Document details

Re-Orienting the 'Charm Offensive' to the 'Charm Defensive': A Critical Review of Chinese Media Development in Africa

African Journalism Studies, volume 36, issue 1 (2015), pp. 135-140

Signature commbox: Journals

"All in all, Chinese media development in Africa can be considered as a ‘charm offensive‘ in terrns of its scale and scope, which is characterised by the following: 1) all the projects are mainly government sponsored, strategically engineered and efficiently irnplemented; 2) projects centre around infrastructure building and technical support, under the aegis of voluminous investment; 3) all projects and their outcomes have drawn attention around the globe, evoking particularly harsh criticism and even derogatory abuse from Western media and liberal intellectuals who fear that China will colonise Africa, thereby replacing the foundational belief in Western-imported press freedom with the Chinese model of ‘market-driven liberalisation under authoritarian control.‘" (Page 138)