"China’s media offensive in Africa is an expression of the need to create advantageous conditions for its own trade relations and for strategic alliances, for example in international organizations. At the same time, China’s global charm offensive or »charm defensive« is also a reaction to what China often feels is unfair reporting in western media about China and China in Africa. Consequently, the Chinese leadership is investing in internationalizing and expanding its state media in cooperation with African state media and in ambitious exchange and training programmes for African journalists. The aforementioned objectives of Chinese foreign media are accompanied and supported by strategic Chinese corporate investment in information technology and telecommunications infrastructure in African countries. In other words, China’s soft power approach is flanked by hard power. German foreign and development policy should carefully analyse the growing competition and criticism of western reporting about Africa and draw conclusions for media development cooperation." (Page 1)