China Seeks African Support on Hong Kong

China has been trying to shape international, including African, opinion about the protests in Hong Kong. Chinese envoys have encouraged opinion pieces for local news outlets, granted interviews, held media briefings, and made speeches in a flurry of public relations activity according to Kristin Huang in the South China Morning Post on 10 September 2019 in an article titled "Why China Went On a Global Media Blitz over the Hong Kong Protests--and Why It Probably Won't Work." The effort included visits to Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria in September by Yang Jiechi, President Xi Jinping's special representative, and a visit to South Africa in October by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accoring to a 19 October article in the South China Morning Post titled "South Africa Gets Behind China's Defence of Multilateral Trade" by Jevans Nyabiage.

So far, the governments of Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa have not commented publicly on the sitution in Hong Kong. On the other hand, Tanzania's Chief Government Spokesperson, Hassan Abbasi, stated in a 4 October interview that Hong Kong is an internal affair within China and Tanzania supports the one country, two systems approach of the government of China. He added that the internal steps taken with the Hong Kong government "are the best approach which other countries need to support." Uganda's ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement on 3 October stating that it "firmly supports the one country, two systems policy of the People's Republic of China on the matter of Hong Kong and other areas." The statement added that "Hong Kong is part of China. Hong Kong's affairs are China's domestic affairs."

It appears that, so far, Uganda and Tanzania are the only African countries that have issued public statements supporting China's handling of the situation in Hong Kong.