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China’s Mixed Success With Media Influence in Africa

by Eric Olander
Bob Wekesa, longtime Africa-China scholar and deputy director of the African Centre for the Study of the United States at Wits University, (left) spoke with Paul Nantulya (right), research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington.

Although now more than a decade old, China’s large media presence in Africa remains poorly understood on the continent and by most foreign observers.

While investment to expand TV broadcaster CGTN, China Daily and China Radio International’s footprint on the continent stalled shortly after Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the Chinese are still very active in distributing CPC propaganda through free licensing arrangements with African media outlets and sponsoring dozens of African journalists and editors to travel to China each year on all-expense paid trips.

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