"The central aim of the forum will be to implement the agreements reached at the FOCAC Summit in Johannesburg and further strengthen exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa on media related matters," said Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) acting Director General, Donald Liphoko, on his arrival in Beijing, on Monday.

 This is reflected in China’s active global public diplomacy drive [...] which started in the mid-2000s. This aspect of people-centred relations has also featured as an element in official Focac documentation. China’s current engagement in South Africa has expanded to include the subset cultural diplomacy, a term described by the US State department as the ‘linchpin of public diplomacy’ that reveals the soul of a nation.