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Activity Type: Media Partnership or Co-Production

Xinhua Editor-in-Chief Meets Agencia EFE President in Madrid

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On May 12, 2016, He Ping (何平), then editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency (新華通訊社), met with José Antonio Vera, then president of Spain’s Agencia EFE (埃菲通訊社), in Madrid. He Ping called for deeper cooperation and said Xinhua should serve as a “bridge” between the two countries’ populations — language characteristic of the CCP’s framing of state media as instruments of public diplomacy rather than news organizations. Vera, who had visited Xinhua the previous year, welcomed the meeting and described the agency’s development as having made a strong impression during that visit. He Ping was in Spain at Agencia EFE’s invitation and also met with representatives of the financial newspaper Mundo Financiero, the foreign affairs outlet El Diplomático, and the regional daily Diario del Norte de Castilla.

CCTV and RTVE Sign Cooperation Agreement

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On January 30, 2009, Spain’s public broadcaster, Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) and China Central Television (CCTV) signed a cooperation agreement during former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s (溫家寶) official visit to Spain. Signed by then RTVE president Luis Fernández and the director of CCTV, the agreement covered the exchange of news programming, documentaries, and a range of cultural content, as well as co-productions and training exchanges for professionals from both stations. The broadcasters also committed to organizing themed broadcast weeks: “TVE China Week” and “Spanish Week at CCTV” — and planned musical collaborations between the RTVE Orchestra and Choir and Chinese artists.

Xinhua President Meets With Agencia EFE President

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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

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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.

Xinhua Hosts Reuters, AP, and AFP in Beijing

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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

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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.

RTHK Signs MoU with Malaysia

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On March 5, 2026, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications in Kuala Lumpur, aimed at strengthening media cooperation and promoting cultural exchange. The ceremony was held at the headquarters of Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) and was jointly signed by RTHK Director of Broadcasting Angelina Kwan Yuen-yee (關婉儀) and newly appointed RTM Director-General Ashwad Ismail. According to Hong Kong media, the memorandum includes plans for joint productions showcasing cultural tourism in both Hong Kong and Malaysia. Kwan and Ashwad also discussed future collaboration under what RTHK described as the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, with Kwan saying that these agreements would help strengthen RTHK’s “international communication capabilities” (國際傳播能力) – a term closely associated with Beijing’s external propaganda strategy under Xi Jinping.

Xinhua President Meets With Andina General Director

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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.

China Media Group Signs Cooperation Agreement with Peru

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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.