• Mr Lin Songtian (4th right), the Director General of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China with the journalists. Image from article
China is courting African journalists to help tell the success stories of that country to the world.
Consequently, it has put in place programmes to enable African journalists to visit China for periods ranging between two weeks and 10 months, during which the journalists will be exposed to everything about China.
China-Africa press exchange workshop
Recently, 13 journalists from Ghana and Nigeria were in China under a programme dubbed, “The China-Africa press exchange workshop for senior journalists”.
The programme, organised by the Beijing International Chinese College (BICC) and sponsored by the China-Africa Press Centre of the China Public Diplomacy Association, afforded the journalists the opportunity to appreciate the Chinese culture and learn at first-hand how China has been able to move from nowhere to become the second biggest economy in the world with a foreign reserve of $1 trillion.
Programme line-up
Apart from roundtable discussions, during which the journalists had the opportunity to interact with top-notch Chinese government officials, they also went through tutelage on basic Chinese language and the metamorphosis of the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China.
They also had the opportunity to visit selected manufacturing industries, especially those that have outlets in Africa such as Huawei Technologies Company Limited and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd, both in Shanghai, Zhengzhou Yutong Group Company Ltd in Zhengzou, Tianhe Agriculture Development Company Limited, as well as the Chinese Railway Construction Corporation Limited.
The journalists also had a taste of the cultural practices and visited tourist centres such as the Great Wall of China, the sacred sanctuary of the popular Shaolin Temple in Beijing, the Huangpu River and the Shanghai Central Towers, both in Shanghai and the Xuchang Museum among others.
Role of journalists
Addressing the journalists, the Director General of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Lin Songtian, said the role of journalists in telling the world the true story of China could not be underestimated and that since China and Africa shared common interests, “we consider journalists from Africa as close allies to tell the world the true story of China”.
“If we bring politicians and policy makers alone here, they will go back and only share their experiences with their wives and family members, but we know that if we bring journalists here, they will go back and share their experiences with Africa and, indeed, the world,” he said.
Mr Songtian announced that he had proposed to his government to sponsor more journalists from Africa from next year to stay longer and not just for two weeks to enable them to appreciate everything about China.
China-Africa summit
He said he was hopeful that the China-Africa Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December this year would help foster relations between Africa and China and also serve as a platform for journalists from both sides to network.
Mr Songtian said China was ready to share ideas with Africa “because we share common challenges”, adding that “China still has about 70 million of its population living in poverty and that is why we are still a developing country”.
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