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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16, 1945, in London, with its Constitution grounded in the conviction that “peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.” Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO works across 194 member states to strengthen international cooperation in education, science, culture, and information. The organization sets standards, produces tools, and develops knowledge to address global challenges — from protecting biodiversity and safeguarding heritage to ensuring access to reliable information and advancing quality education. In recent years, UNESCO has taken an active role in global AI governance, including through its 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the first global normative instrument in this domain, as well as practical tools such as its AI Readiness Assessment Methodology and AI Ethical Impact Assessment Toolkit. In the context of China’s expanding AI engagement, UNESCO has participated in forums including the 2025 China-SCO Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Forum in Tianjin, where it contributed to high-level panels on AI governance and security risks.

China-Cyprus-Europe Media Forum

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The China-Cyprus-Europe Media Forum was held from October 21-23, 2025, in Nicosia, Cyprus. According to a report from the official China News Service, the forum was organized by the China Media Group (中央广播电视总) and the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus, along with the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (塞浦路斯广播电视公司), the Cyprus Mail (塞浦路斯邮报), and the government-run Xinhua News Agency (新华社). More than 100 representatives from the media, government, diplomatic missions, universities, think tanks, and enterprises attended. The Chinese Ambassador said that he hoped participants would “deepen exchanges” and “tell stories of China-Cyprus friendship well” — language reflecting the Chinese Communist Party’s emphasis on “telling China’s story well” (講好中國故事), a core propaganda directive under Xi Jinping aimed at shaping international narratives about China. Cooperation between China and Cyprus, China-EU relations, media responsibilities, and the role of AI in media development were the main topics of the forum. The event released a declaration calling for the media to build “a community with a shared future for humanity” — this being a signature foreign policy concept introduced by Xi Jinping, and suggesting that the document was drafted by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The forum was timed ahead of the 55th anniversary of China-Cyprus diplomatic relations and Cyprus’s EU Council presidency in 2026.

Fourth Cross-Strait Media Summit Held in Beijing

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The Fourth Cross-Strait Media Summit (第四屆兩岸媒體人北京峰會) was held in Beijing on May 10, 2019, co-organized by Beijing Daily Group (北京日報報業集團) and Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團). Nearly seventy Taiwan media organizations sent representatives, led by Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明). CPPCC chairman and Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang (汪洋) received the Taiwan delegation in a closed-door session, directing those present that achieving peaceful unification and one country two systems required the efforts of media colleagues, and mocking Taiwan’s government as unable to guarantee its situation two years hence. Wang Yang further stated that Taiwan independence advocates were mistaken to rely on the United States, which would not go to war with China over Taiwan. The remarks were recorded and leaked the following day, triggering a public controversy in Taiwan. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) convened a national security meeting the same morning the summit took place; the Foreign Ministry and National Security Bureau both issued statements condemning the CCP’s interference in Taiwan’s press freedom. Xinhua News Agency’s dispatch on Wang Yang’s remarks omitted the statements about Taiwan’s government and the United States entirely. The incident was reported by The News Lens and [Up Media](https://www.upmedia.mg/newsinfo.php?Type=24&SerialNo=63014)_.

Xinhua Hosts China-Poland Economic Forum in Warsaw

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On June 17, 2025, in Warsaw, Poland, China’s official Xinhua News Agency organized a forum with Li Danhong (李丹红), charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, Polish Media Association (波兰媒体协会) President Marek Traczyk, and former Polish Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski attending at Lukaszewski University. Xinhua claimed in official coverage that the event would “enhance economic cooperation and mutual understanding” between the countries, with Li presenting China’s commitment to “building an open global economy” and “sharing the dividends of its modernization,” while Traczyk, using terms clearly echoing the official discourse of the CCP, described it as enabling “mutually beneficial cooperation” and contributing to “world peace, development, and shared prosperity.” The forum positions itself as promoting bilateral exchanges through China’s visa-free policy, but the emphasis on China’s development model presentation and standard diplomatic language about “shared prosperity” (共同富裕) suggests soft power objectives rather than independent economic dialogue.

Xinhua Hosts Reuters, AP, and AFP in Beijing

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On December 1, 2023, Xinhua News Agency hosted leaders from the global newswires Reuters, AFP, and the Associated Press in Beijing, with Xinhua President Fu Hua (傅華) proposing a “high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanism” among the agencies. The meeting preceded the fifth World Media Summit in Guangzhou and Kunming. The World Media Summit (WMS), is a forum conceived by China in the midst of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and first held in October 2009, with the explicit idea on China’s part to expand its global influence and “discourse power” (話語權) through a semi-formal international mechanism under its leadership. Eight months ahead of the first meeting, Xinhua News Agency chief Li Congjun (李从军) wrote in the official periodical China Journalist that the event of conceived “[according] to the Central Committee’s strategic demand for ‘strengthening external propaganda’” (大外宣). At the 2023 event, participants discussed artificial intelligence, misinformation, and journalists’ safety. Fu Hua proposed expanded partnerships for video distribution and mutual humanitarian assistance in conflict zones. The gathering represented Xinhua’s effort to position itself alongside Western wire services, though the meeting’s outcomes and substantive commitments from participating agencies remained unclear from available reporting.

China Media Group Launches Program Showcase in Lima

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On October 30, 2024, the China Media Group (CMG), the state-run media conglomerate directly under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, launched a program showcase in Lima, a promotional event to introduce approximately 20 Spanish-language productions. These include documentaries on Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global development and infrastructure push, and a series on a series on Chinese-style modernization — the latter a key part of political framing since the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2020. The lineup, which also includes dramas, will be broadcast on Peru’s state-run IRTP and Panamericana Television. Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), CMG president and a deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department, and Gustavo Adrianzén, Peru’s prime minister, both delivered video remarks, with Shen describing the initiative as presenting a “trustworthy, lovable and respectable” China. The showcase fell two weeks before Xi Jinping’s state visit to Lima for the APEC summit, where China inaugurated the 3.6 billion-dollar Port of Chancay and signed an upgraded free trade agreement with Peru.

2025 South and Southeast Asian Media Network Annual Meeting

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The 2025 South and Southeast Asian Media Network Annual Meeting (2025南亞東南亞媒體聯盟年會) was held on September 5, 2025, in Kunming, bringing together representatives from 11 countries including China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Sri Lanka. The event featured what Chinese state media characterized as “high-level participation” from propaganda and information ministers, underscoring the official and diplomatic core of what the Chinese hosts portrayed as a meeting about regional media cooperation. China Daily publisher Qu Yingpu (曲瑩璞) and Yunnan’s top propaganda official, Zeng Yan (曾艷), delivered keynote addresses. Zeng emphasized the need to build “a more united model of global media cooperation” (更團結的世界媒體合作典範) — a reference to China’s ambition of creating media industry blocs to counter what the leadership regards as an imbalance in Western dominance of global public opinion. Attendees launched new cooperation projects and discussed leveraging artificial intelligence for regional media development, with Myanmar’s information minister noting the need to learn from China’s technological advances. The meeting presented itself as a platform for “Global South” media collaboration while advancing China’s narrative influence through coordinated messaging and technology transfer initiatives. Among the foreign participants mentioned in news reporting was Vansay Tavinyan, editor-in-chief of Pasaxon newspaper (Laos); representatives from the Thai News Agency under Thailand’s state-owned public broadcaster, MCOT (Mass Communication Organization of Thailand); Qing Lian, the head of Cambodia’s Ministry of Information; and U Maung Maung Ohn, Myanmar’s information minister.

China-ASEAN Digital Academy and AI Industry Innovation Center Announced

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On January 14, 2026, at the China-ASEAN Digital Ecosystem Cooperation Networking Dinner in Hanoi, Vietnam — held alongside the 6th ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting — China and ASEAN formally announced plans to establish the China-ASEAN Digital Academy (中国—东盟数字学院) and the China-ASEAN AI Industry Innovation Center (中国—东盟人工智能产业创新中心). The event was co-organized by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部) and the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (中国信息通信研究院), and attended by former Cambodian minister and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn (高金洪) and Chinese Vice Minister Zhang Yunming (张云明). The centers’ launch is scheduled for 2026, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, and forms part of the ASEAN-China Action Plan on Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Ecosystem (2026-2030), aimed at developing digital talent, promoting open-source AI technology, and advancing AI security governance across the region.

ASEAN

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization established on August 8, 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by five founding members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The bloc expanded over subsequent decades, with Brunei Darussalam joining in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, Cambodia in 1999, and Timor-Leste on October 25, 2025, bringing total membership to eleven states. ASEAN’s mandate spans economic integration, political-security cooperation, and sociocultural development across Southeast Asia. Its secretariat is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the context of China engagement, ASEAN has emerged as a key arena for Beijing’s media, technology, and AI diplomacy, including through bilateral trade frameworks such as the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement and cooperative mechanisms covering digital infrastructure, AI governance, and cross-border data flows. In recent years, ASEAN and China have also moved to deepen media exchanges, part of a broader effort to strengthen people-to-people ties and shape shared narratives across the region.