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Activity Category: Media Engagement Activity

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

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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

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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.

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

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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.

Want Want China Times Media Group Delegation Visits Beijing Daily Group

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Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團) and Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) led a delegation to Beijing Daily Group (北京日報報業集團) on July 6, 2016, meeting with Beijing Daily Group president Fu Hua (傅華) and holding a joint working session. The two sides agreed to jointly organize the Second Cross-Strait Media Summit (第二屆兩岸媒體人北京峰會) in Beijing later that year, focusing on cross-strait youth exchange and industrial cooperation. Beijing CCP Committee Secretary and Politburo member Guo Jinlong (郭金龍) separately received the Want Want China Times delegation — including Tsai Eng-meng, former Taichung mayor and Want Want China Times Media Group vice chairman Hu Chih-chiang (胡志強), and Want Want Media Group president Tsai Shao-chung (蔡紹中) — and expressed the Beijing Municipal CCP Committee’s full support for cross-strait media cooperation, urging the two sides to develop the summit into the premier cross-strait media communication platform. At the session, Tsai Eng-meng said Want Want Group was considering establishing a cross-strait youth entrepreneurship and exchange park in Beijing. The visit was reported by Want News, a Want Want China Times subsidiary publication.

First Cross-Strait Media Summit Held in Beijing

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The First Cross-Strait Media Summit (第一屆兩岸媒體人北京峰會) was held in Beijing in late 2015, co-organized by Beijing Daily Group (北京日報報業集團) and Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團). The summit was the inaugural event in an annual series established under the strategic cooperation agreement the two groups signed in late 2014, providing a recurring institutional framework for bringing Taiwan media executives to Beijing for meetings with senior CCP officials and state media counterparts. The summit series ran annually from 2015, with the exception of 2018, through at least 2019. Want Want China Times Media Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) led the Taiwan delegation.

Want Want Group Chairman Meets Taiwan Affairs Office Director Following China Times Acquisition

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Following his acquisition of the China Times Group (中國時報集團) in November 2008, Want Want Group (旺旺集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) met with Taiwan Affairs Office (國台辦) director Wang Yi (王毅) in Beijing. According to an account subsequently published in Want Want’s internal company newsletter Want Want Monthly (旺旺月刊) and later reported by CommonWealth Magazine (天下雜誌), Tsai told Wang Yi that the acquisition was intended to promote cross-strait relations and that his outlets would follow instructions to report positively on the mainland. Wang Yi expressed the Taiwan Affairs Office’s full support for the China Times Group. The exchange was later cited by scholar He Qinglian (何清漣) in her book Red Infiltration (紅色滲透) as emblematic of CCP-aligned Taiwan media ownership.

Third Cross-Strait Media Summit Held in Beijing

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The Third Cross-Strait Media Summit (第三屆兩岸媒體人北京峰會) was held in Beijing in December 2017, themed around the thirtieth anniversary of cross-strait journalism exchange. Taiwan Affairs Office (國台辦) and Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee (中共中央台灣工作辦公室) director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) attended and addressed the gathering. Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團) and Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) and Want Want China Times Media Group vice chairman Hu Chih-chiang (胡志強) both attended. The summit was co-organized by Beijing Daily Group (北京日報報業集團) and Want Want China Times Media Group, as reported by The News Lens.

2022 Cross-Strait Chinese Character Festival Held in Taipei

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The 2022 Cross-Strait Chinese Character Festival (海峽兩岸漢字節) culminating event was held in Taipei on December 14, 2022. The festival was organized on the mainland side by the Haicang District Propaganda Office of the Chinese Communist Party (中共海滄區委宣傳部), the Haicang District Federation of Literary and Art Circles (海滄區文學藝術界聯合會), and the state-run Xiamen Daily (廈門日報社), published by the CCP Committee in Xiamen, with Taiwan’s Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時傳媒集團) serving as the Taiwan co-organizer. The annual character — “thought/longing” (思) — was announced at the Taipei ceremony, selected from more than 14.7 million votes. Excellence Magazine (卓越雜誌) president Xu Banghao (徐邦浩) participated and the magazine partnered with organizers to publish a companion volume in Taiwan. The festival, established in 2008 and anchored in Haicang since 2014, has been described by organizers as a platform for advancing cross-strait “emotional convergence” (心靈契合). The phrase originates with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who introduced it in 2014 as a central concept in his unification framework, describing the goal of unification as not merely formal but requiring that compatriots on both sides achieve a deeper spiritual and emotional alignment — a formulation that People’s Daily has since elaborated as the ideological basis for using cultural exchange to build Taiwan public acceptance of unification.

Want Want China Times Media Group and Beijing Daily Group Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement

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Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) and Beijing Daily Group (北京日報報業集團) signed a strategic cooperation agreement (戰略合作協議) in late 2014. The agreement established a framework for news exchange and media industry cooperation between the two groups, and provided the organizational basis for the annual Cross-Strait Media Summit (兩岸媒體人北京峰會), a joint media platform the two groups subsequently developed together. The existence of the agreement was reported by The News Lens in 2019, citing China Times coverage of subsequent summit activity.