Another coup in Africa

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Another coup in Africa’

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Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, August 31st. This is your FT News Briefing.

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The US commerce secretary says she has a new way to resolve business problems with China. And there was another coup in Africa.

Aanu Adeoye
Military leaders in Africa are becoming emboldened. And this is because coups are contagious.

Marc Filippino
Plus, the founder of China’s largest private sector employer is running for president in Taiwan. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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US regulators are worried about Goldman Sachs and its relationship with financial technology companies. Goldman teams stopped signing on risky fintech clients after a warning from the Federal Reserve. That’s according to sources who spoke to the FT. The central bank had apparently raised concerns over Goldman’s insufficient due diligence when accepting these clients. The team that got the warning has clients like the payments start-ups Stripe and Wise. Sources said the Fed wasn’t alone in having issues with Goldman’s risky fintech clients. There were internal complaints, too.

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There was a coup yesterday in the central African nation of Gabon. President Ali Bongo had just been declared the winner of Saturday’s election, but the military questioned the results and on Wednesday they put Bongo under house arrest and appointed a new transitional president. The FT’s Aanu Adeoye joins me now to discuss. Hi, Aanu. 

Aanu Adeoye
Hi, Marc.

Marc Filippino
Aanu, you posted on social media that you’re essentially a coup correspondent now. What did you mean by that?

Aanu Adeoye
You know, over the past few years, especially in west and central Africa, there’s been this run of coups in about seven or eight countries. And all of these coups have been successful. So we’ve had coups in Guinea, twice in Mali, twice in Burkina Faso, once in Chad, once in Niger last month, and now in Gabon. So you know, there’s been this run of coups in this region that I cover.

Marc Filippino
Yeah, that’s a lot. So how does this coup differentiate from the others that you’ve covered recently?

Aanu Adeoye
So, you know, this coup in Gabon was against the president, Ali Bongo, who has been in power since 2009. His family’s rule over Gabon stretches back to 1967. And Gabon is a peaceful country. It’s an oil-rich country. But unfortunately, the wealth has not spread around. If you look at other countries like Niger or Mali or Burkina Faso, these are countries that have been facing the threat of jihadist violence for almost a decade now. In this case, in Gabon, it looks like after another election that looks dubious, the army stepped in just a few minutes after the results were announced. 

Marc Filippino
Aanu, what’s your takeaway from this coup in Gabon?

Aanu Adeoye
So I think what this portends is that coup leaders, military leaders in Africa are becoming emboldened. And this is because coups are contagious. You know, you look at what happens in one neighbouring country, you start getting ideas. So I think if you’re a very . . . a long-ruling leader somewhere in Africa, you might start getting concerned.

Marc Filippino
Aanu Adeoye is the FT’s west Africa correspondent. Thanks, Aanu.

Aanu Adeoye
Thank you.

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Marc Filippino
US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo wrapped up a visit to China yesterday. She’s the latest in a line of top American officials to go to Beijing this year. The US is trying to shore up its relationship with the country, which is at its lowest point in decades. Here to talk more about this is the FT’s Washington bureau chief, James Politi. Hi, James.

James Politi
Hi. Thanks for having me.

Marc Filippino
All right. So James, Raimondo ended her trip by saying she had a new strategy for resolving business issues between the US and China. What did she mean by that?

James Politi
She meant that they’re trying to set really a floor on the economic relationship. They’re trying to differentiate between the sort of tensions on the geopolitical front with China and the economic relationship. And even within that economic relationship, she’s trying to differentiate between sort of ordinary trade with China, which the US wants to preserve, and restrain any sort of risky transfers of technology to China in a way that the US has been concerned really undermines US national security.

Marc Filippino
Yes. So it sounds like the US is gonna have to almost play a bit of a balancing act, right?

James Politi
Yeah, And it’s been a few months since the US has been saying that they don’t want to decouple from China. They want to just de-risk. Now, I think that, you know, you could look at that as a sort of semantic difference. But I think in practice, what it means is that they’re not looking for an abrupt rupture with China, whether it’s on the trade front or the financial front. What they do want to do is make sure that they prevent supply chains to become too dependent on China in a way that really affects national security for the US.

Marc Filippino
Now, do you think that Raimondo’s visit helps smooth some of the recent tensions between the US and China?

James Politi
Well, I think it helps to stabilise things. It helps to get us in a situation where the US-China economic relationship is not falling off the rails, which I think is very important for the global economy. I don’t think it solves any of the bigger underlying issues about the global economic competition between Washington and Beijing, which I think are gonna dominate probably in the next few decades.

Marc Filippino
James Politi is the FT’s Washington bureau chief. Thank you, James.

James Politi
Thanks so much.

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Marc Filippino
Taiwan will hold a presidential election in January. The frontrunner is from the ruling Democratic Progressive party, but a new high-profile contender has just entered the ring.

Terry Gou, via interpreter
Taiwan must not become Ukraine, and I will not let Taiwan become the next Ukraine. (Applause) 

Marc Filippino
It’s Terry Gou. He is the founder of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, which makes supplies for Apple. And earlier this week, Gou announced he’s running for president. The FT’s Kathrin Hille is based in Taipei and she says Gou’s chances of winning are mixed.

Kathrin Hille
It’s not the first time he’s tried it, but he has not been this serious before, it looks like. He has a very, very big war chest. I mean, he is worth some $7bn. But it really fascinates me why he thinks he has to do that, because he built a very, very successful business. And he does not seem as sophisticated in campaigning as he was in business.

Marc Filippino
Gou’s bid to be Taiwan’s next president is interesting for another reason. His company, Foxconn, has the majority of its workforce in China. Beijing says that Taiwan is part of China. So many are wondering if Beijing put pressure on Gou to enter the race, thinking that if he won, he could influence Taiwan to get closer with its hostile neighbour.

Kathrin Hille
This is, of course, a valid question. He has rejected that. Foxconn is still China’s largest private sector employer and exporter. They’re a huge investor there. So I guess if there is dependency, and it goes both ways . . . and for the Chinese Communist party it’s also not that simple to risk foreign investor sentiment and maybe technology supply chain reliability by really messing with Foxconn. So it’s possible that there would be attempts to put pressure on him, but we haven’t seen any evidence so far.

Marc Filippino
Kathrin Hille is the FT’s greater China correspondent.

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You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

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