The next speaker in this session at the IAMCR 2025 conference in Singapore is Mistura Salaudeen, whose focus is on China’s soft power in Africa. Africa has gradually become a key target of Chinese soft power activities, through economic investment, bilateral and multilateral engagement, and other initiatives. Its state media outlets have also established increasingly visible African operations. China also partners with African nations through BRICS, FOCAC, BRI, and the Belt and Road initiative. These initiatives seek to convince Africa that China is a more profitable partner than the west.
This is true for Nigeria, too – a ‘Chinese way of doing business’ is increasingly prominent here. But how do Nigerian elites and the middle class project their concerns about Chinese soft power activities in the country? This project conducted a grounded theory analysis of semi-structured interviews with journalists, academics, business people, politicians, and other relevant stakeholders, exploring their responses for common themes. Their exposure to China-related news and engagement with the Chinese presence in Nigeria were also examined.
This uncovered a mitigated skepticism as a dispositional affect: deep-seated resentment and harboured skepticism was mitigated by a profound admiration for China’s economic development and independence. Perceptions of China were dominated by a cautious optimism: this undermined long-held perceptions of western hegemony, and expressed an admiration for China’s ability to overcome poverty and economic disadvantage.
Views about Sino-African relations also featured overt suspicion, however: about covert dominance and influence in African nations, about corrupt dealings with African leaders, and about Chinese oppression of African interests, for instance.
Euphoria for China’s impact and innovative contributions for Africa was also mitigated by a sense of economic sabotage of independent African interests. This was seen as a threat to Nigerian economic sovereignty, with concerns about the Chinese debt trap especially prominent.
Skepticism is present, therefore, but mitigated by positive perceptions, too. China is seen as not entirely altruistic in its dealings with Africa, and worries about its role remain. This suggests limits to China’s soft power influence in Africa, and greater nuance in Sino-African relations than is usually assumed.
