The Strategic Costs of Dismantling VOA; Revival Will Be Hard

 The Foreign Service Journal published in its July/August 2026 edition an article titled "When America Went Silent: The Strategic Costs of Dismantling VOA" by Elez Biberaji, 43-year veteran of VOA.

The effort by the Trump administration to shut down the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which operates the Voice of America and sister media outlets, has eroded America's capacity to shape global understanding and ceded influence to competitors who weaponize information.

The Washingtonian published on 2 July 2026 an article titled "Reviving Voice of America Will be Difficult, Insiders Say" by Ike Allen.

As a result of a court decision and some funding by Congress, VOA is trying to return to service.  But only about 200 of its former 2,000 employees are at work and its effort is limited to a few languages.

The Trump administration is appealing the court order to restart VOA operations, and the matter is in limbo.  The situation at the VOA headquarters in downtown Washington has deteriorated so much that some fired staff believe it will not be possible to revive the organization, at least not during the Trump administration.    

China Reshapes Africa's Media Landscape

 The blog for the SOAS China Institute at the University of London published on 30 July 2025 a commentary titled "How China Is Reshaping Africa's Information and Media Landscape" by Daouda Cisse, Gaston Berger University in Senegal.  

Chinese state media outlets like CGTN, Xinhua, and China Daily are now common features in African media spaces.  Beijing is helping to reshape Africa's media and governance landscape.  The issue becomes how African governments can benefit without compromising press freedom, data privacy, or democratic values.

Attraction of Chinese Surveillance Technology in Africa

 The Atlantic Council published in May 2023 a paper titled "Africa's Demand for and Adoption of Chinese Surveillance Technology" by Bulelani Jili.  

The paper addresses the motivations behind the adoption of Chinese information and communication technology systems, which include artificial intelligence surveillance tools and other biometric identification systems.

Is China Imposing Its Information Society Model on Africa?

Bridges Africa published in July 2018 an article titled "Is China Changing Information Societies in Africa?" by Iginio Gagliadone, University of Witswatersrand.

The author notes that some have accused China of trying to export its ICT model overseas, resulting in a more authoritarian version of the internet. He concludes that the analysis of China's ICT engagement in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana offers little support for this hypothesis. On the other hand, the fact that African states are being helped by China in asserting their own controls over those of other actors may bring this accusation closer to the truth in the longer run.

China's Challenge to Western Media in Africa

The Global Media Journal published in its Autumn/Winter 2014 edition a study titled "Media Development with Chinese Characteristics" by Iginio Gagliardone, University of Oxford. 

Building on fieldwork in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya, the article explains to which extent China's entrance in the media and telecommunications sector actually challenges the dominant, Western-driven approaches to media development, promoting a state centered vision of the information society. 

The China-Africa Knowledge Project

I call to your attention The China-Africa Knowledge Project at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).  The project aims to deepen understanding of China's engagement with Africa and locate scholarship on China and Africa within broader scholarly and policy discourses.  It does this by institutional collaboration and developing web-based resources and activities.  It is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and the SSRC. 

The project has an international and interdisciplinary Working Group on China-Africa tasked with facilitating new research collaboration.  The SSRC is working to strengthen and expand the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network.  The China, Africa, and the UN stream of work explores the evolution of China's engagement with multilateral cooperation and the United Nations.