ACJA Hosts China-Spain Media Roundtable in Madrid

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.