Skip to main content

Activity Category: Media Engagement Activity

China Roundtable with CEE Journalists Held in Hebei

Written by Editors on .

On May 30, 2023, the All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), a Chinese Communist Party-led media body, convened a China–Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Journalists Roundtable in Wuqiao County, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, co-organized with the Hebei Provincial Journalists Association (河北省記協), according to a report by People’s Daily Online. Held under the theme “Deepening Exchange and Mutual Learning, Jointly Promoting Prosperity and Development” (深化交流互鑒 共促繁榮發展), the event gathered, according to the outlet, more than 40 guests and journalists from China and 14 Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland, and Greece. Participants discussed media cooperation, including program exchanges and joint reporting plans. Before the roundtable, organizers arranged reporting visits to Wuqiao Acrobatics World, and journalists reportedly called the trip “a very meaningful and unforgettable experience” (非常有意義且難忘的體驗). The report said participants hoped to contribute to “telling the development stories of China and CEEC countries well” (講好中國和中東歐國家的發展故事), language echoing Xi Jinping’s signature external propaganda slogan, “telling China’s story well” (講好中國故事). The All-China Journalists Association has since held the roundtable annually in different Chinese cities, including Ningbo in 2024 and 2025, and Dunhuang in 2026, which the association describes as a key activity under the China–CEEC cooperation framework.

Chinese Ambassador to Georgia Meets with the President of GBTimes Oy

Written by Editors on .

On September 18, 2015, Yue Bin (岳斌), then Chinese ambassador to Georgia, met with Zhao Yinong (趙亦農), president of GBTimes Oy, a Chinese state-linked media company operating in Finland, according to a report published by the Chinese Embassy in Georgia. The ambassador congratulated Zhao on establishing the company’s operations in Georgia and said he hoped it would expand reporting on China to deepen Georgian “understanding and sentiment” (瞭解與情感) toward China. GBTimes Oy, headquartered in Tampere, produces China-related radio, print, and online content for European audiences. A Reuters investigation found that a subsidiary of the state-run China Radio International (CRI), Guoguang Century Media Consultation Co., held a 60 percent ownership stake in GBTimes Oy, and that Zhao told Reuters CRI paid his company “several million euros” annually — a little over half of GBTimes’ total revenue — to produce China-focused programming for European audiences.

Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia Meets with Nouvelles d’Europe

Written by Editors on .

On March 23, 2026, Zhong Cheng (鍾誠), president of the Nouvelles d’Europe Culture and Media Group and publisher of Nouvelles d’Europe (歐洲時報), visited the Chinese Embassy in Slovakia, where he was received by Ambassador Cai Ge (蔡革). Embassy Counselor Wang Xiaojian (王小劍), Political Section Director Liu Tiantian (劉甜甜), and Xuan Xuan (宣絢), general manager of Nouvelles d’Europe‘s Central and Eastern Europe bureau, also took part. The meeting was reported by Nouvelles d’Europe, a French-based newspaper with ties to the state-run China News Service and the CCP’s United Front Work Department. Cai said Sino-Slovak relations, elevated to a strategic partnership in November 2024, had entered “a new stage of vigorous development” (蓬勃發展的新階段), and said closer ties help build a more “objective and rational” (客觀理性) view of China within the EU. As evidence, Cai cited Confucius Institutes now hosted at Slovak universities, a Chinese-language program at Comenius University Bratislava, and a bilingual secondary school in the Banská Bystrica region. Zhong said Nouvelles d’Europe had expanded from a newspaper into a platform spanning media, culture, and Chinese-language education across multiple countries and languages, and described his outlet as a pioneer in exporting Chinese short-form video dramas abroad. He said the paper’s mission is to “tell China’s story well” (講好中國故事) overseas, a phrase closely associated with CCP guidance for state media. The two also discussed the broader European media and political landscape, according to the report.

State Council Information Office Hosts Xinjiang Media Seminar for Foreign Journalists

Written by Editors on .

On April 14, 2024, the State Council Information Office (國務院新聞辦公室), together with the China International Communications Group (中國外文局) and the propaganda office of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region CCP Committee, hosted the Silk Road Economic Belt Joint Construction Countries’ Media Head Seminar (絲綢之路經濟帶共建國家媒體負責人研討班), bringing 26 media figures, writers, and scholars from 21 countries to tour Urumqi, Kashgar, and the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. Addressing participants in Urumqi, Ma Xingrui (馬興瑞), then Xinjiang’s CCP secretary, said the party would “to the greatest possible extent, ensure that the people’s rights to subsistence and development are not violated (最大限度確保人民的生存權和發展權不受侵害),” a formulation the CCP has used to rebut international criticism of its treatment of Uyghurs. Fifteen of the attendees, according to the same report, said Western media had “distorted facts to smear” (歪曲事實來抹黑) Xinjiang. As of April 2026, Ma was under investigation by China’s central discipline and supervisory authorities for a “serious violation of discipline and law,” a term typically denoting corruption.

European Chinese Media Association Organizes 15th European Chinese Media Forum in Milan

Written by Editors on .

On July 19, 2026, the Association of Overseas Chinese Media in Europe (歐洲華文傳媒協會), also known as the “Chinese Media Association in Europe,” organized a large-scale media exchange event in Milan, Italy, inviting 80 representatives from over 40 outlets across more than 20 European countries, according to People’s Daily Online, a web portal operated by the Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily. The event, called the “European Chinese Media Forum” (第十五屆歐洲華文傳媒論壇), was hosted by the Italy-based Chinese-language newspaper European Chinese News (歐洲華人報). The forum was held under the theme “the integration and innovation of Chinese-language media in the AI era” (人工智能時代華文媒體的融合與創新). At the opening ceremony, Zhang Chenggang (張承剛), China’s consul general in Milan, delivered a speech describing Milan as a hub for China-Europe exchange, and emphasizing the role of media in shaping a friendly perception of China in Europe. Zhang also said Chinese-language outlets need to “adapt to trends in artificial intelligence and media convergence,” phrasing that echoes Xi Jinping’s 2019 call for AI-driven “media convergence.” Zhang Chunjiao (張春姣), vice chair of the All-China Journalists Association, the CCP-led journalistic body that serves to implement official media control policies, invited outlets to visit China and “tell China’s stories well, spread China’s good voice,” aiming to shape “a credible, lovable and respectable image of China,” echoing the CCP’s directives on how to spread positive and non-critical views on China. Zhang Lei (張雷), the editor-in-chief of the official China News Service, pledged at the event that CNS would support outlets with “content, technology and channels” to navigate news gathering and dissemination in the AI-era. He added that “a just cause is never without followers; walking together, one travels further,”  a line Xi has used repeatedly at summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to describe China-led multilateral cooperation.

Xinhua and National Media Group Sign News Exchange Deal

Written by Editors on .

On May 20, 2026, during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Beijing, Xinhua News Agency signed a news exchange and cooperation agreement with National Media Group (國家媒體集團), which Chinese state media described as owning multiple major Russian media outlets and handling external-facing information dissemination. According to Xinhua, the agreement covers the exchange of news and information products and mutual visits by personnel between the two sides, aimed at what it called “pragmatic cooperation.” Xinhua News Agency president Fu Hua (傅華) said the agency was ready to work with National Media Group “under the strategic leadership of the two heads of state” to deepen what he called the “comprehensive strategic partnership and coordination between China and Russia in a new era.” National Media Group controls 28 Russian media outlets, including Channel One, Izvestia, and REN TV, and has been under EU sanctions since 2024 for what the bloc described as actively spreading propaganda and disinformation related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The holding is owned by Bank Rossiya and chaired by Alina Kabaeva, who has separately been sanctioned by the EU, UK, and US over her role at the outlet. The agreement was one of four documents Xinhua signed with Russian media that day.

RT and CCTV Premiere Joint WWII Documentary

Written by Editors on .

Between May 20 and 22, 2026, timed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Beijing, RT and China Media Group’s CCTV jointly premiered a three-episode documentary titled The Last Strike (最後一擊), known in Russian as Последний удар, about the Soviet Union’s August 1945 Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against Japan’s Kwantung Army in the closing days of World War II. According to CCTV, the documentary was produced to “promote a correct view of World War II history and safeguard international fairness and justice,” framing the operation as a case of Soviet-Chinese “coordinated combat” that helped end the war, and describing the Kwantung Army’s fortifications as an “Eastern Maginot Line” — a reference to France’s pre-war border defenses, which German forces bypassed in 1940, and which the term invokes here to characterize Japan’s defenses as elaborate but ultimately doomed to fail. RT described The Last Strike as the first documentary on the subject jointly produced and simultaneously broadcast by Russian and Chinese state media, drawing on interviews with nearly 20 witnesses, including a 106-year-old Soviet veteran, alongside researchers from Russia, China, and the United States. The first episode aired live on RT Documentary, RT’s documentary channel; the second and third aired May 21 and 22 on RT Documentary and CCTV-4, CCTV’s Chinese International Channel.

National Media Group and CMG Sign Deal to Deepen SCO Coverage

Written by Editors on .

On May 20, 2026, during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Beijing, National Media Group (國家媒體集團) and China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), or CMG, agreed to expand cooperation on coverage of events related to Russia, China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a China- and Russia-led regional grouping. The two sides also agreed to establish a direct communication mechanism between their editors-in-chief to coordinate coverage of what National Media Group described as “extraordinary and particularly significant events.” National Media Group general director Svetlana Balanova, who is under EU and Swiss sanctions both for her role atop NMG and as head of the Public Council under Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, credited earlier cooperation with CMG for providing what she called “unprecedented information support” to the Chinese release of the Russian-Chinese co-produced film Red Silk (紅絲綢), formally credited as a Russia-China co-production. Set in 1927 aboard the Trans-Siberian Express amid Soviet-Chinese diplomatic tensions, the film follows a Chinese courier, Wang Lin, and a Soviet agent, Artyom, who are forced into an uneasy alliance to protect a piece of secret intelligence as assassins, defectors, and rival spies close in around them, according to the film’s Chinese distribution listing. The film premiered in Russian theaters on February 20, 2025, under the title Красный шёлк, and ranked second in Russian and CIS box office grosses for the week of February 27–March 2, 2025, trailing only The Poet, a musical biographical drama about Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. It opened in mainland Chinese theaters on September 6, 2025, roughly seven months after its Russian debut.

Xinhua and Gazprom-Media Sign Training Memorandum

Written by Editors on .

On May 20, 2026, during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Beijing, Xinhua News Agency and Gazprom-Media Holding (俄羅斯天然氣傳媒控股股份公司), one of Russia’s largest media conglomerates spanning television, radio, print and digital platforms, signed a memorandum on vocational and professional training for media personnel. The agreement provides for a systematic exchange of experience between journalists, editors and media specialists from the two countries, including joint educational programs, seminars, internships and mutual participation in conferences. Gazprom-Media chief executive Aleksandr Zharov said the partnership combined what he called Xinhua’s “unique global news gathering network” — an echo of how Xinhua describes itself on its own official site as operating a “global-coverage news information gathering network” (覆蓋全球的新聞信息採集網絡) — with the holding’s production and marketing expertise. The memorandum builds on an earlier content-sharing agreement between the two organizations signed in 2025, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia.