Two authoritative figures researching the Chinese Communist Party’s influence activities in Africa have pointed out that the CCP dominates the entire media space in Africa, severely restricting citizens’ access to fair and accurate news while allowing the spread of anti-American information.
Paul Nantulya from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington and Joshua Eisenman, a senior researcher on China at the American Foreign Policy Council, depicted a disturbing picture in their report: the CCP regime in Africa successfully conducts propaganda, spreads misinformation, and false information.
Their research indicates that the U.S. government has done little to counter the CCP’s dominance in the African media sphere. Budget cuts have forced the closure of VOA’s branches in Africa and severely restricted African staff and freelance journalists from reporting.
According to Nantulya, the CCP-controlled media has “integrated” into news and information ecosystems across Africa, “distorting” the truth, limiting “access to independent information, and influencing discussions on a range of governance, social, and economic issues.”
Nantulya and Eisenman’s research shows that the CCP has recruited hundreds of African media personnel to work at branches of four major Chinese news agencies in Africa.
The four news agencies are Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network (CGTN), China Daily, and China Radio International. Xinhua News Agency and China Radio International are official CCP mouthpieces, while the other two agencies are controlled by the CCP’s propaganda department.
The research reveals that the CCP recruits well-known African media professionals, offering them high salaries to enhance the credibility of their propaganda.
Eisenman concludes, “These four media organizations receive significant national resources, enabling them to report a large volume of news in various media formats (print, television, radio, and online) in six official United Nations languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish).”
He says, “Each media outlet has a large number of multilingual, outward-facing social media accounts with millions of followers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, which are banned in China.”
Through Xinhua News Agency, CGTN, China Radio International, and China Daily, the CCP supports many struggling African media outlets, requiring them to provide “favorable” (to China) coverage in return.
In his report, Eisenman writes, “To solidify the CCP’s narrative, the CCP propaganda department provides free content, negotiates content-sharing agreements with government and private broadcasting companies, pays generous supplements, provides state-of-the-art equipment, buys stakes in top media companies, and offers training.”
Eisenman notes, “Training involves the Chinese paying for African journalists to constantly travel to China, where they enjoy first-class treatment, guided tours, and imbued with a positive image and experiences (of China).”
Many young journalists in Africa receive training in China and are paid by Chinese media organizations. A report released by the Norwegian research organization CMI in 2013 states that in Kenya alone, 500 journalists and local staff are employed by Chinese media institutions, disseminating at least 1,800 English news items per month.
Eisenman says that immediately after the global financial crisis of 2008, CCP media began a “significant expansion.” He writes, “When budget cuts forced many Western news organizations to reduce foreign reporting, the CCP launched a $7.25 billion ‘Public Diplomacy’ campaign worldwide.”
Nantulya says, “Public Diplomacy” continues to be carried out globally, especially in Africa, as the continent’s importance will become increasingly apparent in the near future.
Many African countries hold vast reserves of rare earths, precious metals, and minerals essential for manufacturing alternative energy products, such as wind turbines, solar panels, computers, mobile phones, and weapon systems.
Xinhua News Agency is China’s top state media organization, directly under the CCP Central Propaganda Department.
Herman Wasserman, head of the Media Studies Department at the University of Cape Town, told the Epoch Times, “Xinhua News Agency’s coverage of Africa reflects the organization’s mandate, which is to report only positive news about China, the CCP, and President Xi.”
“An important part of Xinhua’s work is to portray negative news about the U.S., like a recent article focusing on the Biden administration raising tariffs on Chinese energy products, claiming that this decision will have a counterproductive effect on the U.S.”
Within Africa’s 54 countries, except for 14 countries, Xinhua News Agency has branches in all other countries, with 40 branches in Africa, more than any other media organization on the continent, employing nearly 1,000 staff, most of whom are Africans.
VOA is left with only one branch on the African continent.
A senior VOA staff member told the Epoch Times, “Five years ago, we had five branches, each responsible for different regions of Africa.”
“We had one branch in Johannesburg covering Southern Africa, one in Dakar, Senegal, covering West Africa. Additionally, we had satellite offices in many major African cities where we always had funds to pay freelance journalists.”
“All of that is gone now. The only African branch we have left is in Nairobi, and we barely have funds to pay freelance journalists, so we have missed a lot of what’s happening in Africa.”
Glenda Daniels, a professor in the Media Studies Department at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, told the Epoch Times that Chinese-controlled media and their “African agents” regularly disseminate “information” to at least one-quarter of Africa’s 1.5 billion population.
For example, Xinhua News Agency has signed content-sharing agreements with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, allowing the CCP mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency to use eight radio stations and television stations in East and Central Africa, reaching 11.3 million people monthly.
In 2020, Nantulya testified before Congress that this agreement gave Xinhua News Agency 28 million social media followers and a daily circulation of 90,000 newspapers.
VOA’s various African media services reportedly reach 78 million audiences weekly.
China Radio International broadcasts in at least nine African languages from its regional stations in Harare, Zimbabwe (Southern Africa), Lagos, Nigeria (West Africa), and Cairo, Egypt (North Africa).
In 2018, the CCP Central Propaganda Department merged China Radio International, China National Radio, and China Central Television, unifying them under the name “Voice of China” for international broadcasts.
Nantulya says that the 14,000 staff at “Voice of China” are tasked with “promoting (CCP’s) theories, policies, principles, and policies” and “telling the story of China well.”
CGTN employs around 200 staff in Africa, mainly Africans, stationed across Africa, and are “required to speak only positively about China.”
He emphasizes CGTN’s coverage of the BRICS countries, currently including Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE.
Wasserman says, “CGTN portrays the BRICS countries as rivals to the G7 and as taking over Western economic power. Their reporting used to be generally of low quality, but now they produce high-quality content with high-quality images, videos, articulate presenters, and content comparable to BBC and CNN, making CGTN’s reporting highly credible.”
However, he points out that upon close examination of how Chinese media in Africa report on Russia’s war in Ukraine, this layer of “disguise is easily exposed,” as Chinese media “shamelessly” claims that President Putin’s invasion is legitimate, aiming to prevent “Western expansionism.”
Wasserman says that CGTN and Xinhua News Agency detailed how American companies profit from the Russia-Ukraine war, indicating that the U.S. allows the war to continue for financial gain.
He says that the CCP’s false information has had “serious consequences throughout Africa” and points out that the CCP aided Zimbabwe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF, at the end of 2022.
Wasserman states that the CCP’s spread of false information claiming a conspiracy to overthrow ZANU-PF “created a pretext for imprisoning journalists and activists under that regime.”
He says that the U.S. has “hardly reacted angrily” to CCP propaganda, misinformation, and false information in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.
At the U.S.-Africa Summit held in December 2022 (the first summit since 2014), President Joe Biden pledged to invest $55 billion in Africa over 2023, 2024, and 2025.
He said that some of the funds would be used to support “democratic” African media to combat “misinformation.”
Professors Daniels and Wasserman both state that they are unaware of any major media project funded by the U.S. government aimed at countering Chinese propaganda in Africa.
Daniels says, “Bill Gates funds some media in Africa, and U.S. donors like the Open Society Foundations also provide funding,” “but I don’t know if there’s a specific media project dedicated to countering Chinese propaganda in Africa.”
In March 2023, Amanda Bennett, CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), stated to the Congressional Appropriations Committee that although the operating budget for independent global media accounts for only a small fraction of the CCP’s state media budget, USAGM’s network has made “significant progress in developing media partnerships in areas influenced by China.”
USAGM oversees the operation of seven international broadcasting networks, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Sawa, Radio Martí, Radio Farda, and the Open Technology Fund.
Bennett emphasized VOA’s English fact-checking program “Polygraph.info,” which produces videos and articles in Chinese to counter CCP’s false information, providing evidence to debunk lies.
In March 2023, USAGM proposed a $944 million budget for 2024 funding for all its seven entities.
Bennett stated in a press release that the budget is designed to counter “information manipulation and media suppression strategies from authoritarian governments like China, Russia, and Iran, who are trying to undermine American values and incite political, economic, and humanitarian crises worldwide.”
She promised that Voice of America and other entities under her organization would continue to provide “fact-based information and gain trust in increasingly maliciously influenced markets from China and Russia, including Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the broader Pacific region.”
She mentioned that the budget request includes additional funds for investigative journalism and the “fact-checking laboratory.”
Several VOA staff members told the Epoch Times that Africa rarely receives such funding. “I don’t know of any funding allocated for investigative journalism in Africa,” said one staff member.
“Polygraph.info occasionally reports on news from Africa, but the staff are all in Washington D.C., not in Africa. We have very few staff left in Africa, just a few sporadic contract workers.”
Another staff member commented, “Even though the Biden administration pledged to counter China in Africa, we haven’t even started. We need government funding to launch more projects in Africa, increase the budget to recruit reliable field journalists.”
“Seeing African budgets being cut, and not having enough to pay freelance journalists, hearing about African journalists accepting high salaries offered by China is really sad… We can’t blame them for that; after all, they need to provide for their families.”
On March 11, USAGM submitted a $950 million budget request for 2025 to Congress.
Ms. Bennett reiterated that USAGM’s “priority work” is to counter malicious influences from China, Russia, Iran, and other regimes.
Eisenman stated in his report that in 2021, VOA spent $32 million on reporting content for Africa, less than 13% of its $253 million budget.
In 2023, VOA’s budget is $267.5 million, with $27 million allocated for Africa, approximately 10% of its budget.
According to data from the Australian Center on China in the World, in 2014, just “Voice of China” alone spent $16 billion annually.
In 2020, the U.S. think tank “Freedom House” estimated that the CCP spends “tens of billions of dollars each year on foreign propaganda and censorship.”
Eisenman concludes in his report, “The U.S. government has not openly opposed the CCP’s anti-American propaganda in Africa, primarily due to Washington’s long-standing neglect of Africa.”
On May 29, General Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, in an interview with the Associated Press, attributed some regions’ anti-American sentiments to Russia’s wave of false information.
Governments in several countries, including Chad and Niger, have supported the influx of Russian military personnel and quasi-military personnel and pushed for the U.S. military to leave the Sahel region.
General Langley told the media, “In recent years, negative sentiments towards one of our most critical allies, France, have been fueled on all social media and major media by Russia’s misinformation and false information.”
He said, “We need to disseminate our narrative.” George Bota, a Johannesburg-based tech and information analyst, agreed with this sentiment.
“America lags far behind China (CCP) in all aspects in Africa, even behind Russia. America must be vigilant; it’s a crucial moment, America hasn’t even funded its media institutions in Africa, let alone others. It seems we have not yet recognized the importance of information in today’s age,” he said. “It surprises me.”
“If you can’t convey correct information to people, you can’t tell your story. If you can’t win hearts and minds, no matter how much good you do, it’s useless because no one knows.”
Bota highlighted the “Lobito Corridor Project” announced in May 2023 by the Biden administration, which pledged an initial $360 million investment.
The U.S. is constructing a 340-mile railway and 160-mile road in Zambia to provide a route, through the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast, for the transit of metals and minerals produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the U.S. and Europe.
Swiss Trafigura, which is involved in the project, said, “Trucking these valuable resources from Central African copper mine to Western markets is essential for the U.S. and Europe, especially in the energy transition process.”
“This will provide livelihoods for many Africans, but Africans are unaware of this, as if it doesn’t exist,” Bota said.
“China funds journalists to report on their infrastructure projects. America must do the same; America must retaliate in Africa’s information space in kind against China, or else it’s a lost cause.”
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