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Beijing [China]June 22 (ANI): Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s high-profile announcement to promote “soft power” in Africa, Beijing is deploying strategic activities to conduct active publicity with sharp goals to establish a positive image and consolidate hegemonic control.
National Review’s Yang Jianli wrote that while criticizing China’s ongoing exploitation strategy in Africa, its soft power forecasts are increasing, including the COVID-19 vaccine, and publicity efforts have stepped up to portray China as an active and benign development partner.
Increasing investment in the media, the increase in the number of Confucius Institutes, the holding of large-scale cultural festivals, and the generous donations of scholarships have all established a firm foothold for China on the African continent.
At the same time, recent incidents such as the abuse of Africans in Guangzhou have aggravated the dissatisfaction of African people with Chinese diasporas on the African continent. Due to the lack of strong language and cultural affinity between the two, the interaction between Chinese and Africans is still quite limited.
Nevertheless, according to the National Review, the influence of the Chinese media on the African continent is growing, and at this time Western media have basically withdrawn from the African territory.
Beijing has also been actively pursuing its dream of controlling the local sports market and ensuring access to major sports events in Africa. The initiative is aimed at control and economic gain. China’s plan includes promoting its own low-end domestic products and flooding local markets in Africa to demonstrate its ability to compete with international brands.
At the same time, in order to cultivate demand, the Chinese authorities have been building sports facilities, including stadiums and necessary sports training facilities, in many impoverished countries in Africa where sports infrastructure is severely lacking.
Yang wrote: “It’s time for African countries and other countries in the world to be aware of China’s debt trap diplomacy. In addition to hitting them economically, it also has the ability to enslave them in a neocolonial setting. This time China is at the helm.”
The author also stated that Beijing claims to deploy “soft power” in Africa, but it is actually deploying “sharp power”, which refers to the authoritarian regime gaining influence in other countries through manipulation and subversion.
The media work is almost completely completed under the pressure of the country’s “guidelines”. As China’s economic strength and influence allow it to provide free technical assistance, acquire media companies or provide funds for them, the autonomy of African media has been seriously questioned.
At the same time, dozens of China-supported and funded projects in Africa, most of which were developed as part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI), continue to face strong opposition from communities and environmentalists who accuse the developers of Destroy the ecosystem in pursuit of commodities such as oil, metal and wood.
Chinese investment in Africa has also been scanned because many people accuse China of framing countries in its “debt trap” diplomacy.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has repeatedly warned Africa and other third world countries that the increasing debt to China is dangerous. It emphasizes that Chinese creditors have caused some instability or vulnerability. (ANI)
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