Skip to main content

Activity Type: Media Cooperation Agreement

Chinese Ambassador Visits Icelandic Times Office

Written by Editors on .

On June 13, 2019, Chinese Ambassador Jin Zhijian (金智健) visited Icelandic Times and met with Editor-in-Chief Einar Thorsteinsson and senior staff to discuss future cooperation. Jin introduced China’s economic and social development and bilateral relations with Iceland, praising the magazine’s Chinese edition for providing tourism information that enhanced Chinese tourists’ understanding of Icelandic society, economy, and culture. The ambassador stated that “the Chinese Embassy was willing to strengthen cooperation with Icelandic Times and work together to promote further development of China-Iceland relations.” Thorsteinsson welcomed the ambassador and “expressed his satisfaction with the current cooperation with the Chinese Embassy, and expected more cooperation for the future.” Icelandic Times publishes in English, Icelandic, Chinese, German, and other languages, focusing on Icelandic tourism, culture, trade, and economy.

Italy and China Renew Film Co-Production Agreement

Written by Editors on .

On February 2, 2026, Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli signed a film co-production agreement in Beijing with Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), president of China Media Group and a deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department. The agreement aims to facilitate joint film productions between Italian and Chinese companies, allowing co-produced works to qualify as domestic content in both countries, which might allow Italian co-productions to bypass China’s foreign film quota system. The agreement followed the June 2025 broadcast of the CMG-produced series “Il Guardiano del Patrimonio” across more than 30 Italian media outlets, a production promoting Xi Jinping’s cultural philosophy that was launched at a ceremony in Rome attended by Shen and Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara.

Xinhua Signs Media Cooperation Agreements with Uruguay

Written by Editors on .

China’s government-run Xinhua News Agency signed two media cooperation agreements on February 3, 2026 with Uruguay’s Presidential Press Office (烏拉圭總統府新聞局) and National Audiovisual Communication Services (烏拉圭國家視聽傳媒服務局) during Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi’s state visit to China. The memorandum of understanding with the Presidential Press Office aims to “jointly promote Global South media think tank cooperation and communication” and advance the “Global South Media Think Tank High-End Forum mechanism” (全球南方媒體智庫高端論壇機制). The news exchange and cooperation agreement with Uruguay’s National Audiovisual Communication Services — which manages Uruguay’s state television, radio, and public media websites — facilitates “pragmatic cooperation” in news product exchange and personnel exchanges. Both agreements were included in the official outcomes list of Orsi’s China visit, representing Beijing’s efforts to build media coordination infrastructure with Latin American governments under the “Global South” framework.

Chinese Consul General in Alexandria Publishes Article on China-Arab Media Cooperation

Written by Editors on .

On December 25, 2021, Chinese Consul General in Alexandria Zhao Liying (赵丽莹) published a signed article titled “Strengthening Media Exchange and Cooperation, Working Together to Build a China-Arab Community with a Shared Future for the New Era” (加强媒体交流合作 携手打造面向新时代的中阿命运共同体) on Egyptian media websites including Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (阿拉伯国民) and Platform News (平台新闻). The article touted the Fifth China-Arab Broadcasting and Television Cooperation Forum, which Zhao praised as a success. The forum was attended by Huang Kunming (黄坤明), member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and head of the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, both participating via video. The forum adopted a joint declaration announcing cooperation achievements including a co-production between Fujian Broadcasting Group’s Strait TV and Egypt National Television.

Chinese Commercial News Signs Content Deal with Wen Wei Po

Written by Editors on .

On October 8, 2003, the Chinese Commercial News (菲律賓商報), a Chinese-language newspaper in the Philippines with close ties to PRC media and official entities, signed a cooperation agreement with Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po (文匯報), a newspaper operated by the Chinese government in the SAR, to publish a Philippines edition featuring content provided by the Hong Kong outlet. According to Wen Wei Po, the arrangement delivered “fresh content and lively page layouts” that were “widely praised,” with the newspaper’s “influence steadily rising” in the Philippine market. Wen Wei Po added that the deal positioned it to expand its reach across Southeast Asia through local Chinese-language media outlets. By 2008, Wen Wei Po reported that its overseas editions, including the Philippines version, had achieved a combined circulation exceeding 400,000 copies across more than a dozen international markets.

Tourism Australia and China Media Group Sign Deal

Written by Editors on .

Tourism Australia, the Australian government’s international tourism promotion agency, and China Media Group (中国中央广播电视总台, CMG) signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding in July 2025 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, witnessed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The agreement, formalized by Tourism Australia’s Robin Mack and CMG President Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), established a framework for co-creating tourism content across CMG’s television, radio, digital, and social media platforms. The partnership aimed to enhance Australia’s brand recognition in China through culturally attuned storytelling, featuring Australia’s landscapes, multicultural communities, and lifestyle. The collaboration supported Tourism Australia’s “Come and Say G’day” campaign launch in China that August, during a period when Chinese visitor numbers reached 860,000 annually, generating $9.2 billion in tourism expenditure with 26 percent year-on-year growth.

SBS Australia Signs Deal With Chinese State Broadcaster

Written by Editors on .

SBS Australia struck an agreement with the CCP-run media conglomerate China Media Group (中央广播电视总台), or CMG, in March 2018, to broadcast news bulletins on its SBS World Watch channel, including 30-minute Mandarin-language bulletins from China Central Television (中国中央电视台, CCTV) and 15-minute English-language bulletins from CGTN (中国环球电视网), the broadcaster’s global arm. CMG operates under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department with the mandate of “propagating the party’s theories, directions, principles and policies” and “telling China’s stories well.” SBS defended the arrangement by stating it clearly identified content sources and would monitor international news services to ensure compliance with its codes of practice, while providing balance through its own locally produced news and SBS Mandarin radio programming. SBS suspended the CGTN and CCTV broadcasts in March 2021 following complaints from Safeguard Defenders alleging the channels had broadcast forced confessions.

Fairfax Media Signs Deal with China Daily 

Written by Editors on .

China Daily (中国日报) and Fairfax Media signed a content distribution agreement in May 2016 to launch “China Watch” in Australia, marking China Daily’s entry into the Australian market. The agreement, announced at a ceremony attended by Liu Qibao (刘奇葆), head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, established monthly publication of an eight-page English-language “China Watch” supplement in Fairfax Media’s Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Financial Review newspapers. China Daily editor-in-chief Zhou Shuchun (周树春) described the partnership as extending China Daily’s influence across Oceania through Fairfax’s network of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand. “China Watch,” a multilingual China Daily publication reaching over 50 million readers globally, was already distributed with major newspapers including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, and others across multiple countries. Announcing the deal, China Daily quoted Tim Dwyer, an associate professor at the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, as saying: “The inclusion of China Watch publication is a really welcome development in the Australian media landscape. It introduces news diversity to Australian media audiences.” Published by China’s propaganda department (State Council information Office), China Daily is explicitly described in Party documents as a vehicle for “external propaganda” and “telling China’s story well.”

RTHK Signs Cooperation Deal With Guangzhou TV

Written by Editors on .

On June 13, 2025, Hong Kong Director of Broadcasting Kwan Yuen-yee (關婉儀) and the Guangzhou Broadcasting Network (廣州廣播電視台), or GZBN, signed a memorandum of cooperation to deepen regional media integration. The partnership includes joint productions commemorating the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II (抗戰勝利80周年) — a core propaganda theme for China in 2025 — and the first-ever co-produced radio drama focusing on life in the Greater Bay Area (粵港澳大灣區), or “GBA”—the development region that is a key point of plans by China’s CCP leadership for greater integration between Hong Kong and the mainland. Kwan stated that RTHK will leverage its role in “linking the interior and connecting the exterior” (內聯外通) to foster a stronger sense of national identity (國民身份認同) among Hong Kong citizens, an idea closely associated with indoctrination in China’s CCP-led political system, including the study of “Xi Jinping Thought.”