Official Chinese Media Begins to Replace VOA

 The Wall Street Journal published on 13 July 2025 an article titled "China Gets More Airtime Around the World as Voice of America Signs Off" by Aruna Viswanatha, Alexandra Wexler, and Clarence Leong.

Media time slots in foreign countries once used by the Voice of America are, in some cases, now being allocated to official Chinese media outlets.

Video Panel Discussion on China's Military Strategy

 The US Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, hosted on 13 March 2025 a two-hour panel discussion titled "What Is China's Military Strategy--Is It for Global Power Projection?"

The panelists included Dr. Barry M. Stentiford, U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies; Lt. Col. Samuel Short, Australian Army, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; and me.  Each panelist opened with 10-minute comments.  Most of the session was Q & A.  The focus was China's security relations with Africa, China-Thailand relations, and military strategy and reform of the PLA.  

Where US Foreign Aid Is Being Eliminated

 The New York Times published on 21 February 2025 an article titled "'We Are Seeing Complete Destruction': The Damage Done by U.S.A.I.D. Freeze" by Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International.  

The author comments that the Trump administration appears to be engaged in an effort to "almost entirely eliminate foreign aid programs."  He then summarizes programs around the world that will disappear if this initiative is allowed to go forward by the courts and Congress.  

The Digital Silk Road and Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific

 Article 19, a UK-based international organization with 9 regional offices devoted to freedom of expression, posted on 18 April 2024 a report titled "The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific."

The report examines China's digital infrastructure and governance influence in Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand.  While the study does not deal with Africa, it offers lessons for China's digital engagement with the continent.

The report argues that assessing China's partnerships and what they mean for rising repression is vital to understanding China's ambitions to rewire the world and rewrite the rules that govern the digital space.  By expanding its authoritarian model, China aims to ultimately supplant the tenets of internet freedom and rights-based principles of global digital governance.  

Africa's Changing Partnerships over the Next Decade

The Institute for Defense Analyses, National Intelligence University, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence hosted a conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on 7 June 2016 titled "The United States and Africa: Looking toward the Next Decade." I gave a presentation on "Africa's Changing Partnerships over the Next Decade." It focused on Africa's present and future trade, aid, investment, and security relationships with partner countries.

Africa and China's Maritime Silk Road

China's concept of the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is attracting increasing attention, some apprehension, and more than a little confusion, especially as it concerns Africa.  I ran across three recent analyses that shed useful light on the project.

The first is a working paper published by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore in October 2014 titled "New Maritime Silk Road: Converging Interests and Regional Responses" by Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, a research associate at ISAS.  The author concludes that the MSR is an effort in initiating a grand strategy with global implications.  While the MSR could be helpful in reinforcing cooperation and raising it to a new level of maritime partnership, China has yet to cultivate political and strategic trust.

Beijing Review published in February 2015 a series of views titled "Visions of the Maritime Silk Road" by Mohamed Noman Galal, former Egyptian ambassador to China, Srikanth Kondapalli, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and Zamroni Salim, Indonesian Institute of Sciences.  Galal welcomes the MSR.  Kondapalli suggests the MSR is a reaction to the effort by the United States to rebalance its relations in the region.  Salim wonders how the ASEAN countries will benefit from the MSR.   

The blog East by Southeast published in November 2014 a piece titled "China's Maritime Silk Road Is All  about Africa" by Brian Eyler, director of the IES Abroad Kunming Center at Yunnan University.  It points out that the goal of the MSR is to connect 12 Strategic Maritime Distribution Centers from China to South America.  Seven of the 12 proposed centers are in Africa.