Gongong News Agency Courts Malaysian and Malawi Representatives in Guangzhou

On May 15, 2026, Huang Weijian (黃偉健), director of the international communication center of Hong Kong-based Gongong News Agency (共工新聞社), attended a cross-border and overseas media forum held at the ICC Trade Center (ICC環貿大廈) in Guangzhou. Huang delivered a keynote address titled “Rooted in Hong Kong, Connected to the World, Promoting the International Dissemination of Chinese Culture,” in which he described the agency’s mandate using Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s formulation “telling China’s story well, spreading China’s voice” (講好中國故事、傳播中國聲音), and invoked Hong Kong’s role as a platform “backed by the motherland, connected to the world” (背靠祖國、聯通世界) — a phrase that Beijing routinely deploys to position Hong Kong’s residual international links as an instrument of Chinese state messaging. During the event, the agency’s international communication center presented a copy of the Gongong News Agency Publicity Booklet (共工新聞社宣傳冊) to the deputy commercial consul of the Malaysian Consulate General in Guangzhou, after which the two sides exchanged views on deepening international communication and cultural exchange cooperation, though no formal agreement was announced. Also present was Jani Grey Kasunda, a Malawian student of international relations in China who has declared his candidacy for the Malawian presidency in the 2030 general elections (a contest still four years away), and who has separately courted Chinese investment in Malawi’s agriculture, mining, energy, and digital sectors. At the Guangzhou forum, Kasunda praised the agency’s communication philosophy and expressed interest in future China-Africa media cooperation. The forum’s concluding framing — that the agency would contribute to “people-to-people connectivity” (民心相通) and “mutual learning among civilizations” (文明交流互鑒) — drew on established CCP soft-power discourse.