Although the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been largely silent this week about the military coup in Sudan, the country’s largest television broadcaster, CCTV (央视新闻), appears to be framing the story in a way that lays the blame for the collapse of the civilian government squarely at the feet of the United States.
Given that this is CCTV, by far the country’s most influential media outlet, it’s quite likely that the evolving narrative on Sudan that they’re disseminating closely aligns with official thinking in the Foreign Ministry.
In a story published on Wednesday by CCTV’s news wire, the network framed their story around an interview with a Khartoum-based “political analyst” [no clear affiliation available] by the name of Khalid al-Faki who, incidentally, is also a source for the U.S. government-funded network VOA. Chinese propaganda often uses foreigners to criticize Beijing’s rivals, particularly the United States. It gives the government plausible deniability to effectively say it’s not us criticizing you, but international “experts.”
In the CCTV analysis of who is to blame for the toppling of the government, al-Faki, unsurprisingly, made no mention of China’s extensive role in Sudan over the past two decades, but went into great detail about why he thinks the U.S. is largely responsible:
- U.S. SANCTIONS: “Many children died due to a lack of medicine and medical equipment. This was caused by the sanctions and hegemonic actions of the United States. If it were not for U.S. sanctions, Sudan’s economy would not have been so bad. Sudan is a country with relatively rich oil, mineral, agricultural and industrial resources. Sanctions and hegemonic policies severely damaged Sudan’s economic development and prevented the country from functioning normally.”
- U.S. INTERFERENCE: “Just before the turmoil on October 25, U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, visited Sudan and met with Sudanese military and civilian leaders. The U.S. Bureau of African Affairs blatantly threatened on social media that any ‘change of the transitional government by force’ would ‘endanger U.S. aid to Sudan.’ Western countries, led by the United States, violently interfered in Sudan’s internal affairs under the pretext of ‘freedom and democracy’ and ‘economic assistance.'”
The article grimly concluded that, given the extent of U.S. “interference” in Sudan, it wouldn’t have mattered who was in charge or what kind of government was in power, the result would have been the same.
Read the full story in Chinese on the China News (中新网) website — in Chinese.
