"African Media Cultures and Chinese Public Relations Strategies in Kenya and Ethiopia" - by CWP alum Yuan Wang

China has become a global power, but there is too little debate about how this has happened and what it means. Many argue that China exports its developmental model and imposes it on other countries. But Chinese players also extend their influence by working through local actors and institutions while adapting and assimilating local and traditional forms, norms, and practices. 

With a generous multiyear grant from the Ford Foundation, Carnegie has launched an innovative body of research on Chinese engagement strategies in seven regions of the world—Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, the Pacific, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Through a mix of research and strategic convening, this project explores these complex dynamics, including the ways Chinese firms are adapting to local labor laws in Latin America, Chinese banks and funds are exploring traditional Islamic financial and credit products in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and Chinese actors are helping local workers upgrade their skills in Central Asia. These adaptive Chinese strategies that accommodate and work within local realities are mostly ignored by Western policymakers in particular.

HANGWEI LI,  YUAN WANG - FEBRUARY 27, 2023 - Carnegie Endowment Paper

I am Assistant Professor of International Relations at Duke Kunshan University starting from July 2022. My teaching and research interests include global China, African politics, and comparative political economy of development.

My research covers African state effectiveness and China’s economic and political engagement with Africa. My book project (under contract with Oxford University Press) investigates why Chinese-financed and -constructed develop into starkly different trajectories in different African countries. I used process tracing based on extensive fieldwork in Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, and China. I also have ongoing collaborative projects in Cambodia.

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