Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
phosphorusminister lyme Keir Starmervisit China will spark heated debate about the extent of its impact Beijing is a political threat besides as an economic rivall – and whether U.K. is using the tools it has to fight back China’s power continues to grow around the world.
One area of my research where the answer is a resounding “no” is the use of media as a soft power tool to counter China’s success in spreading its critical rhetoric about the West around the world. AfricaBy 2050, a quarter of the world’s population will live in this fastest-growing continent.
This is a story about the retreat of Britain and the United States, which China cleverly exploited to seize the broadcast opportunities left behind, winning the battle for Africa’s eyes and ears through journalists in almost every African capital who were trained to deliver pro-Beijing messages.
“The West cannot be trusted, a hundred years of colonial power have left you poorer than you should be – it’s time to try something else.” That’s what the narrative goes. It’s working.
A study I helped conduct presented the statement “If a war broke out in Taiwan, it would be the United States’ fault” to thousands of people in four African countries. Six in 10 Ethiopians and five in 10 South Africans agree.
One explanation for this is growing anti-American and anti-Western sentiment in many parts of Africa. Some of this was instigated by domestic media. But foreign media also played a role.
Now, as BBC World Service must expand to meet this challenge, its presence is likely to shrink further – as it relies on funding from the UK’s international development budget, which is undergoing billions of pounds of cuts.
While News Worldwide waits to hear the fate of its funding, the countries Starmer is visiting are forging ahead in an information war to go some way to cementing their position as Africa’s biggest media player.
Its weapons are not only the English-language channel of the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN), the state news agency Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party-owned newspaper China Daily, but also a network of partnerships with local organizations.
Many African countries are moving from analogue to digital television – just as we did 20 years ago – and China has won many of these tenders. This means that its private company StarTimes operates the infrastructure for television viewing in most African countries.
CGTN reserves programming for “lay journalists,” providing them with the resources to tell their stories. Hey, quick, these stories tend to be about Beijing.
While many news organizations are prohibited from freely reporting on sensitive topics in China, such as Beijing’s repressive policies in Xinjiang, “news influencers” on YouTube and TikTok are “free” to present a perfect image of China, without anything uncomfortable.
Up to 70% of young people in Kenya and Nigeria get news from YouTube, which has now become an extremely important source of information. CGTN ranks among the top international broadcasters for YouTube users.
The China Index, a civil society project that examines China’s growing global influence, including on media, identified 76 countries where media outlets provide Chinese government-funded content, 14 of which are in Africa.
Policymakers in European capitals may hope to debunk disinformation through fact-checking or media literacy campaigns, but these strategies will not succeed if anti-Western narratives are allowed to be based on deep-seated distrust.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The BBC remains popular. In a 2024 survey, 60% of Zambians and more than 40% of South Africans said they got their news from the BBC. The company is considered a symbol of media freedom in many parts of the world. But unless it spreads its values, unless it continues to engage in this struggle, its position will decline.
Lesotho is a vivid example of the path we are on. National television was blacked out for several hours each day and the BBC was asked to step in. Now it must compete with China’s CGTN for airtime.
Money talks. When Turkish national channel TRT launched a Hausa language service for the Nigerian market, most of its employees walked out of the BBC offices to sign up – because TRT’s salary was higher than that of the BBC.
What many may not realize is that shrinking the aid budget is a self-imposed goal of undermining Britain’s standing and influence abroad, much to the delight of authoritarian opponents. But the prime minister may be in China this week to consider the consequences.
Danny Madrid-Morales is co-director of the Disinformation Research Cluster at the University of Sheffield
This article is part of The Independent Rethinking global aid project