[Civsoc-mw] {Disarmed} FW: The Week in China-Africa News

Fri Jul 26 12:28:54 CAT 2019

Fyi. A free subscription. d

From: The China Africa Project <eric at chinaafricaproject.com> 
Sent: 26 July 2019 11:06

Subject: The Week in China-Africa News

July 26, 2019

	 <https://mailchi.mp/chinaafricaproject/the-week-in-china-africa-news-55qd0n6k2g?e=3f784f5356> View Online 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=6d3c3c8f59&e=3f784f5356> 

Hello!

Greetings from Johannesburg, where  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=b9772bf661&e=3f784f5356> struggles between the previous and current presidents about corruption duel for attention with <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=18ad51c013&e=3f784f5356>  The Republic, a new TV series replaying that same conflict as an apocalyptic action drama.

The African TV sector is exploding and South Africa's satellite TV provider Multichoice is losing traction to StarTimes, a Chinese company whose rapid expansion is fuelled by a mix of canny business and Beijing-directed public diplomacy. Chinese companies were ahead of their Western competitors in recognising Africa's media demand. The upcoming IPO of Transsion, whose cheap mobile phones lead the African market, will show exactly how far ahead.

As South Africa is playing out its leadership anxieties on TV, neighbouring Zimbabwe is anxiously awaiting news of their vice president's health from China, and Mozambique is trying to entice Chinese investment. However, a new report raises doubts about whether Chinese investment is actually creating jobs on the continent.

Africa is hungry for jobs, training and investment. But a failed university expansion in Ghana and a controversial rail project in Kenya show meeting this demand is difficult for both Chinese and American players. And meanwhile our podcast conversation with the environmental activist Kofi Agbogah gives a stark warning about how the mismanagement of China's demand for Africa's fish is forcing Africans out of their local economies, and northward - to Europe. 

Enjoy your weekend! I'd suggest settling in with a scandalous African telenovela. 

Cobus 

Analysis 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=46085296ce&e=3f784f5356> How China Is Slowly Expanding Its Power in Africa, One TV Set at a Time

By Jenni Marsh, CNN Business

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=fe4f377434&e=3f784f5356> 

StarTimes is the only private Chinese company with authorization from the Ministry of Commerce to operate in foreign countries' radio and TV industries. Image via of CNN.

In 2015, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the 10,000 Villages Project, a lofty plan to take digital television to impoverished parts of Africa. Previously, television access in many parts of the continent was a privilege of the elite, and those who were connected relied on old-fashioned, snowy analog reception.

The project was more than just a philanthropic gesture.

It was a stroke of soft-power genius that would raise China's profile among Africans, while giving Beijing a tighter grip on the continent's communications infrastructure and control over how it is portrayed there in the media.

And it would boost the fortunes and power of one important Chinese company that otherwise keeps a low profile.

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=fe41d3d7cb&e=3f784f5356> Read More

The Top 5 Stories of the Week 

1 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=0e17d10142&e=3f784f5356> Zimbabwe Vice President in China for Treatment of Unknown Illness

[AFRICANEWS] Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has been flown to China for medical treatment, according to a presidential spokesman. No information about the health problems that have kept Chiwenga away from work for more than two months have been provided. Zimbabweans closely follow the health of Chiwenga because he is seen as the power behind President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the front-runner to succeed him. His absence from public duties has stoked speculation about the gravity of his illness, which the authorities are trying to play down.  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=13e1c0eabb&e=3f784f5356> (Read more)

2 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=5cb424ebdc&e=3f784f5356> Transsion, Africa’s Smartphone King, Joins IPO Rush on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-Style Stock Market

[SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST] Transsion Holdings, the Chinese budget smartphone maker, has received approval to go public on Shanghai’s new Nasdaq-style stock market. Its low-cost handsets entice millions of new consumers in the developing world, and lead sales in Africa. The Shenzhen-based company, which filed its initial public offering application in March, aims to raise up to $437 million on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, also known as the Star board, according to an announcement on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website. <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=af65bc3618&e=3f784f5356>   <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=8ecdc1bfb0&e=3f784f5356> (Read more)

3 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=8e5ed853ce&e=3f784f5356> China's Investments in Africa: What the Data Really Say, and the Implications for Europe

[FORBES] One important aspect of Chinese investments in Africa is its sectoral concentration. With the exception of a relatively small part of greenfield investment in manufacturing, the bulk of China’s investment or lending is directed towards its own strategic objectives, namely securing access to resources and redeploying China’s excess capacity in construction and transportation. On this basis, it is not surprising that that the job creation of Chinese FDI into Africa through greenfield investment is lower on average (only 1.78 people for every $1 million investment) than that of China’s greenfield investment into other regions of the world (2.24 people for every $1 million investment).  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=841f6878eb&e=3f784f5356> (Read more)

4 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=93f25f975c&e=3f784f5356> Mozambique Prepares a New Strategy to Attract Investment From China 

[MACAUHUB] Mozambique is finalizing a new strategy to attract investment from China, focused on agro-industry and light industry, at a time when the country is also being sought out by Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical equipment makers. Over the last decade, China has taken over from the more traditional investors in Mozambique, Portugal and South Africa, but the bulk of that investment has been directed mainly at non-productive sectors, including transport infrastructure and real estate.  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=cae64a960a&e=3f784f5356> (Read more)

5 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=9d2fbda257&e=3f784f5356> U.S. Investment in African University Fails as China Advances

[THE WALL STREET JOURNAL] When the U.S. government’s private-investment arm teamed with New York-based real-estate investor W.P. Carey Inc. to finance the expansion of a prestigious university in Ghana, it was meant to demonstrate a novel for-profit funding model for development projects in Africa. Instead, it left a wasteland of unfinished lecture halls, dormitories and a pile of litigation. And it marked a high-profile setback for U.S. government efforts to counter China’s growing investment influence on the continent.  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=c02e8d0597&e=3f784f5356> (Read more)

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=243ab4673e&e=3f784f5356> 

$37,000

Fine imposed on the Dalian Zhang Hai Distant Water Fishing Co., a member of China's vast distant fishing fleet that operates off the shores of West Africa and around the world. A court in southern China ruled the company had illegally under-reported its catch.

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=5ba5c29730&e=3f784f5356> READ MORE

The China in Africa Podcast 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=8964df4dc5&e=3f784f5356> China's Distant Fishing Fleet Is Decimating What's Left of Ghana's Fish Stocks

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=264046cb96&e=3f784f5356> 

In this episode of the China in Africa Podcast, Kofi Agbogah of the Ghanian coastal advocacy group Hen Mpoano join Eric & Cobus to discuss the unfolding crisis in the country's fish stocks due to illegal fishing by foreign trawlers, mostly from China.

Agbogah struggles to educate policymakers on the severity of the situation in the hope that it will prompt them to intervene,  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=106e948753&e=3f784f5356> as they did against illegal Chinese gold mines in 2013. But he admits it’s going to be a long, slow process and at the current rate of illegal “saiko” fishing, saving Ghana’s remaining fish stocks is a race against time.

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=7676bb760d&e=3f784f5356> 

	 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=1c73365fa0&e=3f784f5356> Click Here to Listen

Quote of the Week 

  <https://gallery.mailchimp.com/de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f/images/dbcea8a3-44e8-44f7-86e4-f9d4d2fc4772.jpg> 

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=f3fd7fe5db&e=3f784f5356> 

Story in Focus: "Kenya's Railway to Nowhere"

China's decision to not fund the third phase of the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya is prompting growing concern that this already massive multi-billion dollar investment will become a colossal 'white elephant.'  Meantime, the debate over the fate of the SGR in East Africa comes just as China has dramatically cut infrastructure lending abroad, possibly in response to U.S.-led charges that Beijing engages in so-called "debt-trap diplomacy." 

*	Bloomberg:  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=509a16835f&e=3f784f5356> China’s Built a Railroad to Nowhere in Kenya
*	South China Morning Post:  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=0419c43d1f&e=3f784f5356> Kenya’s Chinese-Built Railway Is a Hit With Travellers, but Is This Safari Line a Massive White Elephant?
*	Modern Ghana:  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=94987c9907&e=3f784f5356> Chinese Are Restricting Global Investment. What Does it Mean to Africa?

China-Africa Military Ties

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=87083080e2&e=3f784f5356> If Not China, Who? Competing in Africa Through Foreign Military Education

By Lieutenant Commander Matthew Quintero, United States Navy

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=8a66aa0bb7&e=3f784f5356> 

Image via the Center for International Maritime Security

“If not China, who?” was a question asked during a class on foreign investment in Africa. The speaker was an African naval officer. The class was equally composed of American and African military officers, and the place was the United States Naval War College.

The African officers all seemed to nod in agreement while the rest of the room shrugged. The author has heard this comment several times before by other exasperated African officers. They were tired of being reminded that China was only interested in the natural resources of their homelands, or that China was building ports, bases, and infrastructure on loans their nations could hardly repay.

They were also acutely aware that China’s “no strings attached” development targeted their weak governments and “big man” regimes. It was sometimes difficult for this particular officer to express himself, as English was his third language after Bantu and French. But on this day he made himself very clear, stating:

“All Africans want democracy. We all want to be like the United States. We need help with roads and infrastructure, but our governments cannot work with USAID and the World Bank. Who can the people get help from? If not China, who?”

 <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=cae010dfe6&e=3f784f5356> Read More

About the China Africa Project 

The China Africa Project was founded in 2010 by journalist Eric Olander and Asia/Africa scholar Dr. Cobus van Staden to serve as an independent, nonpartisan forum to explore every facet of China’s engagement in Africa. 

For more information about the CAP, its funding and editorial ethics policy, please visit:  <https://chinaafricaproject.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de6c715223b42ee6c619dbe2f&id=582e580e36&e=3f784f5356> www.chinaafricaproject.com/about 

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Join the Discussion: 

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Thank you for signing up for the weekly China-Africa email newsletter: a selection of thoughtfully curated stories from the editors at The China Africa Project. 

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