China Rallies Friends, Stifles Human Rights Criticism at U.N. Universal Periodic Review
This week, China underwent its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the U.N. This ritual is a...
Jan 26, 2024
This week, China underwent its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the U.N. This ritual is a...
Dec 22, 2023
Javier Milei was never Beijing’s preferred candidate to win Argentina’s presidential elections. The radical libertarian and self-described anarcho-capitalist campaigned on severing ties with “communist” China, referred to its...
Oct 26, 2023
Correction: This article has been expanded to include several paragraphs that were inadvertently left out in the initial editing process. Amid this month’s Belt and Road Forum, Chinese state actors trumpeted a series of new...
Oct 19, 2023
While Western leaders rushed to Israel as a bloody war between Israel and Hamas threatens to spiral out of control, guests at the 2023 Belt and Road Forum in Beijing were treated to a sumptuous 12-course meal and an opera...
Oct 16, 2023
This week, China hosts its third Belt and Road Summit to mark ten years since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Representatives from over 140 countries are expected to meet in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday, in...
Mar 21, 2023
Recent reports from several think tanks detailed the important role of the media in framing—and at times, facilitating or limiting—Chinese influence across Africa. These reports highlight the CCP’s growing efforts at...
Jan 23, 2023
In 2013, Xi Jinping introduced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and called on state media to “tell China’s story well.” Almost ten years later, the CCP’s external propaganda apparatus is struggling to present a positive image...
Aug 12, 2022
Votes are currently being tallied for Tuesday’s presidential election in Kenya, in which relations with China comprised a major campaign theme. The two main candidates, former deputy president William Ruto and former prime...
Aug 5, 2022
Last week, the Zambian government announced that its creditors—a coalition of French and Chinese lenders that includes China Exim Bank—would cancel $2 billion of the country’s $17 billion external debt. The landmark debt...
Jun 28, 2022
The Chinese government has been courting the Global South to advance its image as a responsible guarantor of international security and development. Last week, China took the initiative by hosting the first China-Horn of Africa...
Mar 30, 2022
Over the past two weeks, China has increased its engagement with countries in the Global South, partially in response to the war in Ukraine. China’s position on the war has been one of feigned neutrality in the form of “rock...
Nov 23, 2021
Xi Jinping’s call in 2013 to “tell China’s story well” accelerated an existing trend of Chinese media fanning out across the globe to strengthen the country’s external propaganda and international discourse power. Media outlets...
Nov 1, 2021
China is growing its security presence in Central Asia through strategic military bases located in Tajikistan, a central Asian republic bordered on the south by Afghanistan, and on the east by China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous...
Jun 21, 2021
A 10,000 person protest in Budapest may have derailed a landmark Belt and Road Initiative project in the Hungarian capital: a satellite campus of China’s prestigious Fudan University. At Reuters, Anita Komuves covered the...
Apr 22, 2021
The Australian federal government has used its expanded powers to terminate a Belt and Road infrastructure agreement between China and the state of Victoria. The move, announced on Wednesday, came amid the latest war of words...
Feb 18, 2021
Disinformation linking Myanmar’s recent coup d’état to Chinese influence has inspired anti-China protests in the capital, Yangon. Protesters’ suspicions were inflamed by a meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and...
Feb 18, 2021
As Chinese citizens stayed home over this Lunar New Year holiday amid concerns about the coronavirus, several major cities were busy doling out fresh handouts of China’s rapidly developing central bank digital currency. At...
Dec 16, 2020
New reports suggest that China has dramatically curtailed lending towards the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi Jinping’s flagship global infrastructure and trade program. First proposed in 2013, the BRI is a trillion-dollar...