China publishing Tibet propaganda in Malawi

Passport reader John Duffell sends in the above newspaper supplement from Malawi. He writes:

I'm an American who's been living in southern Malawi for nearly a year and a  half. Yesterday morning, during a trip to town, I picked up a copy of  Malawi's "Daily Times" newspaper to find a 12-page advertisement celebrating  "50 years of democratic reform in Tibet" It's mostly about how grateful the  people of Tibet are that China has reclaimed what's rightfully hers, and  given them freedom at long last. [...] The ad spread looks remarkably like editorial content, and I've since learned that it was paid for by the Chinese Embassy in Malawi. 

There's more info on Duffell's blog including a bizarre conversation with the newspaper's editor.

It's not news that China is waging a public relations campaign along with its economic expansion in Africa, but it's a bit hard to understand why Malawians would care that much about Tibet, or why China would care that much what they think.

Have any other readers in Africa seen anything similar?

Photo: John Duffell/Flickr