China-Russia Media Dialogue Focuses on Telling Stories of Bilateral Friendship

The China-Russia Media Dialogue Forum was held in Beijing on July 31, 2023, bringing together representatives from more than 20 Chinese and Russian media outlets to discuss how to “tell stories of China-Russia friendship in the new era” (讲好新时代中俄友好故事). Organized by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the forum featured representatives from Russian state-run outlets including Rossiyskaya Gazeta, TASS, and RT alongside counterparts from the official People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and the China Media Group (CMG), the state-run media conglomerate under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. The two sides, said a readout on the session, shared stories of bilateral cooperation — including joint efforts to fight Covid-19 and exchanges of children from disaster areas. CPAFFC Vice President Yan Dong (鄢东) said media exchanges are a key platform for promoting bilateral friendship, noting that cooperation had yielded “abundant results” in recent years under the strategic guidance of both heads of state. The notion of “telling stories” is a direct reference to Xi Jinping’s policy on “external propaganda” (外宣), centered on the notion of “telling China’s story well” (講好中國故事), which was laid out during a speech in August 2013.