Beginning in November 2016, The Wall Street Journal regularly ran the “China Watch” printed insert of China’s government-run China Daily in the pages of its newspaper, accepting advertising payments from China Daily USA in return. The paid supplements were designed to look like news articles, but were vehicles for pro-China propaganda. According to filings by China Daily with the US Justice Department, the The Wall Street Journal accepted 6 million dollars for the inserts between 2016 and April 2020.
On September 26, 2025, the “Ningbo Through the Lens” (光影裡的寧波) photography exhibition opened at the China Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain. The photo exhibition was organized by the Ningbo International Communication Center (寧波市對外傳播中心) and China International Publishing Group’s Central and Eastern Europe and Central and South Asia Communication Center (中東歐與中南亞傳播中心). The Ningbo ICC is a city-level body under the local propaganda office and state-run media groups charged with shaping international narratives about Ningbo and China. CICG is a publishing and communication group directly under the Central Propaganda Department. Marcel Leijzer, deputy director of the UN World Tourism Organization’s International Development and Cooperation Department, attended alongside Chinese and Spanish officials. According to Chinese media reports, the exhibition is part of efforts to implement the Action Plan for Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Spain (2025-2028), which was signed during Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Beijing in April 2025. The plan outlines cooperation in areas including trade, agriculture, technology, and cultural exchanges. The photo exhibition focused on Ningbo’s maritime history and cultural exchanges, and was organized into four themed sections, each with bilingual captions.
On April 24, 2025, the Chinese Ambassador to Germany published an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled “Tariff Abuse Is Turning Back the Clock of History” (濫施關稅是開歷史倒車), criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on global imports. The article referenced the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, a U.S. protectionist measure that raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods and triggered retaliatory tariffs worldwide, contributing to the Great Depression. Deng accused the US of prioritizing its own interests over global development and characterized American tariff policy as “blatant protectionism and unilateral bullying.” The article, clearly intended to encourage German and European support against the trade actions of the Trump administration, called for China and Europe to strengthen cooperation in maintaining a rules-based multilateral trading system.
On October 27, 2023, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen (姚文) was interviewed by Bangladesh’s mainstream English-language newspaper The Daily Star. The interview, published on October 28, covered outcomes from the Third Belt and Road Initiative International Cooperation Summit Forum (第三届”一带一路”国际合作高峰论坛), which was held October 17-18, 2023. Yao promoted the forum’s “458 outcomes” and “$97.2 billion in commercial contracts,” alongside China’s announcement of 350 billion yuan ($48 billion) financing windows from development banks and 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) for the Silk Road Fund. The timing reflects Beijing’s coordinated media strategy of leveraging diplomatic events to secure favorable coverage in third-country outlets, using ambassadorial interviews as vehicles for disseminating state messaging.
On April 10, 2025, the Swedish website NewsVoice announced the signing of a news-sharing agreement with China Daily (中國日報) that allowed NewsVoice to translate and publish articles from the Chinese government-run outlet on its website. According to a letter on the deal published by China Daily and bearing the byline of NewsVoice founder and editor-in-chief Torbjörn Sassersson, the partnership provides “insight into China’s thinking, philosophy, and political perspective.” Sassersson added that the partnership would enable his website to “become a player in media diplomacy using journalism to build bridges between countries and peoples”—language that closely mirrors Chinese state media rhetoric surrounding media cooperation agreements. Torbjörn Sassersson is a Swedish freelance journalist and communications consultant who has worked in environmental consulting, bioenergy, and corporate communications since the 1990s. He founded NewsVoice.se in 2011, a bilingual news and — says Sassersson — debate platform. As Sassersson explains in a bio on the NewsVoice website, he shifted focus in 2023 to covering the multipolar world, BRICS, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative after receiving an invitation from the Chinese embassy to visit Shanghai. In June 2025, Sassersson interviewed Cui Anmin, China’s ambassador to Sweden, on Sweden-China relations for NewsVoice.
Beginning in November 2016, the Washington Post regularly ran the “China Watch” printed insert of China’s government-run China Daily in the pages of its newspaper, accepting advertising payments from China Daily USA in return. The paid supplements were designed to look like news articles, but were vehicles for pro-China propaganda. According to filings by China Daily with the US Justice Department, the Washington Post accepted 4.6 million dollars for the inserts between 2016 and April 2020.
A four-page China Daily supplement in the Sunday Des Moines Register in September 2018 sought to undermine Iowa farm support for President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, according to political experts. The Chinese government-backed English-language newspaper’s insert highlighted mutual U.S.-China trade benefits and President Xi Jinping’s three-decade Iowa relationship, aiming to pressure the Trump administration by showing potential Republican electoral costs. Political scientist David Skidmore said the effort targeted midterm elections, though he questioned its effectiveness compared to farmers’ economic concerns. Iowa farmers faced projected $2.2 billion losses from trade wars, with ripple effects across the state’s economy and tax revenues.
On August 4, 2025, in Havana, Cuba’s International Political Research Center (古巴国际政治研究中心) launched a special academic issue of Nuestra América quarterly focusing on “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” (人类命运共同体), featuring over 20 articles by Chinese and Cuban scholars and diplomats. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal claimed the issue holds “great significance” as the countries approach their 65th diplomatic anniversary, saying it will “promote building” the Cuba-China community of shared future and “strengthen academic exchange.” Chinese Ambassador Hua Xin described the initiative as demonstrating how the theoretical concept is “taking root” through practical cooperation, positioning Cuba as the first Western Hemisphere nation to jointly build a bilateral community of shared future — standard PRC diplomatic terminology suggesting soft power objectives rather than independent academic research.
On July 23, 2025, Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Cai Run (蔡润) published an op-ed titled “China and the EU: Partners for mutual success” in Euronews, marking the 50th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic relations. Cai claims China-Europe cooperation demonstrates “broad prospects” and cites German automaker investments that he says yield “profits in China reaching up to 30 times those earned in their domestic markets,” while Chinese infrastructure projects like Croatia’s Pelješac Bridge and the Hungary-Serbia railway represent what he describes as “high-quality development.” The ambassador positions green energy collaboration, including battery manufacturer investments by CATL (宁德时代) and Gotion High-Tech (国轩高科), as evidence of “mutual success” and highlights the China-Europe Railway Express “operating over 110,000 trips” with goods “worth more than $450 billion.”
