from East Asia to bring it out of poverty.  Stiglitz notes the economic record for Africa in recent years has been spotty.  While five of the world's ten fastest-growing countries with a population of more than 10 million between 2007 and 2011 have been in Africa, others have done poorly.  He counts among the best performers Ethiopia, where GDP grew about 10 percent annually as of the end of 2011, and Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda where annual output has grown by more than 6 percent for a decade or more. 

Stiglitz disparages the so-called neo-liberal "Washington Consensus," arguing that Japan and other East Asian countries followed a different course.  African countries will benefit from reflecting on their successes and failures.

Stiglitz falls into one familiar trap while measuring poverty in Africa by using the $1.25 per day earnings limit.  This dollar scale does not include about half of Africa's informal economy, much of which is based on barter.  

China and the World

The Forum for discussing international affairs and economics published a complete issue in the summer of 2012 titled "China: Worldview and Ambitions, Security Policy, The Exchange Rate Conundrum." It contains the piece I did on "China's Security Policy in Africa and the Western Indian Ocean" posted under 7 June below.

The special issues includes a number of articles that may interest you such as "The Growing Potency of the Sino-Indian Rivalry" by Harsh Pant; "Chinese Foreign Policy - Interpreting the Recent War of Words" by Carla P. Freeman; and "The Challenge of US-China Relations" by Ali Wyne.

Click here to access the entire issue.