Belt and Road Documentary Launches in Kabul

On December 5, 2017, Kabul News TV launched the five-episode documentary “The Belt and Road Story of China and Afghanistan” (中國與阿富汗”一帶一路”故事) at a ceremony in Kabul. The documentary features interviews with officials from China and Afghanistan, focusing on exchanges under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. More than 30 attendees included Zhang Zhixin (張志新), Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan, Deputy Minister of Information and Culture Sayada Muzagan Mustafavi, and Kabul News TV CEO Ghulam Gilani Zawak. Zhang praised the documentary’s “clear theme and rich content,” stating that it reflects developing bilateral relations in culture and trade with “positive significance for enhancing people-to-people understanding.” “People-to-people” exchange refers in the discourse of the Chinese Communist Party to efforts to enhance ties and press agendas through interactions below the state level — though these exchanges consistently involve state-backed entities, including government-run NGOS, on the China side. Mustafavi said the documentary was “broadcast at the right time to meet the needs of cultural exchange,” helping “more Afghans understand and love China.” Kabul News TV, established in 2011, produces programming in Dari and Pashto and previously imported the 100-episode documentary “Hello, China” in 2015, providing “a window for the Afghan public to understand China.”