China’s presence in Africa is often debated through different lenses. Two prominent angles to examine this relationship are through finance and security. Under finance, Beijing has become the continent’s biggest lender, funding roads, ports, and railways.

In security discussions, China’s engagement with Africa is increasing in trade and training.

China is advancing the Global Security Initiative (GSI), a framework that emphasizes sovereignty, non-interference, and development as the foundation for peace, a sharp contrast to Western, military-led approaches. But how is this vision received in Africa, and what does it mean for the continent’s security future?

In this episode, Geraud is joined by Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Strategic Studies Center in Washington, D.C, to explore these questions with a focus on African agency: how leaders negotiate loans, manage partnerships, and interpret China’s security proposals.

The answers, as Paul explains, reveal a more complex picture than dependency or partnership alone.

SHOW NOTES:

• Africa Center for Strategic Studies: Africa as a Testing Ground for China’s Global Security Initiative by Paul Nantulya 

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Who shapes Africa’s story? Zambia’s media offers a rare window into how local voices frame global powers like China, the U.S., Japan, and South Africa.

From debates on debt and development to questions of governance and influence, the coverage reveals both common threads and striking differences with other regions.

Natsuko Imai Kanayama, a researcher at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development in Tokyo joins Eric & Géraud to share insights from her comparative study, highlighting how Zambian media narratives can challenge global assumptions about power, partnerships, and agency.

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There's a Chinese proverb that says, “If you want to get rich, build a road first.” That philosophy has guided China's development strategy in Africa for much of the past 25 years, that's led to the construction of more than 100,000km of new roads across the continent.

We wanted to find out, though, if it's true: does a new road actually pave the way for prosperity, as they say it does? So, we asked Malawi-based journalist Raphael Mweninguwe to visit two highways, the M1 and M26, to speak with local residents and shopkeepers about whether their lives have improved since the Chinese built these highways.

Raphael joins Eric from the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, to discuss his report that was published on CGSP this week and explain why the question about whether the road helped improve their lives doesn't have a simple answer.

SHOW NOTES:

• The China-Global South Project: Chinese-Built Roads in Malawi Bring Hope but Not the Riches Many Expected by Raphael Mweninguwe

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander 

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Over the past week, sharply contrasting images of Chinese engagement in Africa surfaced online. Anger erupted on social media over the release of yet another violent video that shows Congolese soldiers brutally beating local miners purportedly at the behest of Chinese nationals watching in the background.

A controversial hour-long documentary by one of Zambia's leading newspapers also sparked a lot of discussion over the labor and environmental records of Chinese mining companies in the country. The Chinese embassy in Lusaka denounced the program as "biased" and containing "hidden motives."

Meanwhile, in China, a 15-second teaser of a new blockbuster movie also dropped this week that looks like it's set in a fictitious North African country, while popular Chinese travel vlogger Zhang Jun released a visually stunning 2.5-hour-long documentary on the Congolese fashion scene known as "La Sape."

Eric, Géraud & Cobus discuss these various clips and shows that emerged this week and what they reveal about the evolution of China-Africa media narratives.

SHOW NOTES:

• Justicia ABSL: Violent beating of Congolese miners by FARDC soldiers
• News Diggers: China: The Good, the Bad and the Dangerous
• Movie Trailer: 用武之地/The Point of No Return
• The Fashion Bible: Congo’s “La Sape” Fashion Culture Through the Unlikely Lens of a Chinese Vlogger

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @stadenesque | @christiangeraud

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Chinese construction giant Sinohydro signed a $100 million deal with Angola to build out the country's agricultural infrastructure in a bid to boost grain production. While 60% of the output from this venture will be shipped to China, the rest will be sold domestically in a move aimed at reducing the West African country's food import bill.

The Sinohydro news followed an even larger agriculture announcement between the two countries when Chinese conglomerate Citic signed a $250 million contract to develop large-scale soybean and corn farms in Angola.

Géraud and Cobus discuss why the timing of these deals is so interesting as China moves quickly to reduce its reliance on wheat, soy, and corn imports from the U.S.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @christiangeraud

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After a two-to-three-year hiatus following the pandemic, Chinese money is once again flowing into the African energy sector. Billions of dollars in new investment and construction contracts for power facilities were registered in the first half of the year, particularly in Nigeria, according to new data published by Griffiths University in Australia and the Green Finance and Development Center in Beijing.

These new contracts and investments will bolster China's already formidable presence in the continent's energy market, where Chinese-backed projects account for approximately 23 GW of installed generation capacity across at least 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – nearly 20 percent of the region’s total.

Naa Adjekai Adjei, CGSP's non-resident fellow for Africa, is examining the operational aspects of Chinese-backed power projects in Africa for a new bi-weekly series that encompasses everything from project pitching to financing and construction. Adjekai joins Eric & Cobus to explain why China's role in African energy development remains poorly understood despite its sizable presence.

SHOW NOTES:

• The China-Global South Project: Motives That Matter: The Economic and Strategic Logic Behind China’s Power Sector Engagement in Africa by Naa Adjekai Adjei
• The China-Global South Project: Inside China’s Power Play: Understanding the Institutions Behind Africa’s Energy Projects by Naa Adjekai Adjei
• The Conversation: How to negotiate infrastructure deals with China: four things African governments need to get right by Folashadé Soulé

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The "debt trap" meme claims that China is intentionally lending vast sums of money to poor developing countries in Africa, and elsewhere, with the express intent to seize physical assets in those countries when they inevitably can't repay their debts.

This fanciful narrative sounds compelling, but the problem is that there's literally no evidence from the past twenty years since China became the world's largest bilateral creditor to support the claim. It just isn't true.

The reality of how China actually secures its loans to these countries is far more complicated.

Anna Gelpern, a law professor at Georgetown University, and Brad Parks, executive director of AidData, a development finance research institute at the College of William & Mary, were part of a team of experts that did an extensive forensic analysis of 620 Chinese loans spanning more than 20 years that revealed the financial methods Beijing employs to guarantee these debts.

Anna and Brad join Eric to discuss the findings from their new report, "How China Collateralizes."

SHOW NOTES:

• AidData: How China Collateralizes by Anna Gelpern, Omar Haddad, Sebastian Horn, Paulina Kintzinger, Bradley C. Parks, Christoph Trebesch
• AidData: How China Lends: A Rare Look into 100 Debt Contracts with Foreign Governments by Anna Gelpern, Sebastian Horn, Scott Morris, Brad Parks, Christoph Trebesch

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander 

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A new generation of scholars is reshaping China-Africa research. More geographically diverse and digitally fluent than the field’s early pioneers of the 2000s, this cohort brings fresh perspectives and tools to the study of China’s engagement on the continent.

Yet deep structural barriers persist. African and Chinese researchers still face sizable obstacles in shaping research agendas, as U.S. and European institutions continue to dominate decisions about what gets studied, who receives funding, and which voices are amplified.

Solange Guo Chatelard, a research associate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the new executive director of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China research network, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the current state of China-Africa scholarship and where it's going.

SHOW NOTES:

• The China-Global South Project: A Display of Power, Not Partnership, in Washington by C. Géraud Neema
• The Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network: https://ca-ac.org/

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @stadenesque

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While the U.S., India, and countries in the Persian Gulf are all moving quickly to establish new critical mineral supply chains, the European Union is struggling to follow suit, particularly in Africa. The EU currently lacks a cohesive policy framework that would bolster mining companies, support partner countries, and encourage the development of a mineral processing sector that can lessen Europe's current dependence on China.

To do this, the EU should follow China's model in Africa, where it paired extraction with the development of vital infrastructure, according to a new commentary from the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).

The authors, Poorva Karkare and Karim Karaki, join Eric & Géraud from Brussels to explain why the EU should strive for strategic complementarity rather than competition with China in Africa.

SHOW NOTES:

• ECDPM: The EU’s playbook for African minerals amid China’s dominance by Poorva Karkare and Karim Karaki
• AFRICA POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: The tumultuous path toward EU-China-Africa trilateral cooperation on Critical Raw Materials in Africa by C. Géraud Neema

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @christiangeraud

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Borrowers in Africa and other developing regions are expected to repay $35 billion of Chinese loans this year, with two-thirds of the amount coming from the world's poorest countries. Many of these debts were taken out in the mid-2010s and are now exiting their grace periods, putting enormous pressure on government budgets that were already under strain.

But this isn't a problem just for borrowing countries; Chinese creditors are also finding themselves in a difficult bind. If they push too hard to collect on these debts, it could force the most vulnerable countries into default. At the same time, though, they have an obligation to their stakeholders, including Chinese taxpayers, to ensure these obligations are fulfilled.

Riley Duke, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, highlighted the difficult dilemma for both creditor and borrower in a new report on Chinese debt collection. Riley joins Eric & Cobus from Sydney to discuss how both sides of the transaction are responding to this growing challenge.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @stadenesque

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JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CGSP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CGSP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth