Dhaka, Sept. 6 -- China-Japan tussle over winning the allegiance of African nations is not a new story. Two countries have been involved in a hidden propaganda battle against each other in African turf for quite some time, though it never had spilled over to open surface, most likely for the sake of maintaining diplomatic decency. However, gone are those days of self restraint and the matter is no longer being kept hidden from public eye. This particular issue had been one of the major Japanese concerns that attracted the attention of the press at the just concluded 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

The three-day conference that wrapped up last Friday in the Japanese city of Yokohama with the adaptation o...