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Activity Category: Media Engagement Activity

2024 China-Latin America Civilization Dialogue Held in Lima

On November 6, 2024, the 2024 China–Latin America Civilizational Dialogue was held in Lima, Peru, and was organized by China International Communications Group (CICG, 中国国际传播集团), a state-controlled media organization. Xinhua reported that the forum drew more than 150 officials, scholars, media representatives, and business figures from China as well as more than 10 Latin American countries. The theme of the event was “Civilizational Heritage and Modern Development,” framing that drew on the Chinese Communist Party’s most recent re-formulation of its legitimacy at home and abroad around the notion that China has created a “new form of human civilization” that offers a model for the world. CICG editor-in-chief Gao Anming (高安明) used his keynote speech to push China’s South-South cooperation messaging, casting China and Latin American nations as fellow “members of the Global South” who “share similar development goals and philosophies.” The forum launched an “Academic Partnership Network for Global Civilization Dialogue,” proposed by the CICG-affiliated Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (當代中國與世界研究院) alongside 53 institutions including the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), as well as English and Spanish editions of Six Perspectives of Chinese Modernization (中國式現代化六觀), published by the government-run Chongqing Publishing Group (重慶出版集團). The forum was guided by China’s State Council Information Office (國務院新聞辦公室), Peru’s Ministry of Culture, and the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (Parlatino), and co-organized by CICG and FLACSO. The event falls under Xi Jinping’s Global Civilization Initiative, which promotes a concept of “civilizational diversity” that implicitly challenges universal values by asserting that different political systems can define their own standards, with state rights taking precedence over individual rights. 

China Media Group Launches Program Showcase in Lima

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.

RTHK Signs MoU with Malaysia

On March 5, 2026, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications in Kuala Lumpur, aimed at strengthening media cooperation and promoting cultural exchange. The ceremony was held at the headquarters of Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) and was jointly signed by RTHK Director of Broadcasting Angelina Kwan Yuen-yee (關婉儀) and newly appointed RTM Director-General Ashwad Ismail. According to Hong Kong media, the memorandum includes plans for joint productions showcasing cultural tourism in both Hong Kong and Malaysia. Kwan and Ashwad also discussed future collaboration under what RTHK described as the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, with Kwan saying that these agreements would help strengthen RTHK’s “international communication capabilities” (國際傳播能力) – a term closely associated with Beijing’s external propaganda strategy under Xi Jinping.

Xinhua President Meets With Andina General Director

On October 12, 2024, Fu Hua (傅華), president of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, met in Beijing with Félix Alberto Paz Quiroz, general director of Peru’s state-owned Andina news agency, on the sidelines of the sixth World Media Summit — a global media forum hosted by Xinhua since 2009 and held in 2024 in Beijing and Urumqi with a focus on AI and media transformation. Typical of China’s global media engagements, the focus was on bilateral relations and China’s positioning of itself as a champion of the Global South. Xinhua reported that the two sides reviewed past cooperation and expressed willingness to collaborate on “serving the development of China-Peru relations,” promoting exchanges between Chinese and Latin American media, “deepening cooperation among media think tanks of the Global South,” and AI-driven media transformation.

China Media Group Signs Cooperation Agreement with Peru

On November 14, 2024, during Xi Jinping’s state visit to Peru alongside the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting — an annual summit of 21 Asia-Pacific economies — in Lima, China Media Group president Shen Haixiong (慎海雄) signed a memorandum of understanding with Fabricio Valencia Gibaja, Peru’s minister of culture, at the Presidential Palace, according to Peruvian state broadcaster TVPerú. TVPerú described the two-year MOU as covering joint projects in “contemporary art, cultural heritage, media, and the production of television and film content.” The Peruvian government described the MOU as promoting “cultural exchange and mutual learning.” Shen specifically referenced “”two civilizations that share a long history and deeply rooted cultural traditions,” an appropriation of CCP language “civilizational” discourse — sometimes called “Xivilization” by state media — that has been at the center of both foreign policy and legitimacy formation at home since the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2022.

Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Responds to Criticism of Beijing’s Pandemic Response

On April 22, 2020, Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou (桂從友) published a signed article in the Stockholm-based daily Svenska Dagbladet responding to an opinion piece by politicians from Sweden’s Moderate Youth League critical of Beijing’s pandemic response. Gui accused them of “smearing and weakening China” (抹黑中國、削弱中國) and of prioritizing ideology over humanitarian cooperation. He also asserted that Chinese citizens enjoy full democratic freedoms and that China is committed to the rule of law and openness — standard Party talking points delivered through the combative style that made Gui one of Beijing’s most prominent wolf warriors.

Xinhua Signs MoU with Honduras Strategic Planning Secretariat

On March 28, 2023, China’s official Xinhua News Agency signed a cooperation agreement in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with the country’s Strategic Planning Secretariat (Secretaría de Planificación Estratégica), which oversaw government media functions under President Xiomara Castro. According to Xinhua, the two sides reached a “broad consensus” on media collaboration, with the agreement covering the exchange of Spanish-language converged media news products as well as technical and personnel exchanges. The signing came just two days after China and Honduras established diplomatic relations on March 26, when Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (秦剛) and Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina signed a joint communiqué in Beijing. The day prior, on March 27, Xinhua’s bureau was officially inaugurated with Honduran government approval. In March 2023, Honduras ended its 82-year diplomatic relationship with Taiwan in favor of the People’s Republic of China, pivoting toward Beijing to secure more infrastructure funding and economic investment.

Nanfang Media Group Expands Partnership to Thailand and Malaysia

In late October 2023, China’s Nanfang Media Group (南方報業傳媒集團) signed strategic cooperation framework agreements with eight media outlets across Thailand and Malaysia — expanding and upgrading a partnership framework the group first established with five Malaysian outlets in October 2021. Three Thai outlets joined for the first time: Asia News Time (亞洲日報), Chinese Headline New Media Thailand, and TAIGUO.COM. The five Malaysian partners from 2021 — Kwong Wah Yit Poh (光華日報), Oriental Daily News (東方日報), United Daily News (聯合日報), The Sun, and Malay Mail — were retained. Under the agreements, GDToday, Nanfang Media Group’s international platform, will conduct joint interviews and content production framed explicitly around Belt and Road Initiative messaging, ASEAN cooperation narratives, and promotion of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) — Beijing’s flagship strategy to economically and politically integrate Hong Kong and Macao with the mainland by binding them into a single high-tech manufacturing and financial hub anchored in Guangdong province.

Thai Jiaranai Group Co-Produces Tourism Promotion with Thailand’s Tourism Authority

In April 2022, Thai Jiaranai Group (泰國亞洲大衆集團) co-produced and released a Thai tourism promotional music video, Sawasdeeka Bangkok (薩瓦迪卡曼谷), in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (泰國國家旅遊局), with additional co-producers including SaHa Group (協成昌集團) and Thailand Privilege Card. The song was written and composed by Thai Jiaranai Group chairman Guo Rui (郭蕊) — who has openly said the group’s primary mission within Thailand, echoing Xi Jinping, is to “tell China’s story well” and “build a correct, positive, and constructive discourse system in the Chinese language” — and vice president Zhong Muyue (鐘慕岳). It was released globally on April 8, 2022, and distributed across major Chinese platforms including QQ Music, Kuwo, Weibo, Douyin, and YouTube. While framed publicly as a tourism promotion, the production was described by Thai Jiaranai Group’s senior executive director Zhang Cheng (章骋) as “the latest friendship song symbolizing China-Thailand friendship” (象徵中泰友好的最新友誼之歌) — diplomatic language that goes beyond tourism marketing — and he explicitly connected it to the group’s earlier COVID solidarity anthem as part of a continuous mission of promoting China-Thailand friendship, with a distribution strategy that prioritized mainland Chinese platforms over international tourism channels.