The China in Africa Podcast

Chinese ambassadors in Africa rarely grant one-on-one interviews with international journalists. But that's starting to change now, particularly as a few Chinese envoys are making themselves more accessible to the press and on social media platforms like Twitter. Two ambassadors are especially noteworthy in this area: Lin Songtian in South Africa and Wu Peng in Kenya. Ambassador Wu recently sat down with BBC journalist Dickens Olewe for an interview at the embassy in Nairobi. During the interview, they discussed some of the most sensitive issues that confront the China-Kenya relationship today. Dickens joins Eric to provide a bit of background on how he was able to secure the interview and what he thought of Ambassador Wu's responses to questions about transparency, racism and whether China is engaging in predatory lending in Africa. SHOW NOTES: Listen to Dickens Olewe's full interview with China's ambassador to Kenya Wu Peng. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @dickensolewe SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get one month free with the promo code PODCAST: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's counterintuitive to a lot of people, but Chinese and African agriculture has a lot more in common with one another than many first expect. For the most part, both are dominated by small family farms that have to battle mightily with the twin effects of climate change and industrialization. On the climate change front, drought haunts many parts of both China and Africa as deserts expand and rainfall becomes increasingly intermittent in some areas. Similarly, both China and Africa do not produce enough food to feed themselves and therefore depend on imported food to survive, so the stakes for agriculture in both regions are extremely high. And, in terms of industrialization, in Africa, just as it is in China, the lure of jobs in the cities pulls more and more young people off the land in search of a better life. Given that China has gone through many of the same challenges that African farmers encounter today, there's a huge opportunity for the Chinese to leverage that experience in its aid and development programs. To get some perspective on Chinese agricultural engagement in Africa, Eric & Cobus are joined by Xingqing Lu, an Associate Program Manager from the independent non-profit organization Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @Xinqing_Lu SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get one month free with the promo code PODCAST: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

News coverage and social media commentary about the recent deal signed between the Ghanian government and the Chinese state-owned construction conglomerate Sinohydro is almost universally negative. According to deal, Ghana would exchange 5% of its bauxite reserves for $2 billion of infrastructure. But critics in Ghana and internationally contend the deal doesn't make sense and is just too risky both financially and environmentally. If bauxite prices fall then Accra would be on the hook to make up the difference, potentially costing the country millions of dollars. Equally concerning is the fact that the mines are located in the Atewa Forest Preserve, one of West Africa's most important ecological zones and also a critical source for an estimated 5 million people. The government, for its part, has struggled to challenge critics and present counter-arguments as to why this deal is in the best of the country and will not jeopardize fragile ecosystems. Ghana, they argue, has been responsibly mining bauxite for years so why all of a sudden is everyone so worried that this deal, in particular, is so risky? Henry Kyeremeh is the Head of the Bank Accounts, Reserves and Interventions Unit at the Treasury and Debt Management Division in the Ghanian Ministry of Finance. He's a strong advocate for this deal as he believes it's the most efficient way for the government to leverage natural resources to build badly-needed infrastructure without taking new loans. Henry joins Eric & Cobus to provide a different perspective on the Ghana-Sinohydrop deal than what has been portrayed in the news media and online. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: It's important to note that although Henry is a senior official in the finance ministry, in this interview he's not speaking in any official capacity on behalf of the Ghanian government and only sharing his personal views on this issue. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @pazeeboy SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get one month free with the promo code PODCAST: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chinese investors have been wary of the African market. For a long time, China's cash-rich venture capital, private equity, and corporate investors have preferred the stability in the U.S. or the cultural familiarity in Southeast Asia's markets. Africa, in their view, just didn't have the profile they were looking for as an investment destination. Many felt the risk was just too high in fragmented markets where consumers lacked sufficient wealth to generate the kind of returns their portfolios demand. Well, that's no longer the case. Now that Chinese money is increasingly viewed as "toxic" in the United States and Africa's consumer markets are beginning to mature, Chinese investors are increasingly getting over the fears they once had about engaging the African market. Chinese private sector investment in Africa surged this year with hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into a variety of sectors across the continent: Apparel: manufacturers are fleeing China's rising labor costs to set up new factories in places like Rwanda and Ethiopia. Electronics: little known Chinese OEMs are setting up small factories in places like Uganda to be able to cut shipping costs and take advantage of Africa's preferential trade agreements with EU and US markets. Mobile tech: Giants like Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings are rapidly expanding into new markets beyond hardware including music and fintech among others. Fintech: Without a doubt, the rush of Chinese investment into Africa's (largely in Nigeria) fast-growing mobile payments space is the story of the year. So far, they've committed around a quarter-billion dollars with more expected. The list goes on and on... from Huawei in the telecom sector to Beijing-based African pay-TV giant StarTimes that's now making sizable investments in original content production and programming. And these are just the big names who get most of the attention. There are countless other small-to-medium-sized Chinese businesses active in every country across the continent doing everything from running factories that serve local markets to resource extraction. But in order for Chinese investors, particularly those with large portfolios, to successfully to do deals in Africa, they need help, middlemen who can guide them through these very complex markets. So more banks in Africa are hiring people like Kai Zhu to be those guides. Kai is the China-Africa Corridor Deal Team Leader at Absa Group, the Johannesburg-based financial services company that is also Africa's third-largest bank. Kai joins Eric & Cobus to talk about what's behind China's increased investor interest in Africa and where he sees the trend going in 2020. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get one month free with the promo code PODCAST: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi kicked off his annual tour of Africa in Cairo this week where he met with senior Egyptian leaders to discuss the growing instability in North Africa, the Mideast, and the Persian Gulf. Wang also found a receptive audience in Egypt for China's controversial policies in its far western province of Xinjiang where hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of Chinese, are being "re-educated" (the Chinese version of events) or forcibly interned (the Western assessment). Beyond geopolitics, China also has a lot at stake economically in these regions as countries like Iraq and Saudi Arabia are among its largest suppliers of crude oil. Camille Lons follows these issues from Bahrain where she is a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She was also the Project Editor on the October 2019 paper "China's Great Game in the Middle East" that was published by the European Council on Foreign Relations. Camille joins Eric & Cobus this week to discuss whether China will among the key beneficiaries of the ongoing crisis between the United States and Iran. JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject Twitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @CamilleLons SUPPORT THIS PODCAST. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER TO THE CHINA AFRICA PROJECT. Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following: A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.com Subscribe today and get one month free with the promo code PODCAST: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.