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Activity Category: Media Engagement Activity

Xinhua President Meets With Agencia EFE President

On September 5, 2024, Fu Hua (傅華), the president of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, met with Miguel Ángel Oliver, president of Spain’s state-owned agency Agencia EFE, in Beijing. As the two counterparts met, Fu stressed that the agencies have cooperated since the 1970s, though the earliest documented contact appears to date back to 2015. Fu expressed interest in expanded exchanges in news content, personnel, and new media. Oliver, appointed president of Agencia EFE in December 2023, said the agency “looks forward to deepening cooperation” with Xinhua. During the meeting, Fu also promoted the World Media Summit, a forum launched by Xinhua in 2009 that presents itself as a multilateral platform but was conceived, organized, and funded by Xinhua as a direct initiative of the CCP leadership. The summit convenes international media leaders to discuss industry cooperation, news exchange, and technology — and serves as a channel for the Chinese state’s framing of global media responsibilities and values. At the 2024 edition of the World Media Summit, held in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, in October 2024, Chinese officials used the platform to dismiss Western reporting on Uyghur human rights abuses as “fabricated lies.” 

Hunan Broadcasting System Signs Memorandum with DMSZ

On February 26, 2025, Duna Médiaszolgáltató (DMSZ) and Hunan Satellite Television (湖南衛視) signed a memorandum of cooperation in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, covering a range of media co-productions and exchanges. According to a Hunan Broadcasting press release, the memorandum was signed by a DMSZ executive and Song Dian (宋點), director of Hunan Satellite Television, in the presence of the Hungarian Consul General in Chongqing and Hunan Broadcasting chairman Gong Zhengwen (龔政文). The agreement covers co-production of China-related documentaries and food programs, cultural exchanges, and talent training. The deal builds on a July 2023 cooperation pact signed in Budapest, through which Hunan Broadcasting cited its variety show Chinese Restaurant (中餐廳) — whose seventh season was filmed in Budapest that year — and claimed to have aired several original productions in Hungary. While DMSZ presents itself as Hungary’s public broadcaster, analysts describe it as a shell entity under effective government control, whose CEO holds no functional autonomy. In recent years it has been strongly criticized within the EU as a pro-government outlet.

Annual Reception for Chinese Media and Japanese Corporations held by Keizai Koho Center

On December 4, 2024, the Keizai Koho Center (經濟廣報中心), the international communications arm of Keidanren (經團連), Japan’s most influential business lobby, hosted its annual reception for Chinese media correspondents and Japanese corporate representatives in Tokyo. Held yearly since 2005, the event was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in 2022. According to KKC, over 70 attendees participated, including 45 journalists from 24 Chinese media outlets such as China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), Xinhua News Agency (新華通訊社), and People’s Daily (人民日報). KKC Senior Managing Director Ryo Watanabe referenced the November 2024 Japan-China summit in Peru, at which Prime Minister Ishiba and President Xi reaffirmed their commitment to “constructive and stable” bilateral relations.

China-SCO Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Forum

The Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Forum (中国—上海合作组织人工智能合作论坛) of the 2025 China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (上海合作組織) convened in Tianjin on May 29, 2025, under the theme “Intelligence Converges in China, Wisdom Benefits SCO” (智汇中国,慧聚上合). Co-hosted by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (国家发展和改革委员会), or NDRC, a ministerial-level department that coordinates the development policies of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, and the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government, the forum brought together ministerial-level representatives from SCO member states, UNESCO, and industry and academic experts to discuss AI governance, technology breakthroughs, and application scenarios. Its key outcome was the release of the “China-SCO AI Application Cooperation Center Proposal” (中国—上海合作组织人工智能应用合作中心方案), calling for a joint platform to support talent development, industrial partnerships, and open-source AI cooperation across the region. While the proposal was loudly proclaimed through Chinese state media, a full-text version of the document remained unavailable as of March 2026.

China-Cyprus-Europe Media Forum

The China-Cyprus-Europe Media Forum was held from October 21-23, 2025, in Nicosia, Cyprus. According to a report from the official China News Service, the forum was organized by the China Media Group (中央广播电视总) and the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus, along with the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (塞浦路斯广播电视公司), the Cyprus Mail (塞浦路斯邮报), and the government-run Xinhua News Agency (新华社). More than 100 representatives from the media, government, diplomatic missions, universities, think tanks, and enterprises attended. The Chinese Ambassador said that he hoped participants would “deepen exchanges” and “tell stories of China-Cyprus friendship well” — language reflecting the Chinese Communist Party’s emphasis on “telling China’s story well” (講好中國故事), a core propaganda directive under Xi Jinping aimed at shaping international narratives about China. Cooperation between China and Cyprus, China-EU relations, media responsibilities, and the role of AI in media development were the main topics of the forum. The event released a declaration calling for the media to build “a community with a shared future for humanity” — this being a signature foreign policy concept introduced by Xi Jinping, and suggesting that the document was drafted by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The forum was timed ahead of the 55th anniversary of China-Cyprus diplomatic relations and Cyprus’s EU Council presidency in 2026.

Fourth Cross-Strait Media Summit Held in Beijing

The Fourth Cross-Strait Media Summit (第四屆兩岸媒體人北京峰會) was held in Beijing on May 10, 2019, 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). Nearly seventy Taiwan media organizations sent representatives, led by Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明). CPPCC chairman and Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang (汪洋) received the Taiwan delegation in a closed-door session, directing those present that achieving peaceful unification and one country two systems required the efforts of media colleagues, and mocking Taiwan’s government as unable to guarantee its situation two years hence. Wang Yang further stated that Taiwan independence advocates were mistaken to rely on the United States, which would not go to war with China over Taiwan. The remarks were recorded and leaked the following day, triggering a public controversy in Taiwan. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) convened a national security meeting the same morning the summit took place; the Foreign Ministry and National Security Bureau both issued statements condemning the CCP’s interference in Taiwan’s press freedom. Xinhua News Agency’s dispatch on Wang Yang’s remarks omitted the statements about Taiwan’s government and the United States entirely. The incident was reported by The News Lens and [Up Media](https://www.upmedia.mg/newsinfo.php?Type=24&SerialNo=63014)_.

Xinhua Hosts China-Poland Economic Forum in Warsaw

On June 17, 2025, in Warsaw, Poland, China’s official Xinhua News Agency organized a forum with Li Danhong (李丹红), charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, Polish Media Association (波兰媒体协会) President Marek Traczyk, and former Polish Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski attending at Lukaszewski University. Xinhua claimed in official coverage that the event would “enhance economic cooperation and mutual understanding” between the countries, with Li presenting China’s commitment to “building an open global economy” and “sharing the dividends of its modernization,” while Traczyk, using terms clearly echoing the official discourse of the CCP, described it as enabling “mutually beneficial cooperation” and contributing to “world peace, development, and shared prosperity.” The forum positions itself as promoting bilateral exchanges through China’s visa-free policy, but the emphasis on China’s development model presentation and standard diplomatic language about “shared prosperity” (共同富裕) suggests soft power objectives rather than independent economic dialogue.

Xinhua Hosts Reuters, AP, and AFP in Beijing

On December 1, 2023, Xinhua News Agency hosted leaders from the global newswires Reuters, AFP, and the Associated Press in Beijing, with Xinhua President Fu Hua (傅華) proposing a “high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanism” among the agencies. The meeting preceded the fifth World Media Summit in Guangzhou and Kunming. The World Media Summit (WMS), is a forum conceived by China in the midst of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and first held in October 2009, with the explicit idea on China’s part to expand its global influence and “discourse power” (話語權) through a semi-formal international mechanism under its leadership. Eight months ahead of the first meeting, Xinhua News Agency chief Li Congjun (李从军) wrote in the official periodical China Journalist that the event of conceived “[according] to the Central Committee’s strategic demand for ‘strengthening external propaganda’” (大外宣). At the 2023 event, participants discussed artificial intelligence, misinformation, and journalists’ safety. Fu Hua proposed expanded partnerships for video distribution and mutual humanitarian assistance in conflict zones. The gathering represented Xinhua’s effort to position itself alongside Western wire services, though the meeting’s outcomes and substantive commitments from participating agencies remained unclear from available reporting.

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.