The raid on CGTN Kenya and FOCAC pabulum
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) continued today, and remains the major focus of central state media: Beijing declaration, action plan adopted at FOCAC summit is Xinhua’s top English story. Its Chinese-language version is titled “Unity • Wisdom • Courage — Xi Jinping chairs FOCAC Beijing summit.” The “action plan” is a string of Party platitudes:
Xi said the leaders have unanimously decided to build a China-Africa community with a shared future that assumes joint responsibility, pursues win-win cooperation, delivers happiness for all, enjoys cultural prosperity, ensures common security, and promotes harmony between man and nature.
Around the same time Xi was speaking, police in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, were raiding the African headquarters of CGTN, China’s state-owned global TV network.
- “Gun-wielding Kenyan police on Wednesday raided the African headquarters of the China Global Television Network (CGTN), briefly detaining several journalists as part of an ongoing crackdown against illegal immigrants,” reports Agence France-Presse.
- Cell phone footage of the raid, included in the AFP article, shows “armed plain-clothed police bundling Chinese staff into vehicles while demanding that reporters of other nationalities produce their passports or accompany them to the police station.”
- Kenyan police confirmed the raid took place and was in search of illegal immigrants: “All the foreigners who were arrested at CGTN have been released after their documents were confirmed to be okay,” the chief of police told a local radio station.
There was not much real news out of FOCAC today. See our coverage yesterday for a summary of relevant developments. Three new stories worth your time if you’re following China-Africa stuff:
- Corrupt government? You voted for them – China pushes back at Africa summit / Reuters
“As President Xi Jinping gathered together leaders from almost all African countries for a summit in Beijing in recent days, some former Chinese officials and state media were busy mounting an unusually strong defense of China’s role in the continent.” - China to build Africa’s first LNG terminal in Ghana / Caixin
- “Satisfied” and “inspired”: All the ways African leaders praised their alliance with China / Quartz
