Wang Zefei, commentator on International affairs
January 11, 2021
The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020 has severely affected economic and social development of countries around the world, and disrupted international cooperation as well. Looking at comments on China-Africa cooperation at the end of last year, we can find out that most were positive, but there were indeed negative tones about such cooperation. These comments fall into five categories, including the argument that China-Africa trade has gone through a free fall, the prediction that China’s investment and financing to African countries will continue declining and never rebound, the pessimism about the future of China-Africa cooperation, the exaggeration of the return of Chinese people back home, and the accusation of environmental pollution by Chinese projects in Africa. These arguments and reports seem to be convincing, but in fact are alarmist and lacking in evidence. So what is the truth?
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying s Regular Press Conference on December 11, 2020
2020/12/11
On December 12, President Xi Jinping will attend and address the Climate Ambition Summit 2020 at the invitation of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The Summit will be held via video link.
As agreed upon consultation, the 4th Meeting of the China-Belarus Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee will be co-hosted by Guo Shengkun, Co-Chair of the Chinese party of the China-Belarus Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat, and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee under the CPC Central Committee, and Nikolai Snopkov, Co-Chair of the Belarusian party of the China-Belarus Intergovernmental Cooper
EU-Maldives: real partners
We must avoid being introspective on the impact of COVID-19 and instead consider the plight of nations whose economies have been particularly impacted, such as the Maldives, writes Tomáš Zdechovský.
Adobe stock
11 Dec 2020
In the face of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it is natural that politicians pay greater attention to their constituencies and regions they live in. The pandemic has nevertheless struck all inhabited continents. In need of special attention are those countries whose economies have been particularly impacted, due to their reliance on tourism for their national income, remote geographical position and smaller size.
The Maldives falls into all these categories. The economic data of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are unambiguous; the atoll country is among the hardest hit in South Asia. Given the dependence of the Maldivian economy on tourism and fisheries, as well as the natural reliance on imports of commodities, t