From the Brussels Times 26 December 2019:
China strengthened its hold on European ports, including Zeebrugge and Antwerp, last year, according to the latest Dutch-language report of the Clingendael China Centre.The report warns against increased Chinese investments in container seaports, which threaten to make European Union members more politically dependent on Beijing, De Morgen wrote on Thursday.Belgium and the Netherlands, in particular, have become more vulnerable to the influence of China’s Communist Party, the CPC.The Asian giant owns a sizeable chunk of Belgian container terminals. In Zeebrugge, about 90% of the container terminal is in the hands of the Chinese state company COSCO Shipping, the world’s biggest maritime company and third-largest international container transporter.“Political orientation is thus a potentially decisive factor, today and in future, for this state enterprise,” said Frans-Paul van der Putten, a researcher at the Clingendael China Centre....MORE
Also at the Brussels Times, a follow-up to our January 5 post "Lone wolf in Belgium gets potential love interest".
Possible third wolf spotted in Flanders
Friday, 24 January 2020A third wolf has turned up at the Hoge Kempen National Park and its surroundings in Flanders, according to Landschap vzw, the nonprofit association behind Welcome Wolf.Welcome Wolf calls on everyone in the provinces of Limburg and Antwerp to pass on reports of possible wolf sightings.Over the past two months, Welcome Wolf received 45 notifications of wolf sightings in Limburg, Antwerp and the border area with the Netherlands. Those 45 sightings do not include the camera observations of the Agency for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) in the habitat of wolves August and his new partner Noëlla, reports Het Belang van Limburg.The association is convinced that a third wolf has been living in the east of August’s territory, in the area between the municipality of Oudsbergen to the Meuse river, for some months....MORE