(CNN) -- Last week, Beijing's leading English-language newspaper, China Daily, begun publishing a weekly Africa edition, focusing on financial news and targeting Africa's growing middle class. Earlier this year, China's international broadcaster, CCTV, launched an impressive media operation in Africa, producing one hour a day of content from the continent as well as feature programs on African affairs, through a newsroom of more than 40 Chinese and 70 African staff members. Both initiatives add to the more established activities of China's news agency, Xinhua, which in recent years has deepened its partnerships with African media outlets and provides them with news from across the world as well as from the dozens of African countries where it has correspondents.
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New "Africa edition" of China Daily part of Chinese media influence on the continent
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It offers "positive reporting" on Africa, say Harry Verhoeven and Iginio Gagliardone
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Chinese media must avoid mistakes of Western press, they argue
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In a context of Africa's growing importance to the global economy, Chinese media present a radical challenge to @placeholder style journalism.
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The @placeholder of today, while still consumed by many intractable problems, is no longer the Africa of the 1990s: Millions of Africans are seizing on unprecedented opportunities to build new lives.
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The Africa of today, while still consumed by many intractable problems, is no longer the @placeholder of the 1990s: Millions of Africans are seizing on unprecedented opportunities to build new lives.
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Read related: The Africans looking to make it in @placeholder