Month: November 2025

Global South Partnership: China-Africa Cooperation is Good for Global Diplomacy

Posted on By Abdurahim Ssemanda

The Global South Media and Think Tank Forum China-Africa Partnership Conference which was held in South Africa-Johannesburg on November 13, 2025, was a perfect step made at a perfect time. For some bold reasons as elaborated below, I will confidently say that this is yet another great step of China-Africa partnership whose results must help a lot to shape Global diplomacy.

Reechoing the words of America’s author and entrepreneur, Amy Jo Martin, “ Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage,” I can emphatically say that social media had ruined and is ruining global diplomacy and such a conference, plays a big role in restoring order.

For instance, the conference whose theme was “ Reforming Global Governance: New Roles and Visions for China-Africa Cooperation,” the conference’s main target was to analyze how the collaboration between media and think tanks could result into a better-for-all global governance.

This implies that the conference created enough room for mass awareness of the roles of think tanks vis-à-vis media, especially print media like newspapers. Culturally, newspapers have been one of the most dropped sources of providing information over the ages as civilization advances. This has made the print media to be left aside for a few elites, topped by digital media like TikTok and Facebook. This ultimately points out the view that the conference’s masterminds identified a crucial problem of information disorders largely engineered by digital media.

The simplest response to the why-question that has popped up into your mind especially after my opinion on digital media is; the reading culture is decaying. People, especially the biggest percentage of the world’s population which is made up of the youth prefer scrolling up and down on their devices to watch short videos for information, and tapping other pieces of information from platforms like Facebook than reading newspapers.

How this is a constraint to global diplomacy can easily be seen through the lens of foreign policy, aware that foreign policy feeds global diplomacy. As reflected in the words of Amy Jo earlier, social media especially digital media, “ Gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage.” This makes it the easily manipulated type of media because “anyone” is given a voice and platform to engage. It does not matter whether you are academically qualified to discuss pertinent issues as long as you are able to speak. This trend cannot be found within the print media where think tanks and media houses must write and research in order to provide thoroughly analyzed and well backed up information.

Two forms of information disorders heavily influence how information trends under digital media because it is often mishandled in the name of “content” yet it is greatly consumed by the biggest number of audiences who believe that such information is true without verification.

Misinformation is the biggest problem in Uganda and it greatly affects diplomatic ties of several countries. This is where the information being spread is false, but the person disseminating it believes it is true. In other words, they also do not know if the information is true or not, but for the love of likes from the audience, they go ahead and circulate such information. Remember social media gives a voice and platform to “anyone.”

I cite China-Uganda relations as a key example where social media has for some good number of times sabotaged the relations of these two states. In 2021, earth-quaking headlines emerged on various social media platforms and on social media handles of prominent bloggers in Uganda. The invalid but widely believed news that Chinese bank had taken Uganda’s only international airport spread like wildfire.

The misinformers picked on an interesting bit of information, clung on it, and made the public to believe them. HUEN—which is an International Civil Aviation Organization location indicator code for Entebbe international airport, became their mask of support. Since the airport had been expanded to fit the international standards with the help of loans from the Exim Bank of China under the Belt and Road Initiative, upon its completion, the airport gained that code.

However, to the misinformers, the code sounded like a Chinese name replacing “Entebbe”. Maybe we could say “Chen,” one of the commonest Chinese names. Little did they know or bother to make research to realize that each letter in that code implies something. For instance, “H” is a locator for all airports in Africa according to ICAO. “U” indicates Uganda as the main location of the airport. “EN” represents the real name of the airport (Entebbe) since ICAO normally uses the first two letters of the airport to award it a code.

Such information was easily believed owing to the nature of the code’s pronunciation and given the fact that by then, the Western narrative of “debt trap” slapped against China was waving across the globe.

 

With disinformation, where the information is false and the person disseminating it knows it, but intentionally goes ahead to lie, is also common. We can refer to the previous example. Since 2021 was a season of politics in Uganda, some political opportunists saw this as an advantage to achieve their agendas. Of course, this affected the least informed biggest percentage of people on ground who depend on social media as their source of information.

Previously, the same issue has reappeared. On 17th August 2025, President Museveni comissioned the Wagagai gold mining project in Busia District. The project is believed to achieve 99.9% purity in gold processing locally and create over 5,000 jobs for Ugandans. To achieve this, Uganda collaborated with China, seeking provision of capital-intensive infrastructure and resource extraction projects to secure access to critical minerals, foster economic ties, and promote local value addition. However, bloggers were too quick to say that a clique of people in power were secretly selling gold to China.

This was based on the assumption that there was little information available about this project. Little did they know that official handles of China’s embassy in Uganda had already provided this information. The only problem was—such information was provided on twitter where there is fewer audience unlike on Facebook and TikTok where the audience is big and exploited by bloggers.

Therefore, the Johannesburg conference was remarkably important for letting the audience know of other sources of information like think tanks where one can find trusted information. It also gave a green light to think tanks to know that they are also trusted pillars to the media towards shaping coherent and inclusive global diplomacy. In the end, this will not support China and Africa alone, foreign policy feeds global diplomacy.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

 

China’s New Five- Year Plan Approved: Africa Anticipates Opportunities and Strategic Benefits

Posted on By Benjamin Musanjufu Kavubu

Dear Editor, Last month, China held its 20th Central Committee meeting also referred to as the fourth plenary session. It was in Beijing from October 20th to 23rd, 2025. This vital political meeting has been the defining road for China since 1953 and has set the direction in social and economic development for the last 7 decades as well as global strategy at a 5-year basis.

The meeting was attended by 168 full members and 147 alternate members from various disciplines. The members ranged from ministry heads, scholars and grassroots representatives. The political bureau takes the lead and this is headed by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping. He delivered the report that is supposed to steer China for the next five years. The report Was discussed and it’s recommendation approved as the country’s blue print for 2026-2030. The adopted plan also acts as Beijing’s vision for the decade ending in 2035 when socialist modernization should be realized.

During the meeting the previous 5 year plan for 2021-2025 was scrutinized, despite the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) that posed all sorts of challenges according to the central committee, China was able to reach what they referred to as material progress with social harmony, environmental protection and cultural confidence. In the past five years, China realized it is entering a new modernization phase. China now believes they are no longer in the foundation stage but seek to accelerate modernization.

In his address to the session President Xi Jinping outlined the complexities of the global political and economic outlook. Therefore there is a need for a continued strong industrial foundation, having a massive domestic market, an internal complete supply chain, rich and reach human resource and long term planning based on a unique socialist system.

In the discussions that followed according to the final communique of the plenum it was established that China’s trajectory is indeed strong and ready to take on strong economic winds and rough waves especially in the international arena. The adapted to move on the principal of stability with progress. The plenum stressed that economic growth should be along side innovation, green transition and human development beyond GDP numbers. There is going to be a focus on quality growth that matches the  quantative growth. This aspect is one all growing economies should put in the spotlight, economies tend to grow bigger but not better. For China the aspect of better is about quality of livelihoods for individuals.

In the next five years China is going to embark on a series of comprehensive reforms across sectors to make sure it  gains technological independence, expand domestic demand as it seeks to move away from supply side and most importantly national security and social stability. This task is expected to be taken on by the CCP leadership who will work very closely with the Chinese citizens in a people centered development model, there is going to be intentional high quality growth not blind expansion, deepening reforms in all areas, combining market efficiency with effective government guidance through party leadership, while at the same time balancing development with security through continued modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.

The markers for 2030 for China are going to be scientific innovation, quality growth for ordinary citizens, according to the communique there should be breakthrough reforms across sectors something that sounds very interesting, upgrade in social civilization alongside cultural confidence that will shape China’s soft power going into the next decade. Major achievements in green and sustainable development, already a third of China’s electricity is from renewable technology.

The 2026-2030 plan for China seeks to propel the country through the economy, defense and technology to pragmatic global influence by 2035. As a central planning measure China will not abandon its place as leaders in manufacturing but will instead aggressively pursue industrial modernization while protecting the environment. The plenum also stressed that China will not sit back on the technology front but will seek to be at the forefront on cutting edge in AI, aerospace, quantum computing and green technologies in the bid for self reliance.

Through the meeting Beijing made it clear that they will not close their doors to the world, instead they will pursue a high level opening up strategy, they made it clear they will take part in global cooperation as they promote win-win outcomes. China through their five years plan also pledged to defend multilateral trade systems, expand institutional opening up at home to facilitate what they referred to as two way investment while furthering high quality cooperation within most importantly the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China is going to be very intentional about sharing their modernization outcomes but they will be pragmatic about it that it will have to be at their terms.

China’s next five year plan is clear about moving their economy from a supply side to a demand driven one, China in 2025 fully opened up their economy to African exports at duty free access, this is an opportunity for the continent to play into the great plan, as they seek to move their GDP per Capital to $ 25,000 in their bid to reach moderate rich economy status.

It’s wise that Africa moves closer to China when it comes to research especially in areas that will spark industrial modernization with vast untapped resources under the continents soils. African countries have long term development plans with the African Union leading with its 2063 agenda but it’s important they break them down to into shorter term 5 year plans like China has done for 70 years to reach where they are, maybe then we shall truly know how effective these five year plans are.

These plans that Western scholars have referred to as command economies models, based on central planning and central policy have lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty while maintaining Stability that many African countries crave. If the global South, Africa in particular treated planning with China’s discipline, they will be able to write their own story for modernization by 2050.

The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary China Africa Studies, Uganda.