Emeka Umejei, "China in African Media: Between Influence Operations and Decolonization" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
New Books in African StudiesPlay episode
Show notes
At its core, China in African Media: Between Influence Operations and Decolonization (Bloomsbury, 2026) is a book about power, journalism, geopolitical influence, and knowledge production in China–Africa relations. It examines how the People’s Republic of China has moved beyond simply establishing Chinese media organizations such as Xinhua and CGTN in Africa toward a much more dispersed system of engagement. Conceptualizing these engagements collectively as a multimodal or mixed-media ecology of influence, Umejei highlights China’s ability to reach African audiences directly through Chinese media, indirectly through African news organizations, institutionally through partnerships, professionally through the journalists it trains, and infrastructurally through technologies implemented by Chinese firms.
Underlying the book is a strong normative concern about the implications of this expansion of Chinese media engagement for Africa’s democracy, leadership, developmental aspirations, and decolonization. In this regard, Umejei addresses the question: Is the emerging South–South media relationship helping to decolonize African journalism by weakening Western dominance, or is China principally replacing Western influence with a new form of Chinese influence? The book draws on semi-structured interviews with journalists across fourteen African countries, content analysis, policy documents, and publicly available materials.
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