China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, recently unveiled a raft of measures to boost economic growth. At the same time, China’s central bank, top securities regulators and financial regulator also announced a raft of monetary stimuli, property market supports and capital market strengthening measures to be implemented in the near future to boost the country’s high-quality economic development. These policy measures include a reserve requirement ratio reduction for banks and a mortgage rate reduction for existing…

China has taught the world that democracy is not one-dimensional and it can take various forms. Election is a common and important feature of the Western democracy, but it is characterised by weak governance due to short-term planning and lack of people-centred political stances. However, not all Western democracies have the same type of governance system: different countries adopt different models.  China’s Constitution states that all power of the state belongs to the people. The National People’s Congress (NPC) and…

Since its inception, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has committed itself to promoting global economic multipolarity and advancing the process of economic globalization. In an era marked by faltering global economic recovery, uneven development, and widening development gaps, BRICS has become an even more crucial platform for fostering cooperation and shared growth among the nations of the Global South. With its principles of openness, inclusivity, and win-win collaboration, the BRICS spirit has become a banner for South-South cooperation. The expansion of…

The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is to be held from 11 to 22 November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The main goal of the conference is for countries to agree on a new climate finance target through which wealthy countries will pay to help poorer and climate-vulnerable nations to cope with climate change. On this occasion, ChinAfrica talked to Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Alex-Ekwueme Federal University…

In 2024, Russia holds the BRICS Сhairmanship. The summit in Kazan was a key event. What would you note if you summarised its main results as well as the results of Russia’s Chairmanship as a whole?  The summit demonstrated the rapidly growing authority of BRICS and the desire of more countries to join its work.  A number of countries have officially requested to join as full members. Others have expressed interest in becoming partner countries. This is a new category that…

Given China’s massive importance in the contemporary world system, the governance of the country is of broad and universal interest. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has provided a fascinating collection of his spoken and written works, offering both domestic and international audiences the tool to navigate through the issues, thinking and practices that are central to the governance of modern China. The fourth volume of the work, following…

The South African branch of Bank of China, in partnership with the School of Economics and Finance of the University of the Witwatersrand, launched the Chinese Investors’ Confidence Index for South Africa in 2023. A first of its kind, the index reports on South Africa’s economic and investment environment based on the views and experiences of Chinese investors in South Africa. It is ambitious in that it analyses “changes in objective economic indicators” and tries to “uncover underlying causes and…

The recently held 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing under the theme Joining Hands to Advance Modernisation and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future unequivocally demonstrated that FOCAC remains the most important flagship collaborative platform between China and Africa and continues to deliver wide-ranging, tangible economic and social results.  The summit unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration on Jointly Building an All-Weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future for the New Era and…

The price of coal soared in 2023, reaching almost $300 a ton in parts of Europe. And it fell back just as fast to half that, and less in some regions. There’s always a spike in demand over the northern winter when homes and factories need heating, but last year was special. You see, Russia accounts for around 17% of the world’s coal, and sanctions panicked the market, until it became clear that Moscow is selling as much coal as…

It has been my privilege to witness a huge transformation and pivot as well as an enormous development of China from a close distance during my years living in China. I will say that if ever there was a time when African countries needed to be modernised, it is now.   Themed Joining Hands to Advance Modernisation and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future, the goal of the 2024 Summit on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing is…