Beijing, China | AFP | One of China’s largest state-owned automakers has said it will phase out sales of all petrol vehicles by 2025, as Beijing considers taking all fuel-burning cars off the country’s roads. Beijing Automotive Group Co (BAIC) chairman Xu Heyi said over the weekend the company will phase …
Read More »Museveni enters fight over $ 20bn oil deals
French domination sparks fight with Chinese Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | Oil companies—Total E&P, Tullow Oil and CNOOC—are locked in a bitter fight for control of Uganda’s oil sector. The coveted prizes are deals worth about $20 billion. The three entered a partnership in 2012 when Tullow Oil, which …
Read More »Chinese electric carmaker to open Morocco plant
Casablanca, Morocco | AFP | Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD on Saturday signed an agreement to open a factory near the Moroccan city of Tangiers to build battery-powered vehicles, officials said. BYD will become the third car manufacturer, after Renault and Peugeot of French, to construct cars in the North …
Read More »China seizes 12 tonnes of endangered pangolin scales
Beijing, China | AFP | Nearly 12 tonnes of smuggled pangolin scales have been confiscated by Chinese officials — the country’s largest-ever seizure of the endangered mammal’s prized parts as it seeks to curb illegal trafficking. The pangolin, whose brown scales have earned it the nickname “scaly anteater”, is the most …
Read More »China taps Africa at Morocco Silk Road investment forum
Marrakesh, Morocco | AFP | A two-day investment forum opened in Morocco’s Marrakesh on Monday as China seeks to revive ancient Silk Road trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa. “The question is how to accelerate cooperation in the field of investment,” said Wang Yong, vice president of the …
Read More »Blast rocks Chinese megaport city, two dead
Shanghai, China | AFP | A major explosion hit China’s major port city of Ningbo on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and wrecking buildings, state media and local authorities said. The Ningbo government said on a social media account that the blast occurred in a “vacant lot” …
Read More »From Myanmar to Zimbabwe, China’s global footprint grows
Beijing, China | AFP | China has traditionally rejected US-style interventionism, but its deepening economic involvement in volatile countries like Myanmar and Zimbabwe is thrusting Beijing towards a more assertive global role, analysts say. China’s foreign policy has been guided by its principle of “non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs”, …
Read More »Chinese firm probes if children work in African mines
Beijing, China | AFP | A Chinese metal trading firm said Thursday it is investigating whether children are toiling in Congolese mines that supply it with cobalt, a key resource for mobile phones and electric cars. Yantai Cash, a cobalt exporter based in eastern Shandong province, told AFP that it is …
Read More »Chinese oil giant and Chad deny Africa bribery scheme after US probe
Shanghai, China | AFP | Top Chinese oil company CEFC China Energy on Tuesday denied any involvement in an alleged multi-million dollar bribery scandal that US investigators say helped the giant win business advantages in Africa. US officials announced Monday that they had arrested Hong Kong’s former home affairs secretary and …
Read More »US arrests two Chinese oil company reps in Africa bribery scheme
Washington, United States | AFP | US authorities have arrested Hong Kong’s former home affairs secretary and the ex-foreign minister of Senegal for leading a multimillion dollar bribery scheme in Africa on behalf of a top Chinese energy company, with some deals arranged in the halls of the United Nations. …
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