National Public Radio posted on 4 December 2024 an article titled "D.R. Congo's Mining Capital Is at the Heart of Biden's Bid to Counter China in Africa" by Emmet Livingstone.
A small mining town in the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo is at the center of US-China competition over critical minerals in Africa.
Megatrends Afrika published in February 2024 a study titled "Climate Collaboration in Multipolar Times: The European Union and China as Energy Transition Partners to African Countries" by Cobus van Staden.
The study concludes that China is increasingly promoting its own environmental, social, and governance norms while trying to reshape the global regulatory environment to be friendlier towards Chinese companies. China's strongest tool in Africa remains less about any direct challenge to European influence, and more about its legacy as an alternative set of options that fractures Euro-American hegemony in African development. A more fundamental challenge for the EU is how willing it is to adapt its African engagement to growing global multipolarity.
Quartz published on 1 May 2023 an article titled "Japan's Prime Minister Is Visiting Africa in an Attempt to Counter China's Influence" by Diego Lasarte.
Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, is visiting Egypt, Mozambique, Ghana, and Kenya, according to the article, to counter Chinese influence on the continent.
The Japan Times published on 30 April 2023 an article titled "Kishida Starts African Tour Ahead of G7 Summit."
Although this article mentions the influence of China in Africa, the focus is more on Japan's concerns with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
ODI, an independent think tank based in the UK, published on 30 November 2022 an analysis titled "Old Wine in New Bottles? China, the G7 and the New Infrastructure Geopolitics" by Yunnan Chen.
The high water mark of China's policy bank lending for infrastructure was 2016. Lending has subsequently been on the decline. The heyday of China's overseas infrastructure financing is probably over, at least for the time being. Mentions of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have all but disappeared from President Xi Jinping's official speeches. As the BRI takes a back seat, China's less well defined Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative seem to be taking center stage.
Reuters published on 14 October 2022 an article titled "Global Finance Leaders Single Out China as Barrier to Faster Debt Relief" by Andrea Shalal and Jorgelina Do Rosario.
The G-7 argues that China is the missing piece in debt relief for the Global South. China has not sent officials to participate in person at this week's IMF and World Bank meetings. China has not agreed to participate in the G-7 roundtable on debt relief with African countries.
The Washington Post Monkey Cage published on 18 August 2021 an analysis titled "A Chinese Airport Project in Zanzibar Floundered. Here's What the New G-7 Infrastructure Plan Can Learn" by Veda Vaidyanathan.
The analysis looks at 5 Chinese-built infrastructure projects in Tanzania and Kenya--4 financed by the China Export Import Bank and 1 by the World Bank. The advantages of Chinese projects were high speed, enormous scale, and low costs, although the Zanzibar international airport project experienced major delays and was well over budget.
Panda Paw Dragon Claw published on 29 June 2021 a roundtable discussion titled "Will the G7's B3W Initiative Change the Game of Global Infrastructure Development?"
It consists of four commentaries, including mine, that look at the G-7's Build Back Better World (B3W) Initiative and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from different perspectives.
The Diplomat published on 22 June 2021 a commentary titled "B3W: Building an Alternative to the BRI or Falling Into the Same Trap?" by Francesca Ghiretti, King's College London.
The author argues that the BRI has not measured up to its high expectations and suggests this is a lesson the G-7 would do well to learn.
The South Africa Institute of International Affairs published on 30 September 2020 a commentary titled "China Holds All the Cards as Pandemic Pushes African Countries to Default on Loans" by Cobus van Staden.
The author warns that African governments may be forced to cede control of key assets as Beijing swaps debt for equity as it recently did in Laos.
