Beijing Review

Expanding Horizons

James Kimonyo, Rwandan Ambassador to China, is becoming an online star. He has found a new way to take diplomacy to the people by selling some of his country’s best-known products, including coffee and chili sauce, through live-streaming.

This January he made his live-streaming debut when he teamed up with a well-known Chinese live-streaming host on Taobao Live, China’s premier online sales portal, introducing Rwandan coffee beans to Chinese netizens. Then in May, during a joint live-streaming session with Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, he sold 3,000

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