First Independent Mena Newspaper
China’s exports to Africa have soared by 25% in the first eight months of 2025, reaching US$140.8 billion, as Beijing redirects trade flows amid escalating U.S. tariffs under President Trump’s renewed trade war. Faced with U.S. import duties as high as 100% on electric vehicles and 50% on solar products, Chinese firms are finding fertile […]
Africa is rapidly emerging as China’s most dynamic export market, fueled by a combination of shifting global trade dynamics, aggressive Chinese investment, and growing demand for infrastructure. As Bloomberg calculations based on China Customs data have revealed, in the first seven months of 2025 alone, Chinese exports to Africa soared 25% year-on-year to $122 billion […]
The United States has launched a sweeping reassessment of Kenya’s Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status, raising alarm over President William Ruto’s growing ties with China, Russia, Iran, and links to extremist groups. Granted in June 2024, Kenya’s MNNA designation made it the first sub-Saharan African country to join an exclusive list of U.S. defense partners. […]
Chinese state-owned firms are playing a dominant role in port development across Africa, with a presence in 78 ports across 32 countries as builders, financiers, or operators, sparking concerns about China’s long-term geo-strategic aims. According to a new report by the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, these Chinese firms are not only builders and […]
The number of Chinese workers across Africa has plummeted to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, with experts saying the continent is unlikely to see the high numbers of the past even though postponed China-run projects are now being restarted. After decades when Africa […]
To offer developing countries an “alternative” to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the EU launched, in 2021, its €300 billion Global Gateway scheme but as Kenya’s case shows, the EU’s initiative struggles to challenge its Chinese rival. For the European Union, investing in trade routes is about economic development and a way to push […]
China has added three new areas for investment to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) focusing on the African continent where it has spent billions of dollars in infrastructure. The new areas are namely industrialization, increase in agriculture investment and talent development. President Xi Jinping launched the three-pronged plan during a China-Africa leaders’ roundtable meeting […]
The European Union has launched an initial mobilization of €50m in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) critical minerals sector and infrastructure projects on the sidelines of the first-ever Kinshasa Economic Forum. The funding was announced at the inaugural Kinshasa Economic Forum, which brought together representatives from the EU, the DRC and France French President Emmanuel […]
China is still seen favorably by many in Africa, where it is vying for influence with Washington, though, worldwide, support for Beijing has undergone a sharp decline, a new global public opinion survey of people in 25 countries has revealed. The survey by the Britain-based YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project that asked people about their opinions on […]
The 2022 Session of the EU-Namibia Political Dialogue took place in Windhoek earlier this week (28 September), during which the two parties engaged in an in-depth discussion on several topics of shared and common interest, ranging from peace and security, climate change to trade and economic cooperation. Co-chaired by Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Deputy Prime Minister and […]