We are losing the world through weak leadership.

With pomp and splendour, China has welcomed more than 50 Africans leaders to Beijing this week for a summit to strengthen ties at a time of increasing political and economic turmoil around the world.

 

“It appeals to their vanities,” Macharia Munene, a Kenya-based professor of international relations tells the BBC, referring to the red carpet welcome – spiced up with entertainment by dancers in colourful costumes – that the leaders received.

 

The optics were carefully choreographed to make the leaders feel that it is a meeting of equals.

 

Many of them – including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Kenya’s William Ruto – held one-to-one meetings with their Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and were given tours of Beijing and other cities at the heart of China’s development ahead of the summit.

 

As Prof Munene puts it, China’s aim is to show African leaders that “we are in the same boat, we are all victims of Western imperialism”.