China’s desire to imprint its own brand of diplomacy on global affairs has undergone a major test this week, in one of the world’s least stable regions, the Horn of Africa — exposing some of the contradictions to its approach in the process. Held over two days beginning last Monday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, the first ever China-Horn of Africa peace conference followed months of shuttle diplomacy from China’s special envoy, Xue Bing, resulting in seven of the eight often mutually hostile countries in the region attending (only Eritrea failed to show). Beijing’s success in putting the conference together partly reflects its economic clout in this part of east Africa, thanks to its heavy long-term investment in its resources and infrastructure: even the conference’s venue, the African Union’s headquarters in Addis, was built with Chinese funding.  But the event’s significance stretches beyond regional politics, analysts say, in that it was Beijingâ