
You Watch But Don’t Absorb
As independent journalists face mounting pressure in Kyrgyzstan, Chinese state media have quietly built influence over two decades. Adina Masalbekova tells Lingua Sinica how it happened.

Kyrgyz Tuusu Publishing House is a state-owned media enterprise in Kyrgyzstan, formed in January 2026 through the merger of four previously separate government publications: the national newspaper Kyrgyz Tuusu, the Russian-language daily Slovo Kyrgyzstana, the children’s magazine Baichchekey, and the literary journal Ala-Too. The publishing house is now the sole publisher of all four media. It also functions as a platform for official messaging from the Kyrgyz state. The secretary general of the Organization of Turkic States, an intergovernmental organization comprising all but one of the world’s Turkic sovereign states, has published articles in the magazine. Since the merger, the house has also co-hosted the May 2026 China-Kyrgyzstan Media Cooperation Forum in Bishkek with China’s People’s Daily (人民日報) and signed a cooperation
