Outlet profile

China-Global South Project

U.S.-based independent, analysis-oriented; mildly left-of-center on U.S. issues, China-critical but non-adversarial

Owned byOperated by the China-Global South Project, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 2019. Co-founders Eric Olander (managing editor, based in Vietnam) and Cobus van Staden (based in South Africa) lead it. It has no corporate or government parent.

FundingFoundation grants plus individual and institutional subscriptions. Media Bias/Fact Check says the Ford Foundation and a European climate funder have given grants. The outlet says it takes no money from governments, corporations or government-affiliated groups that seek to promote an agenda.

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Olander and van Staden began the project in 2010 as a nights-and-weekends side project, originally under the name China Africa Project. They began working on it full-time in 2019 and incorporated it as a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit that year. It later broadened from Africa to the wider Global South and renamed itself the China-Global South Project. It publishes news, analysis, data and a long-running podcast, and it uses a mix of free and subscriber content. It calls itself independent and nonpartisan, which is a self-description. Media Bias/Fact Check rates it left-center with high factual reporting and says it often reports critically on China. It also says the outlet is very unfavorable toward the Trump administration when it covers U.S. politics. Its coverage under Trump's second term has focused on effects such as the cuts to U.S. foreign aid and the shifting competition between Washington and Beijing for influence in developing countries. It has not had major documented controversies.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-24; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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