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Activity Type: Promotional or Propaganda Media Event

Overseas Chinese Media Gather in Zhejiang Province for Propaganda Event

On May 19–20, 2026, 30 overseas Chinese-language media outlets from 17 countries and regions gathered in Lin’an, a suburban district of the city of Hangzhou in China’s coastal Zhejiang Province, for an event focused on promoting the culture of the ancient Wu-Yue kingdom — a state that ruled parts of present-day Zhejiang and Jiangsu during the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE) — to international audiences. Eight overseas Chinese media representatives were appointed as “Wu-Yue Culture Overseas Promotion Officers” at the gathering. Representatives from four named outlets discussed strategies for reaching foreign audiences through short-form drama, online games, and AI-generated content: Yu Tianzhu (于天竹), editor-in-chief of American-Chinese.com (美國華人網); Tao Xinyi (陶辛夷), honorary president of Spain-based Grupo Ouhua Medios de Comunicacion S.L. (歐華傳媒集團), or Ouhua Media Group; Zhan Jinlong (詹金龍), president of Australia’s Vision Australia (財視澳洲); and Zhang Weijia (章維佳), president of Indonesia’s Dr. Metastar (鹿見寰宇), a site launched in 2024 that seems to have deep partnerships with Chinese state media, including the CCP’s official People’s Daily. Several framed their mission in terms closely echoing the Chinese Communist Party’s directive to “tell China’s story well” (講好中國故事), a term denoting domestic and international message control around positive portrayals of China and its policies and actions. Tao called for foreign journalists and social media influencers to visit Lin’an as more credible messengers to overseas audiences. The remaining 26 outlets were unnamed in Chinese coverage of the event, which was reported by Ouzhou Qiaobao (歐洲僑報), also known as “Euro Chinese Daily” and “Overseas Chinese Newspaper in Europe,” a Chinese-language newspaper and website based in Romania — where it is locally known as “Ziarul Chinezii In Lume.” 

Gongong News Agency Courts Malaysian and Malawi Representatives in Guangzhou

On May 15, 2026, Huang Weijian (黃偉健), director of the international communication center of Hong Kong-based Gonggong News Agency (共工新聞社), attended a cross-border and overseas media forum held at the ICC Trade Centre (ICC環貿大廈) in Guangzhou. Huang delivered a keynote address titled “Rooted in Hong Kong, Connected to the World, Promoting the International Dissemination of Chinese Culture” (立足香港 聯通全球 推動中華文化國際傳播), in which he described the agency’s mandate using the CCP-sanctioned formulation “telling China’s story well, spreading China’s voice” (講好中國故事、傳播中國聲音), and invoked Hong Kong’s role as a platform “backed by the motherland, connected to the world” (背靠祖國、聯通世界). During the event, the agency’s international communication center presented a copy of the Gonggong News Agency Publicity Booklet (共工新聞社宣傳冊) to the deputy commercial consul of the Malaysian Consulate General in Guangzhou, after which the two sides exchanged views on deepening international communication and cultural exchange cooperation, though no formal agreement was announced. Also present was Jani Grey Kasunda, a Malawian student of International Relations in China who has declared his candidacy for the Malawian presidency in the 2030 general elections — a contest still four years away — and who has separately courted Chinese investment in Malawi’s agriculture, mining, energy, and digital sectors. At the forum, Kasunda praised the agency’s communication philosophy and expressed interest in future China-Africa media cooperation.

China Holds Friendship Media Awards in Zambia

On December 12, 2017, the Chinese Embassy in Zambia held the first “China-Zambia Friendship Media Awards” (中贊友好媒體表彰會) in Lusaka, attended by Ambassador Yang Youming (楊優明), Minister of Information and Media Kampamba Mulunga, and approximately 150 representatives. The event recognized ten individuals and nine organizations with awards for “Media Excellence,” aimed at honoring those who promote mutual understanding through “active and objective reporting” (積極客觀報道) on the “China-Zambia traditional friendship” (中贊傳統友誼). In Communist Party discourse, “friendship” (友好) carries explicit political expectations of alignment with China’s positions, often fostered through institutional proxies to project unity while conditioning relationships on the accommodation of China’s core interests. Ambassador Yang encouraged journalists to capture China’s “ever-changing development” and provide “positive energy” (正能量) for bilateral relations, a term that directly references domestic news control policies requiring the press to support the Party’s image and stability. The embassy published the official report on December 13, 2017.

China Daily Hosts “From Yunnan to the World” Cross-Cultural Coffee Exchange

On April 14, 2026, China Daily (中國日報), a state-run English-language newspaper under the direct supervision of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, co-hosted a cultural exchange event titled “From Yunnan to the World: Cultural Fusion in a Cup of Coffee” (從雲南到世界,一杯咖啡里的文化交融) at Beijing Foreign Studies University (北京外國語大學). Co-organizers included the Pu’er Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Pu’er Municipal People’s Government, and the university’s School of International Journalism and Communication. The event featured participants from Greece, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Indonesia, and prominently featured Trung Nguyen Legend Coffee Group (中原傳奇咖啡集團), a Vietnamese coffee conglomerate, which announced plans to source coffee from Yunnan for distribution through its global chain. Speakers framed Yunnan coffee as a vehicle for what China Daily described as “telling China’s story well” (講好中國故事) and “people-to-people connectivity” (民心相通) — formulations central to the Chinese Communist Party’s international propaganda strategy. China Daily‘s creative merchandise division announced a co-branded product with Mingqian Coffee (明謙咖啡), a Shanghai-based brand involved in poverty-alleviation programs in Yunnan under the government’s rural revitalization campaign.

China’s Mission to ASEAN Briefs Regional Media on Two Sessions

On March 26, 2026, China’s Mission to ASEAN hosted a media and think tank salon in Jakarta themed “Sharing the New Opportunities of China’s High-Quality Development,” briefing nearly twenty regional media organizations and think tanks on the outcomes of China’s annual Two Sessions (全國兩會) — the joint plenary meetings of China’s national (largely ceremonial) legislature and its top political advisory body, held each spring in Beijing. Ambassador Wang Qing (王擎) presented an extended reading of the Government Work Report and the forthcoming 15th Five-Year Plan (十五五規劃綱要), emphasizing China’s commitment to high-quality development (高質量發展) — a political slogan coined by Xi Jinping at the 19th Party Congress in 2017 to signal a shift away from high-speed, quantity-driven growth toward an innovation-driven, high-value model centered on technological self-reliance, industrial upgrading, and greener production. Wang also called on both sides to advance the “Five Major Homes” (五大家園) — a framework encoding Xi Jinping’s vision for China-ASEAN relations around peace, tranquility, prosperity, beauty, and friendship — and to uphold “Asian values,” defined in official discourse as peace, cooperation, openness, and inclusiveness, as a deliberate counterweight to Western liberal frameworks.

2022 Cross-Strait Chinese Character Festival Held in Taipei

The 2022 Cross-Strait Chinese Character Festival (海峽兩岸漢字節) culminating event was held in Taipei on December 14, 2022. The festival was organized on the mainland side by the Haicang District Propaganda Office of the Chinese Communist Party (中共海滄區委宣傳部), the Haicang District Federation of Literary and Art Circles (海滄區文學藝術界聯合會), and the state-run Xiamen Daily (廈門日報社), published by the CCP Committee in Xiamen, with Taiwan’s Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時傳媒集團) serving as the Taiwan co-organizer. The annual character — “thought/longing” (思) — was announced at the Taipei ceremony, selected from more than 14.7 million votes. Excellence Magazine (卓越雜誌) president Xu Banghao (徐邦浩) participated and the magazine partnered with organizers to publish a companion volume in Taiwan. The festival, established in 2008 and anchored in Haicang since 2014, has been described by organizers as a platform for advancing cross-strait “emotional convergence” (心靈契合). The phrase originates with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who introduced it in 2014 as a central concept in his unification framework, describing the goal of unification as not merely formal but requiring that compatriots on both sides achieve a deeper spiritual and emotional alignment — a formulation that People’s Daily has since elaborated as the ideological basis for using cultural exchange to build Taiwan public acceptance of unification.

Taiwan’s Excellence Media Leads Delegation to Xiamen

A delegation of ten Taiwan entrepreneurs led by Xu Banghao (徐邦浩), president of Taiwan’s Excellence Global Media Corporation (卓越全球傳媒股份有限公司), visited Xiamen on August 19–20, 2024, touring cross-strait entrepreneur incubator facilities including Qida Taixiang (啟達台享) and the Haixi MCN Cross-Strait Youth Base (海西MCN兩岸青年三創基地). The base was established in November 2022 under the direction of the Huli District Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Affairs Office (湖里區台港澳辦) as an incubator for Taiwan youth in e-commerce and livestreaming, reported at its founding by the Party’s official People’s Daily. A July 2025 Fujian Daily article subsequently identified the base as a component of Xiamen’s state-directed cross-strait integration strategy, explicitly linking it to goals of advancing Taiwan compatriots’ “ethnic, cultural, and national identity” (民族認同、文化認同、國家認同) with the mainland. The delegation also visited the Huli District Administrative Services Center (湖里區行政服務中心), where members applied for PRC mainland resident permits (居住證). The visit was reported by the Straits Herald (海峽導報), a Fujian-based CCP-directed newspaper. According to an April 2024 report from People’s Daily Online, the MCN initiative is a state-guided project managed by the Huli District Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao Affairs Office (湖里区委台港澳办) and the Huli District Committee Organization Department (湖里区委组织部) alongside the local United Front Work Department (湖里区委统战部), whose role, according to the report, is to facilitate “national conditions” (国情) training — a reference to ideological and patriotic education — through economic and digital media incentives. 

Indonesian and Malaysian Journalists Visit Xinjiang

Journalists from Indonesia and Malaysia visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from February 22-27, 2019, as part of the ASEAN Elites China Tour 2019. According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, the group included a senior editor from the Indonesian newspaper Kompas, an assistant editor from the Malaysian newspaper Sinar Harian, the chief editor of the Indonesian digital platform IDN Times, and representatives from Liputan6, Metro TV,  and Antara (Indonesia’s national news agency). The journalists visited what Chinese authorities described as “vocational education and training centers” in the eastern Shule and Hotan County. Participants were quoted describing facilities as having “spacious buildings” and being “well-equipped,” with one journalist quoted by Xinhua saying that it was “not as reported by some news outlets.” Human rights organizations have criticized such government-organized tours as highly controlled and designed to counter international reporting that has documented serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang. International organizations, including the United Nations Human Rights Office, have documented that more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in these facilities since 2017, with torture and other abuses reported by former detainees.

Filipino-Chinese Amity Club Runs Photo Event on WWII Victory

On July 14, 2025, the Filipino-Chinese Amity Club (菲華聯誼總會), a Philippines-based overseas Chinese organization with close ties to China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), hosted a photo exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of victory in the “World Anti-Fascist War” (世界反法西斯戰爭) — the official Chinese Communist Party framing of World War II — at the Philippine Cultural College (菲律賓僑中學院) in Manila. The event was co-organized by the Philippine Association of Descendants of the “Huazhi” (菲律賓「華支」後裔聯誼會), a group representing descendants of the Chinese anti-Japanese resistance in the Philippines, and was reported by China News Service (中國新聞網), an official PRC newswire under the UFWD. Club Chairman Cai Mingfeng (蔡明豐) told attendees that “countless forebears exchanged their lives for today’s dawn of peace,” and called on younger generations to “see the cruelty of war” through the 123 photographs on display. Li Xiangzhao (李向昭), chairman of the Huazhi descendants association, said the exhibition aimed to “take history as a mirror.” The event followed the same organizational template as a similar exhibition held the following month in Angeles City, also organized by the club.