Heilongjiang Northeast Asia International Communication Center Launched With Russian, South Korean Media Participation

On February 28, 2024, the Heilongjiang Northeast Asia International Communication Center (黑龍江東北亞國際傳播中心) launched in Harbin, as part of a nationwide strategy under Xi Jinping to invigorate “external propaganda” (外宣) through greater provincial and city-level involvement. The center was jointly established by the Heilongjiang Daily Press Group (黑龍江日報報業集團), Ta Kung Net (大公網), a Hong Kong news portal operated by the Ta Kung Wen Wei Media Group, and the government of Heihe, a Heilongjiang border city facing Russia. Zhang Chunjiao (張春嬌), then Party secretary and president of the press group, said the center would help “tell Longjiang’s version of China’s story” to the world, according to the government-run China News Service. At the launch, Ta Kung Net’s Northeast Asia channel went live, and organizers announced more than 30 “cooperative linked media” (合作聯動媒體) partners. “Leonid Georgievich Gulin” (列昂尼德·格奥尔基耶维奇·古林), editor-in-chief of the Russian outlet Dragon Newspaper, and a figure identified in Chinese state media as “Kim Moon-young” (金文永), a representative of a South Korean outlet identified as “MP Net” (MP網), delivered video remarks pledging cooperation. Neither the individual nor the outlet on the South Korean side could be independently confirmed from online sources, and the Russian editor’s name is likewise an unverified romanization. The center runs Korean- and Russian-language channels under Heilongjiang’s “link south, open north” (南聯北開) communication strategy.