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Activity Type: Media Summit

Fourth China-Germany Media Dialogue Held in Beijing

On December 16, 2014, China and Germany held the Fourth China-Germany Media Dialogue in Beijing, bringing together nearly 40 representatives including officials, diplomats, and media professionals. Cai Mingzhao (蔡名照), director of China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO), which is the same office as the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, highlighted positive results from media cooperation including regular dialogue, joint interviews, and joint program production. He called for enhanced communication in journalism, technology, and management, particularly exploring convergence between traditional and emerging media. German Foreign Ministry State Secretary Stephan Steinlein emphasized China’s increasingly important global role and stated that globalization requires deepened mutual understanding, especially in media. Participants discussed pragmatic cooperation, social media development, and media education.

China-Africa Internet Development and Cooperation Forum 2025

China hosted the 2025 China-Africa Internet Development and Cooperation Forum on September 28, 2025, in Xiamen, bringing together approximately 400 representatives from government agencies, universities, think tanks and news media from China and 32 African countries. The forum, themed “Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace and Writing a New Chapter in China-Africa Digital Cooperation” — drawing on Xi Jinping’s foreign policy notion of “shared destiny” as applied to the internet — was organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China (國家互聯網信息辦公室) and the Fujian Provincial People’s Government (福建省人民政府). Chinese officials unveiled the 2025-2026 Action Plan for Building a China-Africa Cyberspace Community with a Shared Future (携手构建中非网络空间命运共同体行动计划) and established the “China-Africa Internet Enterprise Cooperation Network” (中国在非洲互联网企业合作网络), while announcing continued training programs on cybersecurity and digital economy. The forum featured four sub-forums addressing digital divide reduction and digital transformation, artificial intelligence development and governance, cybersecurity and data governance, and online media cooperation. State media coverage reported that African representatives “endorsed” China’s proposed cooperation initiatives, and said that the forum aligned with African countries’ digital transformation needs and expressing willingness to deepen collaboration with China in digital economy, cybersecurity, data protection, artificial intelligence governance and online media sectors. Such initiatives are generally organized, announced and hosted in a unilateral manner by Chinese government entities, even as the discourse stresses them as bilateral or multilateral in nature. The Xiamen meeting also presented 7 participants from African countries (called “friends”) with certificates under “China Storytelling Partnerships” ( 中国故事共创会), which media said recognized those who work “to tell China’s stories, spread Chinese culture, and show the world a real, three-dimensional, and comprehensive China.” The language echoes China’s official policy on external propaganda.

Xiamen University Hosts China-ASEAN Journalism Education Conference

The “China-ASEAN Journalism Education Conference” (中國—東盟未來新聞傳播教育會議), bringing together approximately 30 academic representatives from nine ASEAN countries alongside Chinese academics, was held from September 13-14, 2025, in the port city of Xiamen. Co-organized by the School of Journalism and Communication of Xiamen University (廈門大學新聞傳播學院) and the university’s Center for International Communication Research (廈門大學國際傳播研究中心), the conference revolved around the theme of journalism and the role of artificial intelligence. Indian national Daya K. Thussu (達雅·屠蘇), president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), participated in sessions focused on artificial intelligence’s impact on journalism. He said that journalism education “needs to summarize the past to face the future” and stressed the importance of cooperation among ASEAN journalism education institutions to address future challenges posed by technological developments and changing media landscapes. The conference, which emphasized “building a China-ASEAN journalism education community” (构建中国—东盟新闻传播教育共同体), reflected Beijing’s broader regional foreign policy strategy, using partnerships in media, education, and culture to further its geopolitical goals. Chinese media reports indicated participation by representatives from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

SCO Media Summit Establishes Cooperation Framework

On July 23-27, 2024, in Zhengzhou, China, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (上海合作组织) hosted a media and think tank summit featuring Dmitry Zhuk, director of Belarus’s “Belarus Today” publishing house, alongside Chinese officials and regional media representatives. The summit produced the “Zhengzhou Consensus” (郑州共识), with participants claiming the gathering would “explore optimal solutions to external challenges” and establish “more effective international information cooperation paradigms” (更加有效的国际信息合作新范式). Zhuk praised the summit’s “fruitful results” and emphasized combating disinformation while promoting “mutual respect principles” and “civilizational diversity” (文明多样性). The initiative positions itself as implementing “Shanghai Spirit” (上海精神) values in media cooperation, though the emphasis on geopolitics and strategic information coordination suggests soft power objectives rather than independent media and think tank collaboration.

Chinese Embassy and Xinhua Host Cultural Event in Tokyo

On February 18, 2025, in Tokyo, Xinhua News Agency and China’s embassy to Japan co-hosted a media and think tank dialogue that brought together approximately 160 Chinese and Japanese representatives. Xinhua News Agency President Fu Hua (傅華) emphasized China and Japan’s “profound historical and cultural roots” and the “great potential for people-to-people and cultural exchanges,” while Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao (吳江浩) noted that Sino-Japanese relations were at a “critical period of improvement and development” despite “serious disagreements and differences that need to be properly managed.” At the event, Xinhua issued a think tank report titled “Promoting the Development and Progress of Human Civilization through Exchange and Mutual Learning.” Japanese participants included Japan-China Association Chairman Takeshi Noda (野田毅), Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union Secretary General Shoichi Kondo (近藤昭一), and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Chairman Takashi Sasaki (佐々木卓), who emphasized the importance of strengthening bilateral dialogue and cultural exchanges under current international circumstances.

China-Thai Media Forum

On January 17, 2025, a Sino-Thai media cooperation forum titled “Our Golden Friendship: Joining Hands to Build a China-Thailand Community with a Shared Future Media and Think Tank Dialogue” (我们金色的友谊:携手构建中泰命运共同体媒体智库对话会) was held in Bangkok, bringing together journalists, media specialists, and think tank researchers from both countries to discuss what they characterized as the responsibility of media and think tanks in both countries to “promote mutual trust and cooperation” as China-Thailand relations approach their 50th anniversary in 2025. Former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Pinit Jarusombat (披尼) emphasized the importance of leveraging media and think tanks to “strengthen people-to-people connections” between the two nations. The forum was organized by China International Communication Group (中国外文局), or CICG, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, and Yunnan Province’s Propaganda Office, with key attendees including Gao Anming (高岸明), Editor-in-Chief of China International Communication Group, and General Surasit Thanatthang (苏拉西·塔纳唐) from the National Research Council of Thailand. Chinese Ambassador Han Zhiqiang (韩志强) delivered a video address highlighting the bilateral partnership.