Why China wants African students to learn Mandarin

By Kenneth King. While China’s dramatic economic and trade impact on Africa has caught global attention, there has little focus on its role in education.
But there are important questions raised by China’s education push into Africa. Why does China run one of the world’s largest short-term training programmes, with plans to take 30,000 Africans to China between 2013 and 2015? Why does it give generous support to 38 Confucius Institutes teaching Mandarin and Chinese culture at many of Africa’s top universities from the Cape to Cairo? More...