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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

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Venezuela, renamed the “Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” from the previous “Republic of Venezuela” under its 1999 constitution following a power grab by the newly elected President Hugo Chávez, has cultivated one of Latin America’s closest political relationships with Beijing, elevated to an “all-weather strategic partnership” in 2023. Following a US military operation on January 3, 2026, that captured President Nicolás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was installed as interim president. Venezuelan state broadcaster VTV and the Caracas-based network TeleSUR have aired content from Chinese state-media through a series of high-level exchanges. In October 2024, Venezuela’s communication minister signed a cooperation memorandum linking VTV and TeleSUR with Russia’s TV BRICS network, and researchers have separately documented that TeleSUR republishes Xinhua and CGTN material, at times presenting it as original reporting. Venezuela became a founding member of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization in July 2026.

Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho

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Lesotho, a constitutional monarchy landlocked within South Africa, gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. China and Lesotho restored diplomatic relations in 1993, and cooperation has since spanned infrastructure, health and media. In November 2013, China’s press and broadcast regulator and Lesotho National Broadcasting Services signed a license agreement. More recently, Lesotho’s Foreign Affairs Minister Limpho Tau signed WAICO’s founding agreement on Lesotho’s behalf in July 2026, describing Lesotho as “very honored” to become a founding member and citing the need to “safeguard the common rights and interests of the Global South countries,” according to Xinhua.

Rossiya Segodnya

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Rossiya Segodnya (今日俄羅斯國際通訊社) is a Russian state media group established after Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree on December 9, 2013, ordering the liquidation of the state news agency RIA Novosti and the state broadcaster Voice of Russia and folding their staff and assets into the new entity. RIA Novosti itself traced its lineage to the Soviet Information Bureau, founded in 1941, though Rossiya Segodnya was created as a distinct entity by the 2013 decree, not a continuation of it. Putin’s chief of staff said the restructuring was meant to improve cost efficiency in state media, while RIA Novosti’s own reporting at the time suggested it reflected tightening Kremlin control over the media sector. The group’s outlets include Sputnik, its international multimedia brand publishing in 32 languages and broadcasting in 19 countries; RIA Novosti, which continues to operate as its Russian-language domestic wire service; Prime, a business and financial news wire; and Arctic.ru, a bilingual Russian-English outlet covering Arctic infrastructure, resource development, and indigenous culture that reports roughly 60 percent of its readership from outside Russia.

Government of the Republic of Cameroon

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Cameroon, a Central African state formed by the 1961 reunification of former French and British trust territories, established diplomatic relations with China in 1971. President Paul Biya, still in power at the time of this entry in July 2026, has ruled Cameroon since 1982, maintaining power through what the organization Freedom House has described as rigged elections, patronage and restrictions on the press and opposition parties. Ties with China were elevated to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in September 2024. Cameroonian media links to Chinese state outlets run primarily through private broadcaster Canal 2 International, whose director general publicly pledged deeper CMG ties in February 2026. Cameroon has also taken part in the Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation, a state-organized platform founded in 2012 that has produced joint statements on media-policy alignment among African broadcasters and China’s radio and television regulator. Cameroon became a founding member of WAICO in July 2026.

Mobile TeleSystems

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MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) is Russia’s largest mobile operator, with more than 86 million mobile subscribers across Russia and Belarus. The company was founded on October 28, 1993, as a joint venture between the Moscow City Telephone Network, Deutsche Telekom (through its DeTeMobil subsidiary), Siemens, and several smaller Russian shareholders. MTS is majority-owned by Sistema, Russia’s largest publicly traded diversified holding company. The core telecommunications business and retail network retained the MTS name throughout a 2024-2026 corporate reorganization that spun off the company’s non-telecom businesses, including media and entertainment, fintech, advertising technology, and kickscooter-sharing, into a separate holding structure. ON Media, the parent of the media assets involved in cooperation agreements with China Media Group, is among the businesses that passed through this restructuring.

Government of the Republic of the Congo

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The Republic of the Congo, a Central African state also known as Congo-Brazzaville, has (as of the writing of this entry in July 2026) been ruled by the presidency of Denis Sassou Nguesso for more than 40 years. Freedom House has cited severe repression of the opposition and credible, recurring corruption allegations against Nguesso’s family. Congo-Brazzaville established diplomatic relations with China in 1964, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has more recently described the country as a steadfast friend of China. The country has served as co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Media-adjacent cooperation includes Congo’s participation in a China-funded satellite TV project bringing access to 10,000 African villages, demonstrated at a village site visited by senior Chinese officials in 2018. In July 2026, the Republic of the Congo was confirmed as a founding member of the China-led World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), with Chinese-language sourcing specifying “Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville),” distinguishing it from the DRC.

ON Media

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ON Media (known until November 25, 2025 as MTS Media) is a Russian entertainment holding created in February 2024 to consolidate the entertainment businesses of the digital ecosystem operated by MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), Russia’s largest mobile operator. The holding includes the KION streaming platform, the KIONFILM studio, the MTS Music streaming service, the Строки (Stroki) book service, the MTS Label record company, and the MTS Live events and ticketing division. ON Media briefly operated under a broader non-telecom holding structure called Erion, itself a late-2025 rebrand of what had been known as “MTS Ecosystem,” though that holding structure was reported to be under dissolution as of February 2026, with ON Media continuing to operate as an individual business. ON Media is led by general director Sofya Mitrofanova, who previously held senior roles at Gazprom-Media Holding, Okko, Ivi, and Premier.

Qingdao Binhai University Signs Cooperation Agreement With Russia’s Dragon Newspaper

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On April 7, 2026, the International Civil Diplomacy Research Center (國際民間外交研究中心) at Qingdao Binhai University, a private university in Shandong province, signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Russian outlet Dragon Newspaper, according to a press release from the university. The agreement, signed during a visit by Dragon Newspaper president Li Shuangjie (李雙傑), covers cultural exchange, academic research, and youth employment services aimed at what the university called strengthening “people-to-people bonds” (民心相通) between China and Russia. Dragon Newspaper has documented institutional ties to China News Service, which established a “strategic partnership” with the paper in 2012, and whose corporate structure, according to Chinese business registry records, wholly owns the company registered as operator of the paper’s website. The university’s executive vice president, Han Xiaomeng (韓曉萌), said the school maintains partnerships with more than 140 universities and research institutions across 40 countries and Taiwan and has hosted more than 2,300 international students. Both sides framed the agreement as part of the “China-Russia Education Year,” a bilateral framework promoting educational and cultural exchange.

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

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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.