China is stepping up efforts to train African journalists in what analysts say is a bid to crank up its overseas propaganda operations and boost its ideological influence on the continent.

The Chinese Embassy in Nairobi recently invited around 70 reporters and editors from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, or KBC, to a media course, participants told Voice of America’s Chinese Service.

“Journalists, you are the core of the media and the key factor in the media’s success in gathering information, shaping ideas and leading a country or nation in the right direction,” Zhang Zhizhong told the journalists at the start of the event.