The Chinese Government is eager to balance the international media coverage of Chinese image and this approach is becoming more and more urgent for Beijing's strategy of engagement in Africa.

On April 23, 2012, an article written by Mohamed Keita was forwarded to a Google email group called "Chinese-in-Africa, Africans-in-China," of which I am a member. The article was formerly published in The New York Times on April 15, entitled "Africa's Free Press Problem." [1] The title itself is fine, raising a question regarding a problem in African society. Yet, if you read the article from beginning to end, you will find another message: China's influence on African press freedom. This article has caused some discussion among the Google email group, with some for and some against this message.

As a Chinese person, I think the viewpoint is very interesting and needs some discussion. Obviously, the Chinese Government is eager to change the image created by the coverage of the West media, and therefore spends a lot of effort on the construction of a positive image.

There are three points concerning the article, which I would like to address. First, according to the author, there is a linkage between the increase of the Sino-African economic activities and the increased repression of the media in Africa. Yet the author offered very thin support for his argument. This is really quite contradictory to the fact since the increase of media freedom goes hand in hand with economic development in China. He stated, 'The prisons in Ethiopia, like those in China, are now filled with journalists and dissidents, and critical websites are blocked.' I am not sure whether his accusation holds the water. Yet as a Chinese person, I enjoy a free life. There are various human rights problems in China for sure, as in other countries, yet we can hear different voices and various opinions in many fields, and I can criticise the policies of the government in my class. I am not saying that there is no press control in China (as in other countries), but press freedom has been greatly improved since the opening up of the country. This fact is acknowledged by many international scholars, including John Thornton.

Keita also argues that the suppression of Africa's press freedom is intentionally due to the Chinese Government by claiming that 'powerful political and economic interests tied to China's investments seek to stamp out independent reporting.' This is again illogical. I do not want to argue whether it is China's fault for Rwanda's previous problem of free press. Frankly speaking, it is a great problem for the Chinese Government to control its own press since there are more than 2200 newspapers in the country (as of 2006), and about 10.000 now, and more than 580 (as of 2009) publishing companies, more than 500 television stations as well. What is more, there have appeared a network of "tweets" or "microblog". One popular actress named Yao Chen has 15 million fans. Even more than the readers of People's Daily, an official newspaper. There are an increasing number of published journals year by year. How could it be possible for the Chinese Government to exert influence on Africa's press freedom, in addition to controlling the press in China?

There is also a problem with the methodology of Mr. Keita's argument. As pointed out by Dr. Yoon June Park, his article tries to 'generalize about the press in all of Africa.' There are more than fifty African countries and accordingly the situation differs across countries. China has the strongest economic ties with South Africa, how is the press freedom there? The author blames China for the problem in Rwanda. 'The volume of trade between Rwanda and China increased fivefold between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the government has eviscerated virtually all critical press and opposition and has begun filtering Rwandan dissident news Web sites based abroad.' I am not sure whether his criticism of the situation in Rwanda is correct, yet I would like to ask this question: Is press freedom problem really directly linked to the increase of trade volume between China and Rwanda? The Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei have invested a great deal in Africa, and have been working hard to build information networks in African countries. Would this contribute to communication and press freedom or lead to a blockade of expression of ideas?