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China Builds Global South Media Network to Counter U.S., West

China has set up a new Global South media-and-think-tank network, presenting it as a way to balance what it calls Western control over news and global narratives. Beijing says it will give the Global South a stronger voice in world ...

How the Global South Became Central to China’s Narrative Strategy on Russia’s War in Ukraine

By Lukas Fiala Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a little over three years ago, marked a critical juncture in the development of European and international security. Far from merely a regional issue, the war has since affected many beyond the old continent: ...

Fact-Checking International Media Coverage of Biden’s Africa Tour

Joe Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Cabo Verde and Angola this week, marking the first visit by a sitting U.S. President to Africa in almost ten years. Although Biden sought to lay out an expansive vision for U.S. foreign ...

African Leaders Push Back Against Western Media Narratives on China

While Vice President Kamala Harris worked hard to keep the focus on U.S.-Africa relations during her recent tour of the continent, reporters in the traveling press corps kept bringing up China -- much to the chagrin of her hosts in Ghana, ...

How the Chinese Debt Trap Narrative Spreads in Washington

A webinar convened on Friday by the Middle East Policy Council in Washington, D.C. highlights how the Chinese debt trap narrative has become an accepted truth among U.S. stakeholders, despite a lack of evidence that Beijing intentionally loads up developing countries with unsustainable levels of ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke

When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...

IMF = Good, China = Debt Trap ??

The New York-based geopolitical consulting firm Eurasia Group's media unit, GZERO, published a new infographic on Thursday that sums up the deeply ingrained yet highly simplistic media narrative in the United States about Western institutions like the IMF versus China: A) ...

Anzetse Were Has Something to Say to the International Media About Its Coverage of China-Africa Relations

Longtime Africa-China analyst and Nairobi-based development economist Anzetse Were is exasperated from the international media's shoddy coverage of China's engagement with Africa. "The narrative on Africa-China relations in global media has been persistently one-dimensional," she wrote in a ...

The Long Arc of Chinese Lending to Africa

The biggest headline from November’s FOCAC meeting was China’s pivot away from infrastructure funding. But like many FOCAC headlines, it needs several asterisks. In the first place, the pivot might actually be away from a particular infrastructure model (massive projects funded with large bilateral Chinese policy bank ...

Kenyatta to China’s Critics: “We Don’t Need Lectures”

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hit back at critics of China's presence in Africa, presenting Beijing as a welcome alternative to Africa's legacy partners in the U.S. and Europe that too often, he said, lectured African countries and dictated the terms of engagement. 

Beijing’s Top Diplomat For Africa Reflects on Why It’s So Difficult for China to Change the Negative Media Narrative

China needs to overcome the language barrier and do a better job of its story in Africa, said Beijing's top diplomat for the continent in a keynote address last week at the World Internet Conference in the Zhejiang city of Wuzhen. "One of our ...

It’s Time For a More Nuanced Discussion About China

Recently, I caught up by phone with a long-time Chinese friend. The conversation started off friendly enough but soon veered into a heated debate after he accused me of turning from pro-China to anti-China. I met my Chinese friend while I was working at the Chinese embassy’s ...

Popular American YouTuber Condenses China-Africa Relations Into a Slickly Produced 15 Minute Video

Popular current affairs YouTuber American YouTuber Johnny Harris (1.42 million subscribers) dedicated a recent episode of his show to exploring Chinese engagement in Africa. For those with a more sophisticated understanding of the topic, it will be easy ...
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