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Activity Type: Media Summit

ACJA Co-Hosts 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum

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From August 26 to September 1, 2024, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, co-hosted the 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum with the propaganda office of the Chongqing CCP Committee (中共重慶市委宣傳部). It was the first edition of the annual forum held outside Beijing. Nearly 100 leaders of journalist organizations and media representatives from 50 countries and regions joined organized reporting tours of Chongqing before the main session on August 31, which Mo Gaoyi (莫高義), then a deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department (中央宣傳部), addressed. ACJA president He Ping (何平) urged media to build a “new narrative framework” transcending ideology and social systems**, a common reference to the CCP’s view that a global narrative more favorable to China and less dominated by the West is essential.** He also called on media to champion the community of shared future for mankind. The forum expanded the International Home of Journalists (國際記者之家), a network proposed at the 2023 forum, awarding certificates to 14 foreign journalist organizations, though Chinese state media gave varying counts. The forum also appointed 16 consulting experts to the network, and journalists from Argentina, Bulgaria, China and Egypt used the occasion to launch a “Media Ambassadors Initiative” (媒體使者倡議). In October 2024, Ghana’s Ghanaian Times published a laudatory feature on the forum, highlighting foreign participants’ praise for Chinese media.

ACJA Hosts China-Spain Media Roundtable in Madrid

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On May 19, 2026, the International Department of the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, hosted the China-Spain Media Think Tank Dialogue Roundtable (中西媒體智庫對話圓桌會) in Madrid. More than 30 representatives of Chinese and Spanish media outlets and think tanks took part in discussions on media responsibility in the AI era, under a theme linking that topic to advancing stable China-Spain relations. This framing is central to China’s global media engagements, which emphasize the role of media in furthering diplomatic goals rather than news values or professional standards. Wu Xu (吳旭), executive secretary of the ACJA secretariat, urged media in both countries to “jointly tell stories of China-Spain friendship.” The phrase echoes the CCP’s directive to tell China’s story well, which promotes positive coverage of China abroad. After the roundtable, the ACJA International Department signed a memorandum of understanding with what Chinese coverage called the “Spanish branch” of the European Federation of Journalists, pledging a regular cooperation mechanism. The Madrid-based Asociación de Periodistas Europeos, the Spanish section of the Association of European Journalists, later reported that ACJA representatives had visited its premises months before it attended the association’s October 2026 forum in Nanjing as an invited guest. Two days later, the ACJA held a parallel roundtable in Athens on similar themes.

ACJA Hosts 2023 Belt and Road Journalists Forum

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On October 12, 2023, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, gathered nearly 100 heads of journalist organizations and media representatives from more than 40 countries and regions in Beijing to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Sun Yeli (孫業禮), then a deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department (中央宣傳部), addressed the forum. ACJA president He Ping (何平) urged attendees to jointly tell good stories of Belt and Road cooperation and to sing the “main melody” of peace, development and win-win cooperation. The forum ran under the Belt and Road Journalists Network (“一帶一路”記者組織合作平台), a platform launched in 2019 that describes itself as jointly initiated by journalist organizations in Belt and Road countries, but whose executive vice chairman and secretary-general are ACJA officials. Its joint declaration, Join Hands to Embark on a New Journey of the Next Decade (攜手啟航新十年——“一帶一路”記者組織聯合宣言), called on members to promote friendly press exchanges as a means of advancing political mutual trust and economic ties between states — what it called “friendly exchange” (友好交流). It pledged joint reporting tours to cover Belt and Road achievements “objectively and truthfully”, a formulation that equated objectivity with documenting successes and made no provision for reporting on the initiative’s setbacks or controversies. It also proposed an “International Home of Journalists” (國際記者之家) network. Guy Mettan, a Swiss journalist who has led the Geneva Press Club and authored Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria, told the forum the West would try to undermine a multipolar world.

CCP Journalist Association Launches Belt and Road Journalists Network

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On September 28, 2019, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, launched the Belt and Road Journalists Network (一帶一路記者組織合作平台) at the 2019 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Beijing. According to China Daily, the ACJA initiated the network jointly with journalist groups in Belt and Road Initiative countries, with the stated purpose of promoting a “Silk Road spirit” (絲路精神) of “win-win results.” Its first presidium, with a five-year term and an annually rotating chair, drew together journalist associations and unions from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Argentina and Nigeria. Lidia Fagale, president of the Union of Press Workers of Buenos Aires (Unión de Trabajadores de Prensa de Buenos Aires), became the first chair. Jiang Jianguo (蔣建國), deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department, urged participants to deliver “positive energy,” a phrase closely tied to media control under Xi Jinping. Shanaka Maliyadda of the Sri Lanka China Journalists Forum told the paper that the “ACJA is also helping us with media development in many aspects.”

ACJA Hosts Foreign Media for China-CEE Media Roundtable in Dunhuang

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On May 29, 2026, the “Home of Journalists” program of the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, hosted a media roundtable in Dunhuang, in China’s Gansu province, for journalists, experts and scholars from China and 12 Central and Eastern European countries. Participants included Dejan Jazvić, editor-in-chief of the Federal News Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Maria Nikolaeva Nishandzhieva of the Bulgarian newspaper 24 Hours; Jan Klokočovnik of the Slovenian newspaper Primorske novice; and Ana Maria Alessandra Dobra, a prime-time anchor at Romania’s Realitatea Plus, according to a Xinhua report. The roundtable focused on the media’s role in “mutual learning among civilizations” (文明交流互鑒), the language of Xi Jinping’s Global Civilization Initiative. The ACJA held a similar China-CEE roundtable in Hebei province in 2023, where participants praised the initiative’s significance. China Dailyquoted a Romanian television host on the trip as saying China “is a country that respects its own people.” It reported that the visiting journalists hoped to tell their audiences about a “true, diverse and multidimensional” China, echoing Xi’s 2021 call to present a “true, multidimensional and panoramic” China to the world. The ACJA has also co-organized CEE journalists’ visits to China with the China-CEEC Cooperation Secretariat.

Ganzhou Forum Expands ACJA Journalist Network

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On July 19, 2025, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, convened the 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Ganzhou, in China’s Jiangxi province. The ACJA co-hosted the forum with the propaganda office of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. The Jiangxi Journalists Association (江西省新聞工作者協會), Jiangxi Daily (江西日報) and the Ganzhou Municipal People’s Government (贛州市人民政府) organized the event, and the Ganzhou government issued the forum’s English-language press release internationally. About 100 heads of journalist organizations and media representatives from more than 50 countries and regions attended, under the official theme “Promoting Civilizations Dialogue and Global Modernization with Power of Journalists” (新聞力量·文明對話·推動世界現代化). Wang Gang (王綱), deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department, addressed the forum. In his keynote, ACJA President He Ping (何平) called on media to promote the “common values of all humanity” (全人類共同價值), a formulation advanced by Xi Jinping as an alternative to universal values. The forum was held under the Belt and Road Journalists Network (一帶一路記者組織合作平台), whose rotating chair, Andrey Krivosheev of the Belarusian Union of Journalists, urged journalists to help build a “community with a shared future for mankind” (人類命運共同體), Xi’s signature foreign policy slogan. Journalist organizations from 11 countries received certificates admitting them to the ACJA’s International Home of Journalists (國際記者之家). They included Brazil’s National Federation of Journalists, which agreed to host visiting journalists from the network in Brazil. The forum also launched an International Home of Journalists volunteer program and set up a Belt and Road journalists’ station in Jiangxi to host foreign reporters. Before the forum, foreign participants toured five Jiangxi cities, including Nanchang and Jingdezhen, on organized reporting trips that featured dialogues with local Party secretaries and mayors. China-Latin America and China-EU journalist roundtables were held on the sidelines.

ACJA Hosts 2026 China-Kazakhstan Media Roundtable

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On September 23, 2026, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, and the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan co-organized the 2026 China-Kazakhstan Media Roundtable in Almaty. The event brought together Chinese and Kazakh journalists, scholars and business representatives to exchange experiences on issues including the role of AI in journalism. In his opening speech, ACJA Secretariat member Yin Lujun (殷陸君) said media collaboration strengthens the China-Kazakhstan “permanent comprehensive strategic partnership” (中哈永久全面戰略夥伴關係), which the two countries announced in 2019. According to China News Service, several Chinese media representatives proposed initiatives to foster collaboration between media and universities, though the report did not detail them. The roundtable also awarded certificates to five Chinese and five Kazakh journalists as “volunteers” (志願者) of the ACJA’s “International Home of Journalists” (國際記者之家), a network the ACJA launched in 2024 to recruit foreign journalist associations. The volunteer program was launched at the 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Ganzhou, with volunteers tasked with developing news exchanges and collaboration. Chinese participants included representatives of China Media Group, the China Internet Information Center, China Petroleum Daily, Shandong Radio and Television, and Gansu Broadcasting Group, according to China News Service.

Nanjing Forum Expands ACJA Global Journalist Network

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On October 17, 2026, the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, convened the 2026 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Nanjing. The ACJA co-hosted the forum with the propaganda office of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and the Nanjing Municipal People’s Government. About 100 heads of journalist organizations and media representatives from more than 50 countries and regions attended. The event was held under the Belt and Road Journalists Network (一帶一路記者組織合作平台), an international platform the ACJA co-founded with foreign journalist groups in 2019. Mo Gaoyi (莫高義), deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department and director of the State Council Information Office, addressed the opening. In his keynote, ACJA President He Ping (何平) urged journalists to answer “decoupling” and “small yard, high fence” policies by telling the Silk Road story of “extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits” (共商共建共享), a core Belt and Road Initiative slogan. Beijing uses the two terms to criticize US restrictions on exports of advanced technology to China, and US and European efforts to reduce economic dependence on China, including EU trade measures against Chinese goods it considers unfairly subsidized or dumped. 10 journalist organizations, including bodies from Cabo Verde, Chile, Mongolia and Zambia, received certificates admitting them to the ACJA’s International Home of Journalists (國際記者之家). The opening ceremony also launched a Global South Journalists Workshop Program (全球南方國家記者研修計劃). Its first workshop, themed on AI and the Silk Road, opened at Nanjing University the next day. The forum also opened a Belt and Road journalists’ station at the Xinhua Daily Media Group (新華報業傳媒集團), following earlier stations in Chongqing and Jiangxi, to host foreign reporters visiting China. Xinhua reported that International Home of Journalists membership now spans more than 40 countries, and that such stations have received more than 480 journalists from more than 180 media outlets.

Global Times Hosts China-Germany Media Forum in Heidelberg

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From October 14 to 16, 2026, the state-run Global Times (環球時報), a tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily (人民日報), hosted the 17th Media Forum China-Germany (第十七屆中德媒體圓桌會) in the southwestern German city of Heidelberg. The forum has long been run in partnership with China Media Management Inc. (CMM-I傳媒諮詢有限公司), a Beijing-based media consulting firm. According to the Global Times, senior journalists, media executives and scholars from both countries discussed 10 topics, including China-Germany relations, global security, AI governance and media responsibility. Coverage from the Global Times framed the forum around Xi Jinping’s assessment of “great changes unseen in a century” (百年未有之大變局), which the CCP uses as its official assessment that the world is accelerating toward multipolarity, driven by the rise of developing economies and China’s growing national power. In his opening remarks, Global Times Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bai Long (百龍) said that China and Germany have long had deeply interconnected interests, with each having a stake in the other. He added that media can create divergent perceptions between the two countries but can also build bridges of understanding. Heidelberg Lord Mayor Eckart Würzner toured the accompanying exhibition, which the Global Times describes as part of a brand activity for promoting “Chinese theory and Chinese thought.” 
The forum was launched in 2010 by Germany’s Robert Bosch Stiftung in cooperation with the Global Times, and the foundation organized it annually for years. German journalist Frank Sieren, a longtime Beijing-based correspondent, co-founded the forum and has served as its moderator. CMM-I managed the forum for the foundation from its early years, and CMM-I partner Anke Redl has continued to manage it. The company was named as an organizer of the 2024 edition and co-hosted the 2025 edition in Shenzhen. Global Times coverage of the 2026 edition did not name a co-organizer. Xu Pei (徐沛), a Germany-based Chinese writer and activist, has argued that the CCP uses the forum to co-opt German media figures for its propaganda. She has also noted that German-language sources presented the Bosch Stiftung as the sole organizer, while Chinese state media named the Global Times as the main organizer. Alongside the forum, the Global Times staged its “Overseas China Week” (海外中國週) initiative with a photo exhibition titled “Green and Innovation: China and Germany Embarking on Vibrant Future.” According to the newspaper, the exhibition aims to bring overseas audiences closer to “Chinese concepts and China’s image.” The initiative has previously staged exhibitions in Kazakhstan, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan.