Trump Waves a White Flag in the War for Hearts and Minds

Zach Leggio - Security Leadership Program

Introduction

The U.S. is fighting a hidden war against China in Africa’s media space and President Donald Trump just surrendered, setting the U.S. back by decades. In March 2025, Trump effectively closed the door on the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which provides funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and other global news organizations funded by the U.S. government.

These cuts come at the worst time possible for the U.S.’s position in Africa in particular. Since 2006, China has made major gains across Africa’s media space, launching their own competitors to U.S. media, such as China Radio International, China Global Television Network (CGTN) Africa, and Xinhua. These have provided alternatives to U.S. programs like VOA, which has traditionally reported local news in local languages, providing a free press in regions with very little information integrity.

Why Africa?

Africa is also one of the fastest growing regions on the planet, making a solid foothold of American soft power necessary on the continent. By 2050, a quarter of the world’s population will be African and the continent will become incredibly important in geopolitics for its abundant natural resources that are critical to modern technologies. Growing strong, stable democracies are more important here than almost anywhere else, and media freedom is an essential aspect of strong democracies, according to research from the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe. The U.S. must form close relationships with these growing African democracies before China further erodes them.

Part of the “free press” ideas brought by American media are critiques of China. Voice of America and other news agencies have helped bring the stories of the Uyghur Muslims to African readers, who would never receive that kind of information from CCP-owned news sources. Radio Free Asia broadcasted in languages like Tibetan, Uyghur, and Cantonese, helping inform communities who lack the freedom of the press in China. 

China is also not secret about their ambitions to replace the U.S. in the global information space. “[We] must meticulously and properly conduct external propaganda, innovating external propaganda methods, working hard to create new concepts, new categories and new expressions that integrate the Chinese and the foreign, telling China’s story well, communicating China’s voice well,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a 2013 speech to the National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference.

With this goal of “external propaganda,” China has expanded into the mediascape of developing countries and regions, establishing 37 Xinhua bureaus across Africa since 2006. China has also provided hundreds of African journalists with lavish trips to China to provide training on how to “tell China’s story well.”

Misconceptions of VOA

U.S.-backed media in Africa does not mean American propaganda. The idea of “U.S.-funded media” can sound concerning to Americans, but VOA must not be mischaracterized. VOA has reported around the world for decades sharing local news with the American media’s journalistic standards in mind. Studies show that a free press, which VOA provided, is key to democratic preservation. Media like this also shows that the U.S. cares about these countries and cares about the citizens being informed. The U.S.’s support of press freedoms around the world shows its commitment to worldwide democratic preservation.

Chinese media is designed to be and is a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party. The website for Xinhua Africa has a tab dedicated to sharing specifically China-Africa news, where it shares only positive news about how China helps Africa, with no mention of historical debt trapping or the negative impacts of authoritarianism in China. Research also shows that this investment in influence on African media has had its desired effects. Catie Snow Bailard, a researcher from George Washington University, found correlation between increased African public support of China and its projects on the continent and increased Chinese investment in the media.

The U.S. must build in-roads with future African leaders, not surrender to Chinese influence. The U.S. needs to invest in African media’s resistance to Chinese influence and misinformation and needs to reestablish organizations like Voice of America to keep the voice of freedom on air around the world. An act, like shuttering VOA, that leads to applause in Beijing and Moscow is never the current move.