Malawi's "Daily Times" newspaper ran a 12-page supplement a few days ago entitled "50 Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet." The spread was allegedly paid for by the Chinese Embassy in Malawi.There's more information on this in Duffel's blog, Letters from Namitembo, including a bizarre conversation with the newspaper's Advertising Manager and scanned images of the entire 12 pages of propaganda.
I must echo Joshua Keating (and send a hat tip his way, as well), in enquiring as to why Malawians would care so much about Tibet, or, more importantly, why China seems to care so much that they do. Obviously China places great emphasis on the primacy of its "One China" policy when engaging in bilateral relations with nations (which no doubt includes Tibet as much as it does Taiwan), but a) Malawi has already pledged its allegiance to Beijing, and b) I don't recall Tibet ever being much of an issue as far as Malawi is concerned. So either I'm missing something or this Chinese PR campaign is entirely nonsensical. Thoughts?