CCP Journalist Association Launches Belt and Road Journalists Network

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.”