China wins hearts and minds as it steps into void left by BBC World Service cuts

During the Cold War, when pretty much every African state was a dictatorship, the World Service’s signature tune, Lilliburlero, followed by its famous pips were instantly recognisable across the continent. “The BBC was the dominant global broadcaster,” recalls Yusuf Hassan Abdi, a Kenyan MP from the country’s Somali minority who worked at the BBC for 11 years. In Somali-speaking regions of the Horn of Africa everything stopped at 5.30pm when the Somali service came on the air.” The same was true in the Middle East, where the chimes of Big Ben, followed by the words “Huna London” sounded on the hour for 85 years on BBC Arabic, the corporation’s oldest foreign language service. “Now if you go round African villages and towns, or even into city offices, people are tuning into Chinese television and radio stations and they feel a greater connection to China than any other time I can think of.” Even as the BBC has been forced to retrench, others have splurged to expand the reach of their respective state media. “The further retreat of the BBC World Service should be a cause for serious global concern,” he said, revealing that the closure of the Arabic and Persian radio services had seen the BBC’s global audience shrink by 40 million.