One of China’s Leading Africa Scholars Explains the Difference Between the Chinese and Western “Offer” to Africa

NOTE: This is an update to an earlier story that we showcased this week about a primetime talk show on the national Chinese TV network Dragon TV that featured a discussion among the Foreign Ministry’s top diplomat for sub-Saharan Africa, Wu Peng, and well-known Africa scholar, Professor Zhang Weiwei from Fudan University.

Now, the English-language unit at Dragon TV translated a portion of Zhang’s opening monologue and published the clip on YouTube.

Too often the Chinese articulation of their strategy in Africa is difficult to comprehend when it’s disseminated through tightly controlled state-media channels or government spokespeople who are often more concerned about scoring points against geopolitical rivals than conveying a cogent, easy to understand the vision for what Beijing is trying to achieve in a region like Africa.

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by Eric Olander

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