Chinese Propaganda Uses Corporate-Style Content Marketing Tactics to Promote Its Vaccines in South African Media

Some unknown Chinese entity in South Africa, most likely the embassy in Pretoria, is using paid content to promote Chinese vaccines in local media. Beyond the fact that this is obviously propaganda, it’s not clear from the article who the author is or who actually paid for the placement in IOL’s “Brand Stories” section of its website.

Given that IOL is 20% owned by the government-run China Africa Development Fund and is the embassy’s official “media partner,” the fact that the story was identified as branded content at all is notable.

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by Eric Olander

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