On December 3, 2024, the vice president of China Media Group (CMG), Xing Bo (邢博), and a representative from Nepal’s Foreign Ministry signed a cooperation memorandum between CMG and Nepal Television in Beijing during Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’sofficial visit to China. The agreement covers content exchange, joint production, personnel exchanges, and technical cooperation, according to Chinese state media. Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) and Prime Minister Oli witnessed the signing. The deal was one of nine agreements signed during Oli’s December visit.
On October 23, 2023, China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), or CMG, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee signed a cooperation memorandum in Paris regarding broadcasting the Olympics and related media promotion programs. The agreement outlined CMG’s role as a host broadcaster, deploying over 2,000 personnel to produce international broadcast signals for gymnastics, table tennis, badminton, and sport climbing using “5G+4K/8K+AI” technology. CMG President Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), and Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet signed the memorandum. The agreement also covered promotional programming and “telling the Olympic stories” of Beijing and Paris. Estanguet praised Beijing’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics, without mentioning that the event faced diplomatic boycotts over human rights concerns in Xinjiang. Estanguet said France had much to learn from Beijing and that the cooperation would bring the countries closer “in the spirit of the Olympics.”
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.
On December 7, 2024, the state-owned China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) unveiled its new series China Walk (漫步中國). A co-production between CMG and the official Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV), the show is scheduled to air on Myanmar’s major TV networks. People’s Daily reported that the program would provide “people of both countries to learn about the cultures and customs and have a better understanding of each other” by taking viewers to tea villages in Yunnan. The series explicitly promotes the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi Jinping’s signature infrastructure development strategy. CMG was established in 2018 as China’s predominant state broadcaster under direct control of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, while MRTV serves as Myanmar’s state-run television and radio network under the Ministry of Information.
On July 29, 2024, the China Media Group (CMG) hosted a cultural exchange event in Madrid titled “China’s deepening reform in the new era” as part of Beijing’s broader effort to shape international media narratives following the Third Plenum – a gathering of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party traditionally focused on economic policy. Speakers included Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), CMG president; José Luis Centella, president of the Communist Party of Spain; and Yao Jing (姚敬), Chinese ambassador to Spain. Shensaid that China’s reforms would bring “more opportunities” to the world, echoing standard CCP messaging on Chinese modernization. During the event, CMG also announced several cooperation projects, including “A Look at China: Spanish Journalists’ China Tour” (一起看中國:西班牙記者中國), which would bring Spanish reporters to China for media reports on Chinese development; a CGTN digital exhibition on paintings from the Song dynasty; and an invitation for Spanish museums to participate in CMG’s National Treasure (國家寶藏) program, broadcast on CCTV-3 channel, which regularly showcases Chinese cultural highlights. Ten CMG-produced programs promoting Chinese modernization and Sino-Spanish cooperation were scheduled for broadcast across Spanish outlets, including Mediaset, EFE News Agency, and Barcelona Television
On April 30, 2025, Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Zhao Bentang (趙本堂) published a signed article in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias promoting Beijing’s position against US trade policy. The op-ed characterized American reciprocal tariffs as “hegemonic bullying” (強權霸凌) following Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping global tariffs. Trump initially imposed a 34 percent rate on Chinese goods, which later escalated to 145 percent through tit-for-tat retaliation. Citing Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel’s March visit to Beijing and quoting Xi Jinping, Zhao argued China was defending its rights and international fairness while casting the US as the aggressor.
On April 26, 2021, the Chinese Ambassador to Portugal published a signed article in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias titled “Jointly Safeguard the Healthy Development of China-EU Relations” (共同維護中歐關係健康發展). In the article, the ambassador expressed “regret” over the EU sanctions targeting Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, saying that China only imposed counter-sanctions as a retaliatory measure, labeling the EU actions as interference in China’s internal affairs. The ambassador also discussed Portugal’s role as the EU’s rotating presidency holder in the first half of 2021 and expressed hope that Portugal would promote “objective” views of China among EU member states. The article followed the levying of joint sanctions in March 2021 by the European Union, the US, Canada and the UK against senior Chinese officials over abuses targeting the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, which prompted Beijing to retaliate by blacklisting numerous EU lawmakers and scholars.
The China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) signed a memorandum of understanding with Italian foundation Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 on June 23, 2025, to become a rights-holding broadcaster for the Winter Olympic Games in Milano area in February 2026. The state-run media group, directly under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, will collaborate on news coverage, program production, and promotional campaigns ahead of and during the Games. CGTN, the Chinese group’s international broadcasting arm, reported that the agreement includes integrating artificial intelligence and 8K ultra-high-definition broadcasting technologies into live coverage. Emphasizing the bilateral significance of the arrangement, the two sides characterized the commercial deal as an opportunity to deepen China-Italy relations, coinciding with the 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the People’s Republic of China and Italy, formally established on November 6, 1970.
On April 12, 2021, the Chinese Ambassador to Portugal published a signed article in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias titled “The Truth about Human Rights Issues in Xinjiang” (關於新疆人權問題的真相). The article reframed the Xinjiang issue as a security matter rather than a human rights concern, characterizing it as one of “anti-violence, counter-terrorism, and anti-separatism” (反暴力、反恐怖主義和反分裂問題), according to the Chinese embassy. The article also claimed that ethnic minority cultures in Xinjiang had been “well preserved” and highlighted economic growth over the previous 60 years. The piece responded to longstanding accusations by Western governments and human rights organizations regarding mass detention, forced labor, and cultural suppression in Xinjiang. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in July 2021 and was signed into law in December 2021, prohibited imports of goods from Xinjiang unless importers could prove they were not made with forced labor.
