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Pay-TV Giant StarTimes Increasingly Becomes Vehicle for Official Chinese Propaganda

by Eric Olander

The Beijing-based African pay-TV giant StarTimes announced last week it will broadcast a government-produced TV series that, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, “seeks to boost Sino-Africa relations.”

This is the latest move by the privately-run Chinese media company to produce or distribute content that explicitly supports China’s official government agenda in Africa. Last year, for the first time, StarTimes launched a regular news program dedicated to COVID-19 information. The program’s narrative closely aligned with that of the Chinese government.

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