Global Times Hosts China-Germany Media Forum in Heidelberg

From October 14 to 16, 2026, the state-run Global Times (環球時報), a tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily (人民日報), hosted the 17th Media Forum China-Germany (第十七屆中德媒體圓桌會) in the southwestern German city of Heidelberg. The forum has long been run in partnership with China Media Management Inc. (CMM-I傳媒諮詢有限公司), a Beijing-based media consulting firm. According to the Global Times, senior journalists, media executives and scholars from both countries discussed 10 topics, including China-Germany relations, global security, AI governance and media responsibility. Coverage from the Global Times framed the forum around Xi Jinping’s assessment of “great changes unseen in a century” (百年未有之大變局), which the CCP uses as its official assessment that the world is accelerating toward multipolarity, driven by the rise of developing economies and China’s growing national power. In his opening remarks, Global Times Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bai Long (百龍) said that China and Germany have long had deeply interconnected interests, with each having a stake in the other. He added that media can create divergent perceptions between the two countries but can also build bridges of understanding. Heidelberg Lord Mayor Eckart Würzner toured the accompanying exhibition, which the Global Times describes as part of a brand activity for promoting “Chinese theory and Chinese thought.” 
The forum was launched in 2010 by Germany’s Robert Bosch Stiftung in cooperation with the Global Times, and the foundation organized it annually for years. German journalist Frank Sieren, a longtime Beijing-based correspondent, co-founded the forum and has served as its moderator. CMM-I managed the forum for the foundation from its early years, and CMM-I partner Anke Redl has continued to manage it. The company was named as an organizer of the 2024 edition and co-hosted the 2025 edition in Shenzhen. Global Times coverage of the 2026 edition did not name a co-organizer. Xu Pei (徐沛), a Germany-based Chinese writer and activist, has argued that the CCP uses the forum to co-opt German media figures for its propaganda. She has also noted that German-language sources presented the Bosch Stiftung as the sole organizer, while Chinese state media named the Global Times as the main organizer. Alongside the forum, the Global Times staged its “Overseas China Week” (海外中國週) initiative with a photo exhibition titled “Green and Innovation: China and Germany Embarking on Vibrant Future.” According to the newspaper, the exhibition aims to bring overseas audiences closer to “Chinese concepts and China’s image.” The initiative has previously staged exhibitions in Kazakhstan, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan.