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one.com That's You H One. Dot. Com.

1:14

One is called Chinatown. There

1:16

is China City. There's

1:18

also China Centre and China Square in

1:20

other parts of Nairobi. Chinese

1:23

infrastructure is visible almost everywhere

1:25

in the city. Particularly

1:27

in this area. Across the

1:29

road is a famous Chinese-owned hotel, the

1:31

Eastland Hotel. And right next

1:34

door, towering over these

1:36

mini China hubs, as if to oversee it

1:38

all, is the Chinese

1:40

Xinhua News Agency. For

1:47

this episode, the team, Krista and I,

1:49

traveled to the Kenyan capital Nairobi to

1:51

get a sense of the Chinese influence

1:54

on the ground. We

1:56

understand why Beijing has chosen it as a

1:58

hub for its media operations. in Africa.

2:01

There have been hints of a cooling down

2:03

of this friendship. We wanted to

2:05

take the temperature. I'm

2:13

Krasit Tweek and this is the

2:15

Global Jigsaw from BBC monitoring, where

2:18

we look at the world through

2:20

the lens of its media, getting

2:22

past the narratives, the propaganda and

2:24

the disinformation. This

2:26

place is called Guardian, with the

2:28

important Cree word west. ESERI

2:31

into bumpy It's

2:47

a feast for the eyes, beautiful people, amazing

2:49

landscape, some romance and a bit

3:09

of blood. TV

3:15

drama is called Welcome to Millele.

3:18

Millele is a fictional village. It

3:21

talks about a group of Chinese

3:23

doctors being sent for a medical

3:25

aid project in a fictional African

3:27

country, but it was actually filmed

3:29

in Tanzania. Tom Lam is

3:31

one of our Chinese media experts.

3:34

He can tell us what this drama is all about.

3:37

So it's part of a long

3:39

promotion of China's medical aid to

3:42

Africa. So the TV

3:44

drama was aired in 2023 and it was

3:46

actually the 60th anniversary of

3:48

China's medical

3:53

support to the African continent.

3:56

First batch of doctors was

3:58

sent to Algeria. The area

4:00

in Nineteen Sixty Street and

4:02

since then Detritus has claimed

4:05

that they have treated two

4:07

hundred and ninety million Africans,

4:09

and these people are often

4:11

described in the state media

4:13

as. An. Josie and White.

4:16

Welcome to me! Lol I was released at

4:18

the end of last year. The. Humanitarian

4:20

work China did in Africa

4:22

starting from the sixties is

4:24

clearly something Beijing is proud

4:26

Us. It was sponsored

4:28

by the state and tell

4:31

the people stay that which

4:33

is t most piece of

4:35

does Chinese communist party crazy

4:37

as demonstrating the corn coast

4:40

him and his take care

4:42

of the Chinese medical workers

4:44

to was Africa Nine They

4:46

see their saliva bigger projects

4:48

of China Nice international emails

4:51

to promote how China is

4:53

receive internationally as Aids South

4:55

Less Friends to the Africans.

4:58

And. Who is this drama for? Who

5:00

was it intended for? Where was it

5:02

broadcasts? It was broadcast it

5:04

ain't various Chinese tv channels

5:07

and also a social media

5:09

platforms and the Chinese state

5:11

media also sad that we're

5:13

talking about a do being

5:16

different language additions including a

5:18

swahili version. During our visit

5:20

to Nairobi we wanted to find out

5:22

how lasik an audience is. Responded didn't

5:24

make a splash. We sat down with

5:27

one of our colleague some ot and

5:29

know or or t to have a

5:31

talked about all things China from a

5:33

gnostic and prospectus. Were comes from

5:36

Lilith village with elements for events

5:38

were hearing is not as on

5:40

any local channels as far as

5:43

be unaware I've looked at it

5:45

and you tube it doesn't have

5:48

that many views but on the

5:50

comments section there some phases excited

5:52

people talking about seeing the Tanzanian

5:55

landscape seeing the Tanzanian people of

5:57

black people in it. There are.

6:00

People who just happy to the show was

6:02

shot was insane and in china on that.

6:04

That. Ever want to see that as

6:06

the need me what they use

6:08

of awful C C C. C

6:11

C C What I've reason is that

6:13

there would be avoided. Tough lesson. Of

6:16

the film athletes up on some chinese media

6:18

outlets from that from your are unable to

6:20

see the made in Tanzania know adding and

6:22

doesn't a television than would have a better

6:25

away to analyze of to gauge the kind

6:27

of reception is guess. We double

6:29

checked and we couldn't find it

6:31

on digital Tv schedules. The ambitious

6:34

sweets the producers might have hoped

6:36

for hasn't materialized yet, which could

6:38

be down to a lack of

6:41

dubbing in local languages. So what

6:43

would the Chinese Communist Party wants

6:45

to convey with it's China? Was

6:48

the first country that go

6:50

to Africa and set we

6:52

are your friends and partners

6:54

because he did article lead

6:57

to have like similar anti

6:59

colonial anti imperialist past and

7:01

try to consider itself as

7:03

part of the mile describe

7:05

as the third world so

7:08

China thing that they share

7:10

a similar development pass and

7:12

simmer historical background with Africa

7:14

you. Could argue that Welcome to

7:17

Me Les Les is designed to

7:19

spread China's message and aging does

7:21

make a convincing argument about what

7:24

it sees as it's selfless help

7:26

to Africa. Tom explains the historic

7:28

background the China's first steps on

7:30

the Continent. Back. In

7:32

nineteen sixties China during all

7:35

these great leap forward which.

7:37

Caused. a great time

7:39

and but they still send

7:41

workers and and material to

7:44

tanzania to help them beauty

7:46

tanzania zombie of a away

7:48

and the most famously as

7:50

to decide that you have

7:52

your difficulties and we have

7:54

ours we will help you

7:56

to beauty swear weights even

7:58

if we have sick

8:00

building our own. And

8:03

it sounds like a very selfless

8:05

and very humanitarian outfit.

8:12

The building of the Tanzania Zambia

8:14

Railway or Tazara with mouse pictures

8:16

still set to be hanging in

8:19

its headquarters was a

8:21

mammoth undertaking as so many communist

8:23

projects have been. It

8:26

was done by a country that had its

8:29

own enormous struggle at the time. As

8:32

Tom mentioned what is known as the

8:34

Great Leap Forward was China's efforts to

8:36

modernize its economy within a short period

8:39

of time which led to

8:41

the starvation of tens of millions of people.

8:44

So the main message behind the construction

8:47

of the Tazara seems to be about

8:49

China being a selfless friend. Although

8:52

to state the obvious selflessness

8:54

is not a geopolitical currency.

8:57

But Tanzania did

8:59

pay back. Guinea? Yes.

9:03

USSR?

9:06

Tanzania? Yes.

9:09

United States? No. Cameroon?

9:11

Yes. Canada? Where? Dendrope

9:13

Resumition. In 1971 Tanzania

9:16

was one of the active African countries

9:22

to support Beijing's efforts

9:24

to join the UN because the

9:27

PRC which is the People's Republic

9:29

of China was not part

9:31

of the UN because the Republic

9:34

of China which now based in

9:36

Taiwan was the member and there's

9:38

the one China rivalry going on

9:40

between these two regimes of

9:42

the resolution that quote-unquote

9:44

restore PRC right and

9:47

status in the UN in

9:49

1971. the

10:00

People's Republic of China, all

10:02

of its rights and to... Diplomatic support

10:04

is just one way to return a favor.

10:07

China has other pragmatic reasons for

10:09

its megaprojects in Africa. Back

10:12

in the 1960s, China helped

10:14

Tanzania to build the Tanzania

10:16

Zambian Railway. Zambia at that

10:18

time was famous for its

10:21

copper reserve. So this railway

10:23

helped China and other

10:25

countries also to go into

10:27

Zambia to mine copper there.

10:30

And as China's economic

10:32

rise started in the

10:34

early 2000s, China

10:37

needs a lot of market as

10:39

well as resources from

10:41

Africa. So

10:45

the Bell and O'Neill Initiative

10:48

that was launched in 2013

10:50

was actually based on this

10:52

idea that China needs overseas

10:55

market and resources for their

10:57

economic engine. The

11:02

DRC, Mali, Ghana,

11:05

Namibia provide lithium metal

11:07

reserve of 3 million

11:10

tonnes. And the reason

11:12

why China expanded their partnerships

11:15

and acquisition in Africa is

11:17

ensure the supply chain

11:19

of this raw material and

11:22

consolidate its position as

11:25

the world leading lithium battery

11:27

manufacturer to make electric vehicles.

11:30

And they need markets to sell it

11:33

because the weak domestic consumption

11:35

and Africa provide a huge

11:37

market for Chinese goods. From

11:40

the construction of one railway

11:42

to lucrative megaprojects across the

11:44

African continent, Beijing

11:46

has left a lasting impression over

11:48

the last few decades. Auti

11:51

has seen it happening. central

12:00

business district to the airport. There's

12:02

a super highway that was built

12:04

before. Those are much more visible

12:06

in terms of what China is trying to

12:08

push in terms of its soft power. Interpreting

12:11

soft power in action is

12:13

our territory. These wouldn't mean

12:15

much if not communicated. And

12:18

China has plenty of reasons to

12:20

want to tell its side of

12:22

the story. Here are some tweets

12:24

that we have voiced up from

12:26

the so-called wolf warriors. They are

12:28

Chinese diplomats who have adapted a

12:31

confrontational tone in recent years. It

12:33

is Gaza, not Xinjiang, and it

12:35

is plagued by conflicts. In

12:37

the smidgen of Muslims in Gaza, not

12:40

Muslims in Xinjiang, that suffer

12:42

from hunger, deportation and killing.

12:45

Applying salami tactics or crossing red lines

12:48

on the Taiwan question and other sensitive

12:50

issues is like racing cars on a

12:52

cliff's edge, where a crash is

12:55

almost inevitable. China strongly

12:57

deplores and opposes smears

12:59

by any country or

13:01

organization against Hong Kong's

13:04

safeguarding national security bill. Such

13:07

smears and attacks will never

13:09

succeed. Nowadays when

13:11

the West accused China

13:13

of human rights abuses, for

13:16

example, in Xinjiang, in Tibet, in

13:18

Hong Kong, and also its

13:21

military aggressions towards Taiwan,

13:24

then if they put into a vote

13:26

in the UN, then China would get

13:29

all this help from its African

13:32

brothers. So that's

13:34

also helped China in

13:37

their international standing and

13:39

their ideological rivalry with

13:41

the West. China has its eyes

13:43

set on a much bigger price.

13:45

And it is this ambition that

13:47

is underpinned by its megaprojects. China

13:50

has seen itself as a leader

13:53

of the global South. They see

13:55

itself as a conduit of Western

13:57

dominance and Western narrative.

14:00

and roughly so they see

14:02

itself as the spokesperson

14:05

of African interests. We

14:08

have decided to invite the Argentine Republic,

14:11

the Arab Republic of

14:13

Egypt, the Federal Democratic

14:16

Republic of Ethiopia, the

14:18

Islamic Republic of Iran, the

14:21

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and

14:23

the United Arab Emirates to

14:26

become full members of BRICS. Last

14:31

year, BRICS has invited six

14:34

new members, two of them

14:36

being African country. China wants

14:38

to form a non-western

14:41

bloc that could be

14:44

a counterweight to the

14:46

US-led G7, so I

14:48

think Africa is considered to be a great

14:51

asset for China to compete

14:53

with the US for global

14:55

leadership. The colonial power would

14:58

be code-wide for all of these other

15:00

countries that were on the continent at some

15:03

point, who are not doing the same things

15:05

the Chinese are doing. The goal

15:07

appears to have been set. Now, how

15:09

do you sell it? Here's

15:11

where Nairobi comes into play. So,

15:13

Kenya is very strategic in terms

15:15

of its location, first of all,

15:18

and then also in terms of democratic

15:21

stability. It's been a very stable country.

15:23

There was a time when Kenya was

15:25

being referred as an island of peace.

15:28

There was also an open environment for

15:31

media. Kenya is one of the

15:33

freest media environments in the region. Even

15:35

before CGTN came, the BBC had

15:37

one big bureau here. The AP

15:39

have a big bureau, Reuters, all

15:41

of the media outlets have big

15:44

bureaus. You can deploy anywhere from

15:46

Nairobi easily. You can use

15:49

the same kind of technology to deploy to the Middle

15:51

East, to Central Africa, to Southern

15:54

Africa. Then there's the enabling environment.

15:56

One of the fastest developing All

16:00

of these factors played into CGTN

16:03

being set up here in Nairobi. CGTN

16:05

stands for China Global Television

16:08

Network. It's part

16:10

of Beijing's big media expansion, launched

16:13

in 2016 as the International Division

16:15

of the Chinese State Broadcaster under

16:17

the auspices of the Communist Party.

16:21

China, since 2008, has

16:24

put a lot of funding

16:26

into the international media to

16:28

portray China in a battle

16:30

light. For example, CGTN, which

16:32

is an English language edition

16:34

of CCTV, and they have

16:36

different language editions and continent

16:39

divisions, and one of

16:41

them being the CGTN Africa, which

16:43

is based in Nairobi. So

16:46

they specifically target these African countries,

16:48

and also they have like a

16:51

partnership with local broadcasters that

16:54

would air the news report

16:57

of the Chinese State News Agency,

16:59

for example, Xinhua. And

17:02

that certainly helps China to

17:04

get a foothold of media

17:06

presence in Africa. CGTN

17:08

has a big, big office in Nairobi.

17:11

I think there are about three floors

17:13

of a big establishment in Nairobi. From

17:16

what I understand, there are about 300

17:18

journalists working there, and

17:20

there's many, many more correspondents across

17:23

the continent. So you will

17:25

find people in South Africa, people in Ghana,

17:27

people in Egypt, in Sudan. Someone

17:29

would actually be in the Central

17:32

African Republic corresponding for CGTN.

17:34

So it's a big, big operation. This

17:37

does sound like a big media empire

17:39

that China has built over the last

17:41

decades. Do we know how much money

17:43

they have put into it? The

17:46

Chinese are quite opaque in terms of the

17:48

expenditure on the continent. I mean, we will know

17:50

about the loans they're giving countries

17:52

because it makes them look good. But

17:54

we'll never know how much they're spending

17:57

in their media operations. They're paying journalists

17:59

quite highly. especially when they came

18:01

into Nairobi, for instance. They

18:03

put some of the best or the

18:05

highest ranking journalists across local media. We

18:07

do know that the hardware costs a

18:10

lot of money. Having correspondence across the

18:12

continent, I think, in some 40-plus countries

18:15

out of 54, and they also

18:17

deploy heavily, so that

18:19

also costs some money. I think it

18:21

goes into the millions of dollars, yes,

18:23

but we do not know the actual

18:25

figures that the Chinese have spent. They

18:27

don't tell anyone that. Here's

18:29

something to give you an idea

18:31

about the scale of this externally

18:33

focused media operation. CGTN

18:36

broadcasts in English, French,

18:38

Russian, Spanish and Arabic,

18:41

with international hubs in Nairobi,

18:43

Washington and London. It

18:48

has six television channels and 58

18:50

radio outlets, available in more than

18:52

160 countries and regions. Setting

18:59

up a media operation like this

19:01

is no mean feat. The

19:03

Chinese media's big, big push in Africa begins

19:05

somewhere around 2000, and

19:08

it begins with the creation of

19:10

the focus for the

19:13

China-Africa forum, FOCAC. And

19:15

that is around the same time when China

19:17

begins to give massive, massive loans to the

19:20

African continent. So when this

19:22

happens, China wants to tell

19:24

its story, saying, okay, this is what

19:26

we are. China tries to present itself

19:28

as one of the leading developing countries,

19:30

and Africa is home to a lot

19:33

of developing countries. So part

19:35

of it is trying to press its own

19:37

narrative, and China, I think, has

19:39

always been skeptical about what the Western media will

19:41

say. So they're partly

19:44

correcting, perhaps, what they view as skewed

19:46

interpretation of China on the continent, that

19:48

they want to say, this is what

19:50

we are doing, and part

19:52

of it is Chinese audiences, what they're

19:54

doing in Africa. CGTN comes to Nairobi

19:57

in 2012. It's

19:59

making a huge... and now it's much,

20:01

much bigger across the continent as well. In

20:03

terms of local employees, these

20:06

are people who have had big careers

20:08

in local media. So part of

20:10

it is building on these brands,

20:12

people who had names in the local

20:14

media, using that brand to bring

20:16

it to CGTN, who then employ them to

20:19

do the same work, but in a different

20:21

platform. I think part of it is also

20:23

seeing that if some people have a following,

20:25

then that following might follow them to CGTN.

20:28

CGTN is not the only

20:31

Chinese-controlled news outlet in Africa.

20:34

Beijing's media presence on the continent

20:36

goes back decades. In the

20:38

news media, there's a lot of three or

20:41

four state and media agencies

20:43

operating in Africa. So

20:45

there's the CGTN, China Global

20:47

Television Network. There's Xinhua,

20:50

which is the news agency. There's China

20:52

Radio International, or CRI, which is also

20:54

operating in local languages. There's also

20:56

the CRI, which is also operating

20:58

in the UK. There

21:01

are Swahili programs, Hausa

21:03

programs in Nigeria, and then

21:05

there's China Daily, which is a weekly one. Now,

21:08

the other one is Start Times,

21:10

which distribute students, and then there's

21:13

also Chinese channels,

21:15

so they distribute across

21:17

Africa. So Start Times

21:19

is a big, big distributor of

21:21

programs. Start Times is

21:23

just as important as the actual

21:25

media operation, if not more. It's

21:28

a provider of digital and satellite

21:30

TV services. And guess

21:32

what? CGTN is included

21:34

in all its basic packages.

21:37

It's the hardware that is the vehicle

21:39

for the soft power. And

21:42

Beijing has come up with other ways to

21:44

sway public opinion. Since 2016,

21:46

China has been training African journalists,

21:48

so they are flown to China.

21:50

They are trained there. It's been

21:53

done before with scholarships to the

21:55

US, the UK. People come back

21:57

and then they become like proxies

21:59

or surrogates for the Chinese people.

22:01

government here. They report for their

22:03

own news magazines, publications, talking about

22:06

China's involvement in Africa and they

22:08

have very, very positive outlook. They

22:10

report themselves are very, very glowing.

22:12

The Chinese establishments in African

22:15

media also have very, very close

22:17

working relationships with African

22:19

editors. So like in Kenya, they

22:21

have involved with the editors'

22:24

guild in Nairobi. So they are very, very

22:26

close there with that. Now

22:28

China Daily also has a very

22:30

interesting relationship with the local media. For

22:34

instance, in Kenya, there is Capital FM,

22:36

which is a big radio. It has

22:38

a website, but on its own website

22:40

there is a section with China Daily,

22:43

which publishes content from China Daily directly.

22:49

You're listening to the Global Jigsaw

22:51

from BBC Monitoring. Oti

22:55

mentioned that CGTN employs 300 people,

22:58

some Chinese, many African. What do

23:00

we know about the chain of

23:03

command? What we know is

23:05

that in the higher roles, there are

23:07

roles of editor, they are usually

23:09

Chinese people. So I think part of it

23:11

is to try and see what goes out,

23:14

because the editor has the last word on what

23:16

goes out. Here's a curious detail.

23:18

They are not called editors, they

23:20

are called supervisors. The

23:22

channel produces one hour long bulletins twice

23:25

daily, as well as political talk shows.

23:28

We watched a bit of their

23:30

output while in Nairobi to get a

23:32

sense of their journalism. And I'm Beatriz

23:35

Marshall from CGTN. What is the

23:37

significance of this 60 years for

23:39

Tanzania? 60 years

23:41

of friendship between

23:43

Tanzania and China. The

23:47

one cover Taiwan on the continent, unless

23:50

of course it is to say the

23:53

one China policy. So we saw

23:55

the Taiwanese elections, but any reporting

23:57

from here was about Burkina Faso.

24:00

pledging or iterating the

24:02

One China policy. Kenya the same,

24:04

the One China policy. Nigeria, One

24:06

China policy. So the actual

24:08

news spec, elections in Taiwan, that wasn't

24:10

mentioned at all? You wouldn't

24:12

see it anywhere in Chinese media. So,

24:16

yeah, the point is always the One

24:18

China policy. It feels like a requirement

24:20

for African countries that you need to

24:22

pledge your belief in the One China

24:24

policy to be able to get the

24:27

kind of things you need from Beijing.

24:29

What we have seen with Chinese media

24:31

is what I think they

24:34

call constructive journalism, the journalism

24:36

that does not offend, does

24:38

not want to expose partners. These

24:40

are African countries in any bad

24:42

light. So, of course, they

24:45

cover the whole spectrum of topics. It would

24:47

be tech, it would be politics, it would

24:49

be sport, it would be culture, but it

24:51

has to be very sanitized version of what

24:54

is happening. So what is

24:56

the message that Beijing thinks would appeal

24:58

to the local audience? How

25:00

is it making itself kai, or

25:03

lovable on the African continent? China

25:05

wants to present itself as the fastest

25:08

growing developing country. So we

25:10

are a developing country, you are a developing

25:12

country. Look, we've brought this number of million

25:14

people out of poverty in a very short

25:16

time. You can also do it. We've built

25:18

roads. Let us show you how to build

25:20

roads. You need money for something.

25:22

We can give you this money, and we can

25:24

send some engineers to you. There's all

25:27

of this narrative of we are helping

25:29

you, supporting you, but we are

25:31

not lecturing you. We're not talking to you about

25:33

human rights. We are not talking to you about

25:35

what you should do as a country, which

25:38

is the greatest criticism they have about

25:40

the West, that the West is always

25:42

interfering in the affairs of other countries.

25:44

After all this investment, who

25:46

is the message reaching? How

25:48

popular is CGTN? Let's

25:51

talk about the holy grail

25:53

of broadcasting, viewership figures. In

25:56

terms of viewership of international media, the

25:59

BBC, CNN, CNN, Al

26:01

Jazeera are the top three. Media

26:03

viewership, for instance, of CGTN,

26:05

it's very difficult to ascertain. But

26:08

what we have seen from some

26:10

scholars who have done surveys, see

26:13

very low viewership rates of below

26:15

10 percent comparatively to the other

26:18

media organizations. It tells you

26:20

that the reach is not that huge. First,

26:23

because it's syndication, for

26:25

instance, through local television stations,

26:28

local media outlets, but this syndication

26:30

is not sufficient. In terms of

26:33

viewership, there

26:35

is competition and they are

26:37

not the first go to media for

26:39

news. Yet many with

26:41

a special interest tune in to

26:44

CGTN. So these are traders,

26:46

for instance, who import stuff from China. They

26:48

want to know what is happening in Chinese

26:50

markets. People who are in academia want

26:52

to know what are the narrative that Chinese are

26:54

peddling. So these are the people who will be

26:56

going to see the television. Now, on

27:00

another end, there's people who go

27:02

to Star Times, which has soaps,

27:04

dramas and Chinese kung fu shows.

27:06

Now, those people are going there

27:08

to see the cultural side of

27:11

stuff. But still the viewership,

27:13

as I said, is a little lower than

27:15

we expect. Audience reach is

27:17

not just about numbers. And here

27:20

comes the more subtle push, relying

27:22

on pundits with China background.

27:25

The pundits would come back. They would be

27:27

on hand from time to time to push

27:30

Chinese narratives. So for instance, when

27:32

there's BRI, the 10th anniversary,

27:34

we saw a lot of articles in

27:37

Kenyan media as opinion

27:39

pieces appearing in the

27:41

newspapers. They'll talk about the debt, especially

27:44

because the West has always been saying

27:47

that the Chinese loans

27:49

are a debt trap. So China debt

27:51

trap diplomacy, they'll come and count and

27:53

say all of these tangible things

27:55

that the Chinese are giving us have done.

27:57

So they'll talk about the roads. They'll talk

27:59

about the education schemes that talk

28:01

about funding for education and Confucius

28:03

institutions and things like that. Let's

28:06

look at the story from the Chinese perspective

28:08

again. What can be

28:10

gleaned from Beijing's recent official narrative?

28:13

China is not buying Africa, it

28:15

is building Africa. This

28:17

CGTN clip was tweeted by the

28:20

Chinese Embassy in Nairobi. Xi

28:22

Jinping met with the leaders of

28:24

the African Union and it

28:26

said China's policy towards Africa

28:29

was based on the

28:31

principle of sincerity, real

28:33

result, amity and good

28:35

faith. What

28:42

does it sound like in Chinese? So

28:44

in Chinese it is called zhèn

28:46

zhè qīn chān. So

28:48

zhèn is being real and

28:51

zhè is substantial firm. So

28:53

I guess it means like pragmatic and

28:56

real result and qīn I think is

28:58

like dear. And then chān

29:00

is sincerity. So

29:02

basically I think it's just like a

29:04

literal translation but in Chinese it also

29:08

means very good but doesn't mean

29:10

anything that substantial. But

29:12

it kind of gives you the vibe of

29:14

what China sees Africa as a

29:17

partner, really warm feeling

29:19

you know friendly. Warm

29:21

friendly. Warm friendly, dear

29:23

friends and also real and

29:26

pragmatic and providing real

29:28

result. And there's more of

29:30

this kind of language coming from the

29:33

Central Propaganda Department which Tom will decipher

29:35

for us. At the CCP's

29:37

20th National Congress in October 2022

29:39

Xi instructs the Central Propaganda

29:44

Department to accelerate the

29:47

development of Chinese discourse

29:49

and narrative system and

29:52

effectively communicate the voice of

29:54

China to portray a credible,

29:57

lovable and respectable image of China.

30:00

of China. So what

30:02

jumped at me here is the

30:04

word lovable, because we are talking

30:06

about geopolitics and that's probably the

30:08

last words you'd expect. And in

30:10

Chinese, kai, lovable, which

30:12

also means cute. It

30:14

was proposed against the background that

30:16

in recent years, China's

30:19

image internationally has

30:22

not been very good since

30:24

the COVID pandemic and

30:26

also what China has been

30:28

accused of. It's a

30:31

conduct in Xinjiang and also in

30:33

Hong Kong, so they want to

30:35

change that narrative. But

30:37

also the debt trap

30:39

that the Western media has

30:41

accused China of by giving

30:44

loans that the African country could

30:46

not pay, then in turns they

30:48

would take control of

30:51

those infrastructure projects that

30:53

China financed. They

30:55

also want to change that narrative in

30:57

the continent as well. And

31:00

that's why they are having this

31:02

campaign of portraying China as a

31:04

credible, lovable and

31:07

respectable country. And this

31:09

is what lovable means on the ground. Back

31:12

to Orte. In my village or

31:14

somewhere near my village, about

31:16

370 kilometres from Nairobi, there

31:19

was an irrigation scheme done by the Chinese.

31:22

And everyone in the village knows that this has

31:24

been done by the Chinese. It's a tangible thing

31:26

that people see. So

31:28

if it is a hospital, people will tell you,

31:31

we were walking this many, many kilometres before to

31:33

get to this hospital, but now we have something

31:35

close by and it has all the equipment. And

31:38

if there is a Chinese doctor involved, then say,

31:40

well, these Chinese people are doing fantastic job. So

31:42

all of these are the kind of narratives that

31:44

they want in their media. China

31:48

wants to project itself as one of

31:50

the bigger powers. And if

31:52

there's any opportunity for them to try

31:54

and poke holes into the ideals that

31:56

are being espoused by the other global

31:59

powers, then... do it. China

32:01

thinks it has an opportunity to tell

32:03

its narrative. And this narrative is in

32:05

the Belt and Road Initiative. Its narrative

32:07

is the doctrines it's sending to Africa.

32:10

Its narrative is also the fact that

32:12

it's not interfering with anyone. And

32:15

part of it is also like all of

32:17

these people-to-people ties. The soft power they want

32:19

to show is nice, friendly

32:22

power who's not coming to lecture

32:24

you and who has the

32:26

kind of things you don't have as a

32:28

continent which they can't provide for you. China

32:31

might have started using its

32:33

old anti-imperialist credentials. To ask

32:35

the questions, many politicians on

32:37

the continent might find timely.

32:40

What did the West ever do for you? I

32:43

think to a large extent it

32:45

has to do with the chance

32:47

to tell its own stories.

32:50

Because China mistrusts the West, of course.

32:52

I mean, it's a competing global power.

32:55

And part of it is trying to correct or

32:57

to tell the narrative that it wants to project.

33:00

So if the US are saying, dead

33:02

trap, China will come and counter that

33:05

and say, no, we are not actually

33:07

doing dead trap diplomacy. We are building

33:09

actual roles and are doing for the

33:12

people. The media is just one of

33:14

those, but big investment in terms of

33:16

loan, the big investment in terms of

33:19

scholarships, Confucius Institute, the

33:21

international collaborations, the flying of

33:23

journalists to China. All of

33:26

those work together to

33:28

tell the Chinese story better than say

33:30

its other media. And

33:33

how is China perceived by people on

33:35

the continent? So

33:37

there have been some surveys that

33:39

have shown that China is one

33:41

of the most preferred big powers on the

33:44

continent. We understand

33:46

its declining since COVID. I

33:48

think the fact that COVID came out

33:50

of Wuhan beats its image to a

33:52

large extent. During COVID

33:54

also, China wasn't

33:56

the go to country for vaccines,

33:58

although it did. supply vaccines

34:01

and around the same time China had

34:03

to dial down on its landing to

34:05

African countries Zambia defaulted during

34:08

the Covid period. So

34:18

there was a massive anger there in

34:21

Kenya as well for instance the reduction in the

34:23

amount of money they were sending in meant

34:25

some projects were stalled and so

34:27

there were all of these feelings of not

34:30

being the partner that it

34:32

had promised to be. As

34:34

the world was dealing with the pandemic Zambia's

34:37

default was somewhat lost in the

34:39

news and I thought he was

34:41

saying there was a lot of anger there towards

34:43

China the single biggest

34:46

creditor. Let's

34:50

look at the other case study that of

34:52

Kenya to see if the weather cock has

34:54

changed direction. 20 years

34:56

ago Nairobi articulated its pivot

34:58

to Beijing in a policy

35:01

called Look East and the

35:03

president Moai Kibaki. There was

35:05

some bit of an economic recession and

35:07

then when Kibaki comes it starts with the Look

35:09

East policy. Now Look East

35:11

is look to China basically so

35:14

China becomes a very big partner

35:16

to Kenya's development. It's

35:18

also coincides with the time when China

35:21

is doing a lot more on the

35:23

continent in terms of loans in terms

35:25

of making inroads diplomatically. Then

35:27

came more loans with very few

35:29

strings attached. By 2010 China

35:32

became Africa's largest trading partner.

35:36

Fast forward to the Kenyan

35:38

presidential campaign of 2022 and

35:41

one of the front runners William Ruto

35:43

had been big on Chinese loans while

35:45

he was vice president but

35:47

as a presidential candidate and

35:49

later as president he somewhat

35:52

changed his tune. One

35:54

of the things he did was to bust

35:56

Chinese loans he was criticizing

35:58

the debt saying that they

36:00

were going to make sure that the

36:03

debt is restructured. Then he was also

36:05

talking about Chinese businesses coming into Canada

36:07

to do retail trade. And they were

36:09

saying that once we get to power,

36:12

we won't allow these small traders to

36:14

take the small businesses from our people.

36:16

Of course, China was noticing what's happening

36:18

there. So President William

36:20

Brute, when he came to power, he said

36:22

he found an economy that was, to use

36:25

the words of his deputy, dilapidated. Because

36:28

of the shrinking economy, they

36:31

asked to restructure the debt. But

36:33

that doesn't happen. But in the

36:36

period between him taking over and

36:38

on the back of the campaign rhetoric, Ruto

36:41

started to look west. And looking west

36:44

is going back to the

36:46

U.S. and the U.K. allies. China is not

36:49

our largest debt

36:51

holder. We have huge

36:54

relationships with the World

36:57

Bank, with IMF, with European

36:59

Union, with the U.S. I

37:01

think Ruto is trying to

37:03

diversify his chances economically. Kenya

37:06

has signed big, big deals with

37:08

IMF. But also

37:10

President Ruto went to China and

37:13

tried to renegotiate some loans. A

37:16

year into his presidency, the Kenyan leader

37:18

is off to Beijing. And

37:20

his rhetoric there seems quite different.

37:23

Kenya and China have been friends.

37:26

And that friendship has

37:28

not stagnated. It's been growing. William

37:31

Bruto, during his trip to China

37:33

in October 2023 to

37:36

commemorate the 10th anniversary of

37:38

the Bell and Roa Initiative,

37:41

was coded by Chinese media

37:44

as praising China's BLI, including

37:48

the Mombasa-Nairobi railway. Ever

37:51

taken a ride on the train

37:53

yourself? What was it like? Oh

37:55

yes, it's quite an experience. To

37:57

further helping Kenyans and Africans in

37:59

the world. industrialization and

38:02

also agricultural modernization. And

38:05

he was also called as supporting the

38:08

One China Policy and support

38:10

Beijing's position on their

38:12

domestic human rights issues.

38:16

And in an interview with

38:18

Chinese state news agency Xinhua,

38:20

Ruto was also refilting the

38:22

notion in the Western media

38:24

that China was using this

38:27

debt trap. While

38:29

he was bigging up China's role in

38:31

Africa for Chinese audiences, Ruto

38:33

might have felt snubbed by his

38:35

hosts upon arrival. He was

38:38

met at the airport by the transport minister

38:40

when other people were met by presidents, was

38:42

given a shorter red carpet when he went

38:44

there. Shorter red carpet.

38:46

Ouch. In contrast, the Ethiopian

38:49

Prime Minister, Abi Ahmed, was greeted

38:51

by traditional dancers at the airport

38:53

when he landed for the same

38:55

event. We

38:59

at BBC Monitoring often observe this.

39:02

The message changes depending on the audience.

39:05

So let's have a last look at

39:07

China's image in Africa. What's

39:09

the perception after 20-odd active years

39:11

on the continent? Africans

39:14

in general still view

39:16

Chinese relatively positive. For

39:19

example, we have these

39:21

Afro-barometer national surveys in

39:23

34 African countries from

39:26

2019 to 2021. The

39:29

surveys show that 63% Africans

39:33

hold positive views of Chinese assistance

39:35

and influence on the continent, which

39:37

is higher than the US, which

39:39

is at 60%. And

39:43

China also remains second to the US

39:45

as the preferred development

39:47

models for Africans. In

39:50

the Chinese Communist Party HQ in

39:53

Beijing, this is viewed as a

39:55

job well done. So what is

39:57

left to achieve in Africa? to

40:00

Oti for his thoughts on the future

40:02

of the Chinese media operation on the

40:04

continent. Since the pandemic, what

40:06

we have seen is that the Chinese media

40:08

empire, so to speak, is not expanding as

40:10

it used to be. We

40:12

understand that some bureaus for Xinhua, for instance,

40:14

have been closed. We are seeing

40:17

what would be stalling in terms of its

40:19

investments, in terms of its deployment, in terms

40:21

of its coverage of the continent. For

40:24

the next couple of years, China is

40:26

still going to use CRI, the China

40:28

Red International. CIGI-Tien is still

40:30

going to play a big part of

40:32

Chinese media operations on the continent, to

40:35

deploy people who look

40:38

like me across the continent,

40:40

talking on televisions that are

40:42

watched by people from

40:45

all walks of life. You

40:47

won't have to go to CIGI-Tien to get

40:49

information about China. When you can

40:51

get that from a commentator who, as

40:54

an individual who is not smart enough in

40:56

terms of media literacy, will not understand his

40:58

picking on the bureaus for China, but

41:00

silently the journalist China

41:02

is training, the media houses

41:05

is partnering with, the surrogates

41:07

or the people who are being

41:09

deployed across the continent to

41:11

say the Chinese narrative that

41:13

they want to convey would

41:16

be playing a big part in the kind

41:18

of soft power for China.

41:22

Beijing seems to have settled in Africa for

41:24

the long haul, just as

41:26

the Chinese workers I came across

41:28

in Nairobi's Chinatown. contributors

42:00

Shem O'Tiano and Tom Lapp.

42:03

Research was by Alison Oniango and

42:06

Vincent Kiesunya. The producer is Krista

42:08

Chatteri and the technical producer is

42:11

Elchin Solleimano. The sound

42:13

engineer is Nick Skip and our

42:15

editor is Judy King. Thank you

42:17

for listening from all of us and

42:19

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