SCMP and Nanfang Media Group Sign Strategic Partnership at Asia Pacific Forum in Shenzhen

During the September 2026 Asia-Pacific Media Conference in Shenzhen, the Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) and the Chinese media conglomerate Nanfang Media Group (南方報業傳媒集團) signed a memorandum of understanding to “establish a long-term framework for news collaboration, event organisation, and media technology innovation,” according to an SCMP report. The partnership will mainly involve the Nanfang Media Group’s International Communication Center’s GDToday, which Guangdong provincial authorities have called “the main platform for Guangdong’s external communication.” Huang Can (黄灿), editor-in-chief of the Nanfang Media Group, stated that the two outlets would work together to tell “stories of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and China,” a phrasing that reflects the Party’s formal directive to “tell China a story well” or to present a positive and favorable image of China to the international public. SCMP’s publisher Tammy Tam framed the deal around next year’s 30th anniversary of what she called Hong Kong’s “return to the motherland,” the 1997 transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.