Canal 6 (第六頻道) is a Nicaraguan state television channel based in Managua, and the flagship broadcaster of the Ortega government’s media apparatus. Founded in 1957 as a private channel owned by members of the Somoza family, it was nationalized following the 1979 Sandinista Revolution and integrated into the state-controlled Sistema Sandinista de Televisión. The channel subsequently went through a period of insolvency and was off the air for nearly a decade before being revived under President Daniel Ortega after his return to power in 2007. It is formally operated by Negocios Publicitarios Internacionales S.A. (NEPISA), a government-linked company. Canal 6 operates within a broader media landscape in which the Ortega-Murillo family controls the overwhelming majority of Nicaragua’s open-signal television channels.
The Hainan Nanhai Research Foundation, registered as the Hainan Free Trade Port Research Foundation (海南自貿港研究基金會), was founded on September 11, 2006. The Foundation provides funding for research, training, and academic exchanges related to the South China Sea and Hainan’s Free Trade Port. It is affiliated with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院), a Chinese state-backed think tank established in 1996. The foundation also backs the Institute for China-America Studies (ICAS) in Washington, D.C., which the expert Elizabeth Economy described in a 2017 piece the Council on Foreign Relations as “not a think tank but a channel for propaganda,” noting its commentary lacks any critical analysis of China. On the non-profit website Candid, a service for NGOs, the Hainan Nanhai Research Foundation describes its mission in security and foreign policy terms as “support[ing] and promot[ing] research and training in the South China Sea, [supporting] the country’s overall diplomatic service, and for the country to develop the strategic plan of services for the construction of Hainan Province maritime services.”
The Institute for China-Europe Studies (ICES) is a Brussels-based think tank with roots in China’s Hainan province that was founded in 2020 It publishes research, organizes events, and supports academic exchanges on China-Europe relations. The Institute’s publications cover EU trade defense instruments, critical raw materials, ocean governance, maritime law, and EU-China diplomatic relations. ICES organises webinars, roundtables, and an annual conference. It has also co-hosted events with international organizations such as the Washington-based Institute China-America Studies (ICAS) and the Carter Center. The Institute for China-Europe Studies was created by the Hainan Nanhai Research Foundation (海南自貿港研究基金會) which is a funding body that supports South China Sea research, training programs, and policy consultation work. That foundation shares both its physical address and its website URL with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院), or NISCSS, a government-backed research institute dedicated to advancing China’s position on South China Sea sovereignty disputes and based in Hainan’s capital of Haikou. The director of ICES is Wu Shicun (吳士存), who is also founding president of the above-mentioned NISCSS and a member of the Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy Advisory Committee (外交部外交政策咨詢委員會). The institute’s executive director is Yang Li (楊力), a former diplomat in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to cooperating with NISCSS for international events, ICES has also partnered with the Beijing Club for International Dialogue (北京對話), which is affiliated with Shanghai’s Guangcha Online (觀察網), a media outlet with private participation that maintains a strongly pro-government and even nationalistic stance. The Beijing Club, launched in September 2014, is represented in registration documents by Jin Zhongwei (金仲伟), the founding editor of Guacha Online and a distinguished research fellow at Fudan University’s China Institute, a think tank led by one of China’s core official strategists on external propaganda, professor Zhang Weiwei (张维为), who led a study session for the CCP Politburo on the top in May 2021.
The University of International Business and Economics (對外經濟貿易大學), was founded in 1951 in Beijing and is directly under the control of China’s Ministry of Education and co-run with the Ministry of Commerce. The university specializes in economics, trade, law, and management, fields that the university describes as its core academic strengths. It was originally established as China’s first higher education institution dedicated to training foreign trade professionals and it hosts over 160 research centres and, in line with a broader nationwide drive following the enshrinement of Xi Jinping Thought in the Party constitution in 2017, after which dozens of universities across China rapidly established dedicated research bases, it hosts a Beijing based research institute for the study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (習近平新時代中國特色社會主義思想). UIBE currently has partnerships with 397 universities and institutions across 62 countries and regions.
The National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院) is a Chinese public institution and think tank, headquartered in Haikou, Hainan Province, under the Hainan provincial government. The institute describes itself as “a national-level specialist think tank” (國家級特色專業智庫), with more than 50 researchers across five divisions covering maritime law and policy, South China Sea history and culture, regional studies, maritime security, and public diplomacy, and states its mission includes providing policy support for China’s South China Sea sovereignty and maritime rights positions, as well as promoting regional ocean governance. Its predecessor, the Hainan Research Center for the South China Sea (海南南海研究中心), was founded in 1996 and in July 2004 was renamed under its current designation. A Beijing branch of the Institute was established in January 2013 when then-president Wu Shicun (吳士存) said that the branch was established to provide a “more direct and convenient way to hear the central government’s voice and receive policy and operational guidance from relevant state departments.” Wu, who frequently speaks through Chinese state media on South China Sea issues, is also identified as the president of the Institute for Europe-China Studies. While his public bio emphasizes his academic credentials, including a doctorate in modern Chinese history from Nanjing University, Wu spent more than a decade rising through Hainan’s provincial foreign affairs and overseas Chinese affairs apparatus, serving successively as deputy director, director, and Party secretary, before taking on his current role. He has served since 2013 as a Hainan provincial people’s congress standing committee member and provincial party committee member.
Haiwainet officially launched on November 6, 2012, as the official website and new media platform of the overseas edition of the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily (人民日報). The overseas edition of People’s Daily was first published on July 1, 1985. Haiwainet was established through Haiqiao (Beijing) Cultural Media Co., Ltd., which was founded on August 27, 2012, and later renamed to Haiwainet Media Co., Ltd. on March 1, 2014. In March 2018, allegations emerged suggesting connections between Haiwainet and All America TV Station in Pasadena, with claims they operated as “one team under two brands.” Haiwainet denied these allegations, stating it had “no relationship” with either All America TV Station or its executive director Zhang Huijun (張慧君). Seattle-based AAT Television Corporation (亞美衛視) also distanced itself from All America TV Station.
AUS-China TV Media (澳華電視傳媒), abbreviated as ACTV, is a Sydney-based multimedia company founded on February 21, 2006, that closely collaborates with China’s official state-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), under the CCP’s China Media Group (CMG). According to CCTV’s website, the company is registered with the Australian Taxation Office and has “always cooperated” with CCTV-4’s “Chinese World” program since its establishment, providing content about Australian Chinese communities. Led by Chairman James Ren (任傳功), ACTV positions itself as a bridge connecting overseas Chinese communities with China while explicitly supporting Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and the “Chinese Dream” (中國夢). The company describes itself as focused on “overseas Chinese media unity” — according to a profile on the CCTV website from 2012 — and claims to promote “the prosperity and stability of multicultural Australia” and “mutual understanding between Australia and Asia-Pacific countries including China.”
Diário de Notícias, established on December 29, 1864, is a daily newspaper published in Lisbon, covering politics, business, culture, and general news. Before the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which ended decades of dictatorship, the newspaper was owned by Portugal’s authoritarian Estado Novo government. The paper is now owned by the Portuguese media conglomerate Global Media Group.
China Weekly (中國週報) is a bilingual Chinese-Arabic newspaper established in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur Ma Qiang (馬強) in Egypt. The publication covers Chinese economics, politics, and culture for both Chinese and Egyptian audiences, maintaining cooperation with China News Service (中新社) since its inception. The paper regularly reposts content from CNS, which is operated by the United Front Work Department of the CCP. The newspaper and its publisher openly position themselves as serving to “tell China’s story well in both Chinese and Arabic languages” (用中阿雙語講好中國故事), a framing characteristic of Chinese state-linked overseas media, following Xi Jinping’s 2013 media speech on external propaganda. Ma Qiang has described his mission as presenting China’s image to the world from his position bridging Chinese and Egyptian communities. The newspaper represents part of China’s expanding media presence in the Middle East, particularly as part of the broader Belt and Road Initiative engagement with Arab nations.
