The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee held a hearing yesterday on "Combatting the Economic Threat from China." Issues that were discussed at the hearing included: bilateral trade, outbound and inbound investment related to China, Chinese lending, TikTok, and China's presence in Latin American

Earlier this month, China's customs agency announced that it started allowing seafood from the Union of Comoros (a small country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa). The move is unlikely to change the bilateral trade patterns in the short term, and may be more important as

U.S. Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen's recent statements on China being a "barrier" to resolving the debt issues in Zambia provoked a harsh response from the Chinese government.

This week, China's new Foreign Minister Qin Gang is visiting Africa to "deepen the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and boost friendly cooperation between China and Africa."

In late December, the Zimbabwe government adopted measures to encourage Chinese lithium mining companies to do more processing in Zimbabwe, rather than simply export raw lithium for processing elsewhere.

As a follow-up to the bilateral meeting between China and Tanzania and agreements to "expand the trade volume", China's Customs agency released the regulatory requirements for wild aquatic products from Tanzania, potentially opening the Chinese market to more seafood from the nation.