The Media and Chinese soft power in Uganda: The quest for ...



The Media and Chinese soft power in Uganda: The quest for investment and political influence

NASSANGA Goretti Linda, Journalism & Communication Department, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.  

MAKARA Sabiti , Department of Political Science & Public Administration, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

ABSTRACT

The article is based on the on-going research study that seeks to explore the impact of China’s increased investment, particularly in media and communication industries on the African continent using Uganda as a case study, where China has had substantial investments. Premised within the globalization theories, the study assesses how the Western imperialism paradigm and the participatory paradigm that are associated with the East have been applied in Uganda’s development approaches, and how these have been integrated with the political economy theory. An analysis of the media coverage of China’s engagement on the continent will be made basing on the media coverage in Uganda and China, with a view to establishing how the coverage is influencing public perceptions of China’s soft power. The study will also examine the communication and media strategies used to promote China’s image in Uganda and how China’s entry on the Ugandan media market is countering media imperialism. From the study findings, good strategies from China’s development model and engagement with Uganda’s media and communication industries will be identified, which could form the basis for policy review so as to facilitate the narrowing of the information and digital gap to enhance Uganda’s development.

Introduction

With the emergence of BRICS as influential actors on the global scene, there has been a re-thinking of development approaches and the balance of global power. Countries that had previously attempted to insulate themselves from the world market now abandoned the attempt at economic autarchy and import substitution in favour of integration into world trade (Sparks 2009:191). Previously closed economies like China have opened up to foreign investments and in turn, they have also gone out in quest of economic opportunities. China is now Africa’s top business partner, with trade exceeding $166 billion, overtaking USA as the world’s largest net importer of oil (The Economist 2013.

Since the 1990s, globalization brought about the liberalization of trade policies and de-regulation of national markets and inroads of foreign capital (Sinclair 2004:66), which resulted into massive movement of goods, services and human capital across states creating global enterprises and global citizens, leading to spectacular growth of international financial markets and capital movements between countries on unprecedented scale (Curran & Park 2006:9).

Economies that were dominated by Western investments have now opened up to players from the East, creating unprecedented competition, especially in young big unexploited markets in Africa. With the discovery of unexploited natural resources like oil, timber and agricultural products, these became very attractive to China and other new players. The budding sector of ICT has become a very lucrative area leading to intense competition that has brought in creativity in advertising, social incentives and using the media aggressively to market their products and services.

Chinese businesses in area of infrastructure and energy sectors have won several local contracts. This is accompanied by Chinese government aid to African states with conditions for implementation. This is infused with cultural exchanges and sponsorships. There is also the issue of lobbying leaders, exerting political influence and high level diplomacy as well as influencing media outlets to portray a positive national image of the investors. All these factors will be examined in the context of China’s role in the Uganda’s media and communication industry.

Historical development of Media in Uganda

After independence, government maintained control over the media till the 1990s when media pluralism was introduced. The country now has private and community media alongside the government/public media as well as the various forms of new media. Media pluralism opened up the public sphere, creating more space for public engagement and more investment opportunities in the media industry.

From a historical context of national media, where the state had power to control media content, media liberalization has led to media pluralism and transnational media, so the Westphalian state no longer enjoys this monopoly of media influence (Curran & Park 2006:9). This is a result of the global integration of the media and their centrality to the futures of all national economies as well as the power shift from physical products to symbolic products, including media products (Sparks 2009). Media are at the centre of changes that drive globalization, as service delivery platforms for business transactions and as carriers of information content and images that are central to the global push (Mody 2003). It is in light of this key function that we will be examining China’s investments in the media in Africa, and Uganda in particular.

Background to political developments in Uganda

The current NRM regime in Uganda has been in power since 1986. Once it established itself, it brought in players of mixed ideologies, trying to balance the Western interests with other players. Due to the regime’s initial Leninist ideological convictions, at first it attempted barter trade mainly with Cuba and Tanzania. The global economic realities forced the regime back into Western fold, and in 1987 adopted a liberal economic regime, supported by the World Bank and IMF. The new economic regime allowed multiple economic players, including the return of Asian business people, and the Chinese becoming key players as well.

The liberalization reforms in the 1990s led to opening of national markets, engagement of civil society with the state, demand and struggle for opening up political space to democratization as well as a demand for popular participation as well as opening up the media to competition. Although the NRM regime was initially hesitant to accept a multiparty regime, it found it conveniently allowed trade liberalization (Kiiza, Makara and Rakner 2008).

Theoretical framework: Globalization impact on national media

Globalization has had impact on the national media leading to joining of new media players, both local and foreign, given the free movement of labour and money markets, facilitated by foreign exchange liberalization. The move towards a global media culture can be attributed to the increased capacity to transmit sounds and moving images at low cost across frontiers around the world thus overcoming limits of time and space (McQuail 2003:111; Sinclair 2004; Waisbord 2004). Communication media are central to the theory that sees ‘action at a distance’ as a central feature of globalization, to the extent that globalization is constituted in and through networks and the resulting circulation of symbols rather than things bringing about a shift from physical production to symbolic production, particularly in the field of computing and telecommunication (Sparks 2009:133).

While in the past there were 2 dominant development paradigms, the Western with democratic ideals and the Eastern that stressed participation by the grassroots, China has posed a challenge to these with its development model that emphasizes individual freedom as the most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population (Amartya 2000), The essential character of the Chinese development model is the choice to follow the socialist road and reject capitalist expansion and enslavement, coupled with the fact that China has no intention of exporting its own model of development, but rather the success of China's pursuit of harmony, equality and diversity among nations will change current international rules and concepts of global development (Hong 2010; Zhang 2006)).

“African democracy” has so far not been seriously changed. China turns a blind eye to human-rights abuses, but it has not undermined democratic institutions or conventions and has worked with both government and opposition. For example in Zimbabwe, it continues to work with President Robert Mugabe, but it has also developed relations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, inviting its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to Beijing (The Economist 2013). China’s policy of “non-interference” has been welcomed by African leaders long used to the meddling in some policies of the former Western colonial powers.

China’s recent economic relations with Uganda

China has launched aggressive diplomatic presentations in Africa and in Uganda, particularly. This is done by engaging the press (both foreign and local), arranging visits by local media persons to China, press conferences, special newspaper pull-outs, and high lighting Chinese project profiles, and high profile political visits.

In a recent article titled, “The 21 Century is for Africa” (The New Vision, 18 April 2013),authored by The Chinese Ambassador to Uganda, Zhao Yali, he highlighted the rapid increase in the China-Uganda economic and political relations. He said that the economic cooperation between Uganda and China had developed smoothly explaining that in 2012, the amount of bilateral trade reached $538m, an increase of 34.6% compared with 2011. He added that from 2013, 95% of Uganda’s goods exported to China will enter the Chinese market with no customs duty and tariff (Otage,2013).This has grown bilateral trade by 35 percent.

On oil, a Chinese company, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) has signed a farm-down agreement with Tullow (a British oil company in Uganda) for exploration of oil in Uganda. This company recently won a US$ 2 Billion oil contract to construct Uganda’s oil refinery. China has also been investing in infrastructure development and among these has been the road construction of the Kampala-Entebbe Express way that took place in November 2012. China has also constructed several office structures, including the President’s office and Ministry of Finance, a hospital in the city and several other buildings. In the media industry, China has invested in digital products like StarTimes television and Huawei products.

Despite the good relations between China and Uganda, there is concern about the trade deficit standing at a ratio of 1:10 in favour of China as well as Chinese entering into retail trade, where they under- sell the Ugandans in the same business (Lee 2007).. International concerns have also been raised by the EU over Chinese companies being awarded projects, without competitive tendering.

This study

Our study is one of the pioneering studies of China-Uganda relations, using the “soft power approach”. We are investigating how China has used soft power to exert influence in Africa, with specific focus on Uganda. Several clusters of interviews will be held as well extensive literature reviews to supplement the analysis of the media coverage of China. The findings will be shared in conferences and articles in journals. Already, two major workshops have been held, and preliminary findings shared.

References

Amartya, S. (2000) Development as Freedom

Curran, J. & Park, M.J. (ed) (2006) Beyond globalization theory in Curran, J. & Park, M.J. in Dewesternizing media studies. Routledge, London. 3-19

Goloba M, Kilimani N and Nabiddo W. (2010), Impact of China-Africa Aid Relations; The Case of Uganda, Final Report for African Economic Consortium.

Hong, Z. (2010) The World Implications of the “Chinese Road” in the Context of Globalization. Social Sciences in China Vol. 31, (2) 5-20

Kiiza J. Makara S, and Rakner L.(2008) Electoral Democracy in Uganda. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

Lee, Margaret. (2007) Uganda-China Relations in the 21 Century, paper submitted for publication to the Nordic African Institute.

McQuail, D. (2003). McQuail’s mass communication theory. Sage, London.

Moddy, B. (2003) Global and Local influences on the shape of Media institutions, Mody, B. (ed) International and Development Communication: A 21st century Perspective. Sage, California

Otage Stephen. (2013) China-Uganda bilateral trade posts 35 percent growth. The Daily Monitor, April 20, 2013.

Sinclair, J.: (2004). ‘Globalization, supranational institutions and media’ In Downing, J., McQuail, D., Schlesinger, P. & Wartella, E. (eds) Sage Handbook of Media Studies. Sage, Thousand Oaks. 65-83.

Sparks, C. (2009) Globalisation, development and the mass media. London, Sage

The Economist (2013) Chinese trade with Africa keeps growing; fears of neocolonialism are overdone. March 23rd 2013

Waisbord, S. (2004). ‘Media and the reinvention of the nation’ In Downing, J., McQuail, D., Schlesinger, P. & Wartella, E. (eds) Sage Handbook of Media Studies. Sage, Thousand Oaks. 375-393

Zhang, W. (2006) The allure of the Chinese model. International Herald Tribune, 2 November 2006

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download