
X Marks the Spot
Elon Musk’s new messaging app was built with Chinese users in mind. It was censored before it ever reached them, with related news coverage from state media also pulled down.

On October 30, 2024, the China Media Group (CMG), the state-run media conglomerate directly under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, launched a program showcase in Lima, a promotional event to introduce approximately 20 Spanish-language productions. These include documentaries on Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global development and infrastructure push, and a series on a series on Chinese-style modernization — the latter a key part of political framing since the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2020. The lineup, which also includes dramas, will be broadcast on Peru’s state-run IRTP and Panamericana Television. Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), CMG president and a deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department, and Gustavo Adrianzén, Peru’s prime minister, both delivered video remarks, with Shen describing the initiative as presenting a “trustworthy, lovable and respectable” China. The showcase fell two weeks before Xi Jinping’s state visit to Lima for the APEC summit, where China inaugurated the 3.6 billion-dollar Port of Chancay and signed an upgraded free trade agreement with Peru.
