Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to China will prompt intense debate about the extent to which Beijing is a political threat as well as an economic rival – and whether the UK is using the tools it has to counter China’s growing power around the world.
One area where the answer is a resounding “no” is the one I study: the use of media as a soft power device to resist China’s success in spreading its critical narratives about the West across Africa, the fastest-growing continent where one in four of the world’s population will live by 2050.
This is a story of British and American retreat cleverly exploited by China to win the battle for African eyes and ears, through correspondents in almost every African capital grabbing broadcasting opportunities left behind, of journalists trained to deliver pro-Beijing messages.
“The West cannot be trusted, a colonial force for a hundred years that’s made you poorer than you should be – it’s time to try something else.” That is the narrative pumped out. And it’s working.
A study I helped carry out put the statement “If a war breaks out in Taiwan, it would be the United States’ fault” to thousands of people in four African countries. Six in 10 Ethiopians and five in 10 South Africans agreed with it.
One way to explain this is that, in many parts of Africa, there’s growing anti-American and anti-Western sentiment. Part of it is stoked by domestic media. But foreign media also play a role.
Now, just when the BBC World Service must expand to confront this challenge, its presence could shrivel further – because it relies on funding from the UK’s international development budget, which is being cut by billions of pounds.
While the World Service waits to hear its funding fate, the country Starmer is visiting is marching ahead in this information war to reinforce its position as the biggest media player in Africa by some distance.
Its weapons are not only the English language channel of the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN), the state news agency Xinhua, and the Communist Party-owned newspaper China Daily, but a network of partnerships with local organisations.
Many African countries are transitioning from analogue to digital TV – as we did 20 years ago – and the Chinese have secured many of those tenders. It means its company StarTimes, privately owned, operates the infrastructure through which most African countries get their TV.
CGTN sets aside programmes for “non-professional journalists”, who are given resources to tell their stories. Hey presto, those stories tend to be aligned with Beijing.
While many news organisations are prevented from reporting freely on sensitive topics in China, such as Beijing’s repressive policies in Xinjiang, “news influencers” on YouTube and TikTok are given “free” access to show a picture-perfect image of China, free of anything remotely uncomfortable.
Up to 70 per cent of young people in Kenya and Nigeria get their news from YouTube, now an incredibly important source of information. CGTN is high up among international broadcasters for YouTube users.
The China Index, a civil society project studying China’s growing global grip, including over media, identified 76 countries where outlets deliver Chinese state-funded content – including 14 in Africa.
Policymakers in European capitals may hope disinformation can be debunked through factchecking or media literacy campaigns, but those tactics will not succeed where anti-West narratives are allowed to feed on deep-seated mistrust.
It does not have to be like this. The BBC remains very popular. In a 2024 survey, 60 per cnt of Zambians and over 40 per cent of South Africans said they get their news from the BBC. The corporation is seen as a symbol of media freedom in many parts of the world. But its status will wither unless it broadcasts its values, unless it stays in this fight.
Lesotho is a telling example of the path we are on. The national station switches off for several hours a day and the BBC used to be called to step in. Now it has to compete with China’s CGTN for airtime.
And money talks. When TRT, Turkey’s state channel, opened a Hausa language service for the Nigerian market, most of its staff walked out of the BBC’s office to sign up – because TRT pays better than the BBC.
Many people may not realise that a shrinking aid budget is an own goal weakening Britain’s standing and influence abroad, to the glee of authoritarian rivals. But the prime minister might like to consider the consequences while in China this week.
Dani Madrid-Morales is co-head of the University of Sheffield Disinformation Research Cluster
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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