IT MAY BE GOOD politics for the west to spend big money badmouthing China, but the process ultimately harms the poor, said speakers at an Africa-China communications forum yesterday.
The negative news prevents Africans from taking advantage of the way China uses its skills in creating large scale infrastructure projects to boost trade within and between cities.
Africans and Asians can unite against the demonization process, because both regions have the same need – they are developing areas which need to modernize into safe, modern societies, speakers said at the forum in Beijing.
China “is an indispensable and cooperative partner for African countries in the process of achieving modernization”, said Grégoire Ndjaka, CEO of the African Union of Broadcasting, who addressed the forum through video.
MISREPRESENTED
Across Africa, China has helped construct or rebuild more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads, almost 1,000 bridges and nearly 100 ports in Africa. Yet these achievements go unreported, or are misrepresented as “debt traps” or “neo-colonialism”.
“The western media dominates in many African countries. Their narrative is aimed primarily at demonizing China, creating a very bad image of the country,” Qwesi Pratt JNR, director and founder of pan African television, said at the forum.
Unbiased voices are crucial in helping people in Africa recognize that China has been at the forefront in supporting Africans, said Paul Frimpong, the Executive Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory.
UNBIASED NARRATIVE
A Global Times reporter summarized the theme emerging from the talks: “African scholars emphasized the importance of creating a comprehensive and unbiased narrative that portrays the stories of China-Africa cooperation.”
The other issue is that China offered a different model for governance and international relationships, speakers said. Some Western media don’t want African people to know about China, because it offers an “the example for the future,” said speaker Adetoro Banwo from the University of Lagos.
“Join Hands in the Paths towards Modernization” was the theme of the 6th Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation and China-Africa Think Tank High-Level Dialogue, held in Beijing on Wednesday.