1. How is China exerting soft power in Africa?

They are investing very much in Africa. In particular, China has gone to great lengths to teach the Chinese language and culture in Africa through the Confucius Institutes. This article focuses on the cultural export specifically.

2. To what extent are these measures a success?

The number of Confucius Institutes has increased massively over the years: China’s export of culture certainly seems successful. Some examples from the text:

• “In Africa, there are Confucius Institutes offering courses in 49 countries.”
• “The number of Confucius Institutes in Africa continues to grow rapidly — and, with it, China’s soft power: With 10 institutes, South Africa is now considered a major center for learning Mandarin on the African continent.”
• “Many private schools and even some public ones in South Africa now offer Mandarin as a foreign language.”
• “Even the landlocked mountain kingdom of Lesotho with a population of fewer than 2.4 million people, which is wholly enveloped by South Africa, has two Confucius Institutes.”

3. Compare this to another country exerting soft power.

The USA famously exerted soft power—in the past—through their USAID program, which was the largest foreign aid program in the world. Through helping LEDCs develop further, the USA gained much soft power over these LEDCs, as people looked up to the USA and owed much of their development to them as well.

This is a notable distinction from what China is doing, however, as USAID was not an export of American culture but simply foreign aid. Additionally, until recently the USA was a very appealing place to migrate to, unlike China, which both abroad and domestically almost exclusively hires Chinese people.