China's influence in African media narratives and digital space
China has played a crucial role in Africa since the mid XX-century. It supported several African liberation movements, it established the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to improve cooperation between China and African states, and more recently it aimed at reinvigorating the old trading routes along the African coast with the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Furthermore, a relatively unknown fact is that China has made significant investments in Africa's digital space.
In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alicia García-Herrero and Iginio Gagliardone to talk about China’s image and digital influence in Africa. They discuss specific examples of successful and unsuccessful media narratives built by China and assess the role that Europe plays in relation to China and Africa's digital influence.
This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.
ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe.
Click to read all past editions of ZhōngHuá Mundus
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About the speakers
Giuseppe Porcaro
Head of Outreach, Governance and Human Resources, Bruegel
Alicia Garcia Herrero
Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, Non-resident Senior Follow at the East Asian Institute, Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Economist specialized in monetary and financial issues in emerging markets, banking crises and resolution strategies, financial development
Iginio Gagliardone
Associate professor, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa