Activity Type: Media Partnership or Co-Production

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.

On October 12, 2024, Fu Hua (傅華), president of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, met in Beijing with Félix Alberto Paz Quiroz, general director of Peru’s state-owned Andina news agency, on the sidelines of the sixth World Media Summit — a global media forum hosted by Xinhua since 2009 and held in 2024 in Beijing and Urumqi with a focus on AI and media transformation. Typical of China’s global media engagements, the focus was on bilateral relations and China’s positioning of itself as a champion of the Global South. Xinhua reported that the two sides reviewed past cooperation and expressed willingness to collaborate on “serving the development of China-Peru relations,” promoting exchanges between Chinese and Latin American media, “deepening cooperation among media think tanks of the Global South,” and AI-driven media transformation.

On November 14, 2024, during Xi Jinping’s state visit to Peru alongside the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting — an annual summit of 21 Asia-Pacific economies — in Lima, China Media Group president Shen Haixiong (慎海雄) signed a memorandum of understanding with Fabricio Valencia Gibaja, Peru’s minister of culture, at the Presidential Palace, according to Peruvian state broadcaster TVPerú. TVPerú described the two-year MOU as covering joint projects in “contemporary art, cultural heritage, media, and the production of television and film content.” The Peruvian government described the MOU as promoting “cultural exchange and mutual learning.” Shen specifically referenced “”two civilizations that share a long history and deeply rooted cultural traditions,” an appropriation of CCP language “civilizational” discourse — sometimes called “Xivilization” by state media — that has been at the center of both foreign policy and legitimacy formation at home since the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2022.