Before Christmas I co-authored a piece for CNN.com on China’s growing presence in Africa. Here are the first few paragraphs; you can read the rest by clicking the link below.

Last month, Beijing’s leading English-language newspaper, China Daily, begun publishing a weekly Africa edition, focusing on financial news and targeting Africa’s growing middle class. Earlier in 2012, China’s international broadcaster, CCTV, launched an impressive media operation in Africa, producing one hour a day of content from the continent as well as feature programs on African affairs, through a newsroom of more than 40 Chinese and 70 African staff members.

Both initiatives add to the more established activities of China’s news agency, Xinhua, which in recent years has deepened its partnerships with African media outlets and provides them with news from across the world as well as from the dozens of African countries where it has correspondents.

The lightning growth of Chinese media is part of the dramatic expansion of the presence of Chinese diplomats, peacekeepers, commercial actors (state-owned or private) and ordinary citizens that has been transforming the African continent in the last 10-15 years.

You can click here to see the rest of the article.

Harry Verhoeven is the Convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University.

This post first appeared on the website of CNN and is reproduced here, in part, with the permission of CNN and the author.

Comments

comments