Popular Kenyan economist David Ndii gave voice today to a widely-held perception among large swathes of African civil society that Chinese interests are much more aligned with the continent’s governing elites than with those of everyday people. 

This hasn’t been helped, of course, in the aftermath of events in Guangzhou where China invested considerable PR capital into shoring up its message with presidents, ambassadors, and foreign ministers, but struggled to gain any meaningful traction on social media and in the independent press with its message that there’s no discrimination in China.