The China-Global South Project
@ChinaGSProject
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Independent, non-partisan coverage of China in Africa & the Global South. FR: | @AfrikChine AR: | @SinSharqAwsat
Joined February 2009
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The number of leaders attending each of the past three Belt and Road Forums has fallen steadily since the first one in 2017.
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Biden did not meet with a single African leader last week when all were in the US for UNGA 76. Only DRC President Tshisekedi got a meeting with Sec State Blinken. Consider this the next time you hear someone from USG say how important Africa is to the US.
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It's remarkable how fast the China-Africa "donation diplomacy" narrative was replaced by this image of evicted Africans sleeping on the streets of Guangzhou. This is amplified by the fact that China's media apparatus is incapable of countering this narrative.
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It's absolutely fascinating to watch how the reaction to events in Guangzhou is now playing out in plain view on social media. To witness a Chinese ambassador getting a lecture like this has got to be a diplomatic first.
Mr Speaker reads the riot act to the Chinese ambassador: We will not tolerate maltreatment of Nigerians in China!!!
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If you want to understand why China is so eager to sway the narrative about COVID-19's origins away from its own responsibility in the early stages of the outbreak, this Tweet from a South African mining leader should give an idea of what's at stake.
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"Myanmar’s alienation from ASEAN coupled with what could be perceived as a subtle snub from long-standing friend China is a probable factor in pushing Min Aung Hlaing to launch his “charm offensive” towards Russia" -✍️ Saniya Kulkarni from
@lseideas
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Nigeria closed a $2.5 billion financing deal with China for the 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline. Now that they have the money secured, they're apparently not wasting any time in getting down to work. Construction could begin as soon as next month.
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The 7 African countries whose parliament buildings were built/paid for by China:
1) Congo
2) Zimbabwe
3) Malawi
4) Guinea Bissau
5) Lesotho
6) Gabon
7) Sierra Leonne
Also, let's not forget the AU & ECOWAS headquarters as well.
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Oh my. The same week that China will deliver 200,000 doses to Trinidad & Tobago, the U.S. announced that it will donate 80 vials. Yes, 80.
Just 80.
Not entirely sure if this is the kind of thing that a government should brag about on Twitter.
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A group of African ambassadors in Beijing is reportedly going to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi today to discuss the forced evictions of Africans in Guangdong. If the meeting goes ahead, this would mark a significant escalation of this issue.
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@SecBlinken
is the latest in a long string of US Secretaries of State to propagate the widely-held myth that China imports large amounts of workers to work on infrastructure projects in Africa -- something scholars have debunked numerous times. 1/7
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The crackdown on African migrants in Guangzhou is rapidly escalating into a full-blown PR disaster for China as videos ricochet across social media. So much of the positive sentiment generated from CN's "donation diplomacy" in Africa is now being undone.
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A number of Chinese factories have closed their Ethiopian operations due to what they describe as poor business conditions due to government mismanagement, according to a report by Geng Fenni published in the popular WeChat channel Africa Research Group.
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In the space of a week, we went from headlines celebrating China's donations of masks and other materials to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya to this.
It's safe to say that China's "donation diplomacy" message is now entirely lost amid all that's going on in Guangzhou.
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It took 14 years of negotiations but Namibia finally succeeded to become the first African country to sell beef to China. The first shipment arrived in Hebei province, sparking optimism that this will become an important new market for Namibian ranchers.
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Just look at the size of this new 50mw solar power plant that the Chinese designed and built in Kenya. We all know the CN presence in Africa can be very controversial but building sustainable energy in a part of the world that is desperate for reliable power is just a good thing.
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One of the first classes of Nigerian railway engineers graduated this weekend from China's Central South University (中南大学）in Hunan and will soon return to help manage the new Chinese-built railways back home.
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Food and flowers delivered to African migrants in Guangzhou as a gentle way to say sorry... with a camera crew in tow.
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China is going to its old playbook to respond to the eviction crisis in Guangzhou:
1) Describe the situation as "rumors"
2) Blame US/EU media
3) Reaffirm that discrimination is not tolerated.
All three are presented neatly in this
@globatimesnews
report.
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This video highlights the difficulty the Chinese gov't is going to face with its current line of blaming western media and saying that anti-African discrimination is just "rumors" or "alleged." There's just too much video evidence now on social media that clearly shows otherwise.
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China's ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Accra to explain evictions and the poor treatment of Ghanaians and other Africans in Guangzhou.
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Ghana's Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is among the first high-ranking African officials to specifically call out China by name for debt relief. The pressure on Beijing to do something is going up.
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The Chinese, Russians, Americans, Indians and Japanese all have a plan for Africa. The problem is, writes researcher Kasera Nick Oyoo, Africa does not seem to have a plan for itself.
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China called on Israel to halt "illegal settlement activities in the occupied [Palestinian] territories. Beijing's demand comes just two days after Israel signed the Canadian-led joint statement submitted to the UNHRC about human rights in Xinjiang.
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"Huawei has built about 70 percent of the continent’s 4G networks" and did so affordably and quickly. So, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that African nations are largely disregarding the U.S. appeal to stop using equipment made by the telecom giant.
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The Chinese financed and built Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway in Nigeria conducted its first test run today and sparked a whole lot of excitement.
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The Chinese diplomatic accounts in South Africa are turning to promotional giveaways to attract new followers to their Facebook and Twitter pages. I have to say this is the first time I've seen a government-run social media account use this kind of online marketing tactic.
Hello everyone! Follow our Facebook page and Twitter for a chance to win lovely prizes. The winners would be announced on the first Tuesday of every month. Good luck to all of u 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
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With China not buying, Nigeria can't find any buyers for its April crude output & only half of Angola's has been sold. Given that oil accounts for the majority of these two countries' forex earnings, the consequences of this downturn are potentially dire.
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame tutors H.R. McMaster on the complexities of China's engagement in Africa, refuting many of the widely-held U.S. assumptions about Chinese lending on the continent and the role of African agency.
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How Taiwan weaponized a loan contract against Grenada while it was reeling from its worst economic crisis by
@rasheedguo
.
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Senegal will move all government data and digital platforms from foreign servers to a new national data center that will be built by Huawei with a Chinese loan.
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It's important to be cautious of this kind of narrative framing that COVAX is somehow a Western alternative to China given that a) China is actually a member of COVAX and b) COVAX is not a US/European initiative but a global endeavor led by GAVI and WHO.
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Botswana's health minister said the government was paying the equivalent of $15 a dose for the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine and almost $29 a dose for U.S. company Moderna's shot.
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China is backing away from providing loans to build Nigeria's railways & now it looks like the same thing is happening in the energy sector too. It appears NG will now have to find alternative sources of capital to fund its largest infrastructure projects.
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It's been a dramatic past several days in China-Africa relations. Here's a summary of the key events that led up to this unprecedented crisis and reactions from both African and Chinese stakeholders.
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If you're curious to see what an actual Chinese loan contract with an African government looks like, you can view the full unredacted version of the $200 million loan deal for the Entebbe Airport between Uganda and the China Exim Bank: via
@AidData
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China owns less than 4% of Nigeria's external debt whereas Eurobond holders (hedge funds, pension funds, etc...) hold around 40%. That private creditor money is also vastly more expensive than the concessionary loans from China.
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It's so interesting to see EU/US coverage of the SGR debt issue in Kenya when their state-run media companies constantly point out this new rail line is unprofitable. Consider that in 2018 Germany spent $13.3 billion to subsidize its rail operations.
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A small Chinese electronics maker, ENGO, has invested $15.5m in Uganda to manufacture mobile phones. ENGO says it'll bring in trained Ethiopians to work until local employees are fully up to speed. Initial output expected to be around 100k per month.
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International media coverage of Senegal's new $1.3 billion French-built railway was noticeably different than similar railway construction projects done by Chinese firms: not a single mention of debt sustainability.
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Soft power gold.
A plane bound for Africa carrying 5.4 million face masks, over a million testing kits and thousands of protective suits sponsored by China's Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation has taken off.
The cargo will be distributed to all 54 African countries.
#COVID19
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Rwanda is now clear to export dried chili peppers to China and farmers are optimistic they sell up to half a billion dollars in peppers over the next five years -- far more than what they earn from coffee and tea exports to China.
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China canceled $6 million of Rwanda's debt on Friday and provided an additional $60 million of financial aid in the form of an interest-free grant. Loans from China account for less than 5% of RW's debt stock.
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I've been covering China-Africa issues for 12 years now and this is the first time that I have ever seen anything like this.
Moreover, the related companies will be punished and sanctioned by Chinese government. The related authorities of Fujian and other provinces are conducting investigations & will take measures. We'll never allow Chinese companies in
#Africa
to violate local laws and regulations.
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When we talk about the Chinese loan crisis in Africa, it's really important to note that a relatively small number of states account for the bulk of the debt. This really isn't an "African problem" but rather one that mostly impacts around 10-12 countries:
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China's trade with Sub-Saharan Africa, including a map showing countries most reliant on exports to China, according to data published in November by French financial firm, Coface:
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Chinese-owned African pay TV service StarTimes is working with movie distributors in China to export Nollywood content to the Chinese market.
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If you had any doubt as to how U.S. government-run media feels about the Chinese in Africa take a look at this headline and the accompanying picture of a giant flaming wreck. The photo, incidentally, has nothing to do with the story itself: via
@VOANews
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Construction of the $140 million Chinese-financed Parliament building in Zimbabwe is done. The building was almost entirely paid for by the Chinese government and provided as a "gift" to Zimbabwe.
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Chinese diplomats are really stepping up their efforts to try and persuade everyone that COVID-19 did not originate in China. Last week Ambassador Wu Peng in Kenya used this line and now Lin Songtian in South Africa appears to be doing the same.
Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone "made in China".
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Meet Gilbert Murenzi Katabarwa, a recent Rwandan graduate of Tongji University in Shanghai who invented a new detection avoidance technology that's now deployed on the Chinese rail network.
#PrettyCool
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Chinese social entrepreneur Huang Hongxiang dives right into the controversy over race & what happened in GZ. While he doesn't shy away from the issue of Chinese racism he also says it's equally wrong to generalize that ALL Chinese people are the same.
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This is how Western journalists subtly, maybe even unintentionally, so often strip Africans of agency. The proposed dam in Guinea is not a Chinese project but a Guinean one. So, by placing the onus on the Chinese, it removes Guinea as an empowered actor.
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Guangzhou is home to the largest African community in Asia despite the fact that it's become much smaller in recent years due to visa crackdowns and the high cost of living.
@DerSPIEGEL
recently went there and produced a compelling photo gallery.
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It's quite remarkable to see just how many African countries have U.S. and/or French troops as advisors or engaged in active operations (much of it likely focused on combatting terrorism).
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Fascinating insights from
@DavidNdii
:
1) Global finance is the new extractive industry in Africa that's no longer interested in minerals but instead hunts for high-yields.
2) "Coronavirus will be the final nail in the coffin of infrastructure-led growth”
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Regarding why the so many Islamic/African states are supporting China's position on the Uighurs in Xinjiang, the US media meme is that it's only about money. That somehow feels insufficient. I think there's more going on here, I just don't know what it is.
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China owns 28% of Zambia's debt, that means 72% of the rest is owned by Europeans, int'l NGOs and others, so how is it that a country's sovereignty can be so threatened by a country that controls just a minority share of the debt? I am genuinely curious:
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Chinese policymakers and media appear completely paralyzed by the events that have unfolded and just don't have a compelling response. It's also likely they may not appreciate the gravity of the situation since news about what's going on is not reported domestically.
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Kenya's donkey population has plunged by 50% over the past decade to just 900,000, according to new estimates, due to surging Chinese demand for hides & meat. This is a crisis of enormous proportions given the importance of donkeys to subsistence farmers.
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"Western portrayal of China-Africa relations is built upon misleading discourses which assume that the West has a "guardian" role towards the continent and only they act in its best interests, and Beijing does not." -
@Tom_Fowdy
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If I was a soybean farmer in the US Midwest, I would be very nervous about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's recent visit to Brazil. Let's be clear here, ten years from now there's very little chance the Chinese will still be buying US soybeans.
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Everyone who was worried about the Chinese lending too much money to over-extended African governments should take comfort in the fact that Beijing doesn't really seem to be in the mood anymore to be the developing world's creditor.
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The key question for both Niger and China amid the uncertainty brought about by the coup in the West African country is what happens to the Niger-Benin oil pipeline that CPNC was scheduled to complete this year?
China, Niger and Benin all have a lot at stake with the nearly
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#China
is building the largest SEZ in MENA in
#Oman
in what many analysts believe is an effort to bypass the volatile Straits of Hormuz for oil shipments. Oman, like
#Djibouti
, is strategically well-placed on
#Beijing
's
#BeltandRoad
trade route.
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Jack Ma is probably one of the few people in the world who thinks that
#Africa
's lack of infrastructure "is an asset." He contends that it'll generate more entrepreneurial creativity and innovation. It's a very Malcolm Gladwell way of thinking.
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I'm not sure if referring to what's happening in Guangzhou as "alleged discrimination" is the right way to go when there are countless accounts, videos, and images that seem to clearly prove there's a much more serious problem.
On April 9, when asked about the alleged discrimination against Africans in Guangdong, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian reiterated China position against any form of discrimination.
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Improved protection of elephants in Africa combined with China's ivory ban along with heightened Chinese consumer awareness over the effects of ivory consumption have all led to a dramatic decline in elephant poaching.
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The evidence just isn't there to support this assertion. Instead, data from scholars like
@estariade
&
@WeiweiChen16
show that local employment rates on Chinese construction projects are often as high as 90% in places like Ethiopia and 74% in Angola. 3/7
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The longheld dream of transporting goods by rail between Uganda and the Port of Mombasa in Kenya became a reality on Monday with the maiden voyage of a new line that connects 🇰🇪's SGR to a refurbished meter gauge line that goes to Malaba in 🇺🇬:
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All adults in Serrana, a town of 45,000 people in southeastern Brazil, were offered the Chinese-made CoronaVac COVID vaccine between February and April. Deaths fell 95%, the number of symptomatic cases fell 80% & hospitalizations dropped 86%.
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African news sites are starting to cover the horrifically racist online reaction in China to the proposed new draft law for Chinese permanent residency which included thousands of anti-black/African comments.
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China has built or renovated 186 government buildings in Africa which, according to
@JMeservey
, means that "Beijing may have better surveillance access to Africa than anywhere else in the world." Read his new report here:
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FUN FACT: The city of Chongqing alone has a GDP of $387 billion, larger than that of both South Africa ($302 billion) and Egypt ($363 billion):
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This is something you don't see every day -- aid money going from an African country to China.
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Fascinating to see how the Saudi Arabian government is leaking information about the Royal Air Force's apparent interest in acquiring Chinese FC-31 stealth fighter jets just weeks before US President Joe Biden's visits the Kingdom:
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What's concerning here is that if the Secretary is clearly ill-informed on an issue as basic as this one, it's quite likely then that he doesn't have a grasp on the many other more complex aspects of Chinese engagement in Africa and the Global South. 6/7
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Some fascinating new research from
@DevReimagined
highlights how AFRICA as a whole doesn't have a debt problem but 16 African countries do. In fact, African debt levels today in relation to size of their economies are actually lower than in the 80s & 90s:
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Equally worrisome is that the State Department does not appear to be evolving its understanding of the Chinese presence in Africa. When four consecutive Secretaries of State over the course of a decade+ propagate the same misinformation, well, that's a problem. 7/7
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A new study refutes the stereotype that Chinese companies in
#Africa
do not hire local workers and finds that negative stories about Chinese companies are mostly untrue.
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There does appear to be new momentum in China opening its market to African agricultural imports. Beginning in October, Botswana beef will begin to appear on store shelves. Earlier this year Namibia became the first African country to export beef to China.
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The man who invented the now widely debunked Chinese debt trap theory is trying to persuade official Washington that it's still a thing.
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Here's a useful graphic to have handy the next time you hear an official from the United States, Europe or Asia lecture someone from Africa and the Middle East on how they should curtail emissions that cause climate change: via
@CFR_org
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This
@CNN
column highlights so much of what's wrong with current American thinking about China, Africa and the world at large: 1) Africa is not a prize to be "taken" 2) China is not actually taking Africa and 3) this sentiment reeks of outdated paternalism:
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Guangzhou native Huang Shenghao (黄晟豪) is China's first-ever biracial player to win a spot on a national football squad. The son of a Chinese mother and Nigerian father, the 14-year old midfielder will play on the U17 national team: (in Chinese)
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Silicon Valley VC firms had better get off their butts if they want to compete with the Chinese in Africa who are dropping some serious cash into the fintech start-up space. One week after PayPalm raised $40m, rival OPay nets $120m in a Series B round.
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