Academic diplomacy and policy borrowing: media content analysis of Chinese soft power in Morocco

China’s Soft power in Africa has garnered increasing attention since the establishment of Confucius Institutes (CIs) in African countries. This study examines the framing and interpretation of the discourse on Chinese soft power in Moroccan online media in the context of policy borrowing and policy lending. Content analysis was performed on media reports published in three French outlets regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, Programme for International Student Assessment, CIs and related research items over the period of 2010–2019. In total, 153 online news articles were analysed, which yielded interesting results about how media outlets are calling for borrowing policy from China as a reference country. The three most common themes in the discourse behind policy borrowing were as follows: (i) human capital soft power; (ii) university ranking; and (iii) lessons learnt from the Chinese educational system.