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All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

Kazakh President’s TV and Radio Complex and China Media Group Announce Joint TV Program

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On June 16, 2025, during the second China-Central Asia Summit, a diplomatic meeting between China and five Central Asian countries first held in 2023, the state-run Kazakhstan President’s TV and Radio Complex and China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) signed an agreement to jointly produce “Silk Way Star” (絲路之星), a singing competition gathering contestants from Central Asian countries and China, planned to air on the Kazakh national Silk Way TV channel and China Global Television Network (中國國際電視台), or CGTN. Raushan Kazhibayeva, the director at Kazakhstan President’s TV and Radio Complex, and Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), CMG’s president, signed the agreement in a ceremony that was attended by both Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chinese President Xi Jinping. A report on the agreement by state-run media Kazinform noted that both parties have a history of content exchange and cooperation on projects related to the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization. During Xi’s visit to Kazakhstan, both media also signed a memorandum of understanding on content and technology sharing. 

Chinese Charge d’Affairs to Spain Gives Interview on China’s Coronavirus Response to Onda Cero Radio Program

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On February 24, 2020, Yao Fei (姚飛), China’s then-charge d’affairs to Spain, was interviewed by Spanish radio broadcaster Onda Cero’s program “Más de uno” (“More Than One”) about the coronavirus pandemic. Acknowledging that the virus had caused a major public health crisis in China, Yao stated in the interview that China maintained a “policy of complete transparency” in its response to the virus in response to criticisms of the Chinese government’s secrecy around the virus that had emerged both domestically and internationally. Yao gave the interview shortly after the death of Li Wenliang (李文亮), the Chinese doctor who raised early alarms among his colleagues before dying of the virus himself. Asked about Li, Yao responded that the right to disclose information resides solely with the government and that “no individual citizen has the right or freedom to disclose this type of information,” which “can cause excessive panic in society.” The charge d’affairs also commented that measures taken to curb travel and trade with China were “excessive.” 

China Media Group and Khabar Agency Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Content Sharing

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On June 16, 2025, during the Second China-Central Asia Summit, a diplomatic meeting between China and leaders from five Central Asian countries, China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Khabar Agency, one of Kazakhstan’s largest state broadcasters owned wholly by the Ministry of Culture. The MoU aimed to broaden exchanges in areas such as news content and technology sharing. According to a report from the CMG-owned China Central Television (中央電視台), or CCTV, the agreement would contribute to the development of the China-Kazakhstan Permanent Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (中哈永久全面戰略夥伴關係) initially signed in 2019. This MoU was one of three agreements signed between CMG and Kazakh media during the summit.

Onda Cero

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Headquartered in Madrid, Onda Cero is a national radio broadcaster that first went on air November 1990, covering news, politics, culture, and more. It is owned by the publicly-traded Astresmeda, one of Spain’s largest media companies which also owns several other radio and television stations as well as a streaming platform, Astresplayer. Onda Cero had an average of 2.3 million listeners in the first half of 2026, according to a company report. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report ranks Onda Cero as 14th when it comes to national TV, radio, and print weekly reach, with an overall trust score among the highest of those surveyed at 49%. In February 2020, Onda Cero’s “Más de uno”  program aired an interview with Yao Fei (姚飛), China’s then-charge d’affairs to Spain, on China’s initial COVID-19 response, in which Yao claimed that China maintained “a policy of complete transparency” and dismissed concerns about Li Wenliang (李文亮), the Chinese doctor who died of the virus after raising alarms early into the outbreak.

CMG Launches Multilingual Xi Jinping Quotations Program in Kyrgyzstan

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China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), the state broadcaster operating under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, launched a multilingual version of its television program “Ping ‘Yu’ Jin Ren: Classical Sayings Favored by Xi Jinping” (平’語’近人──習近平喜歡的典故) at a ceremony in Bishkek on August 30, 2026. The launch coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Kyrgyzstan ahead of the Bishkek summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the regional economic and security grouping founded in 2001 by China and Russia. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov sent a congratulatory letter marking the occasion of the propaganda broadcast. The program, which presents classical Chinese texts quoted by Xi in speeches and writings, began airing the same day on state and mainstream broadcasters across nine SCO member and dialogue partner states, including Kyrgyzstan’s national broadcaster, Pakistan Television Corporation, Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, and Russia’s Rossiyskaya Gazeta, alongside additional state outlets in Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, according to the state-run China Central Television (CCTV). CCTV said the program was designed to help SCO-region audiences “better understand Chinese culture” (讀懂中國文化) and “sense Chinese wisdom” (感知中國智慧). A brief Xinhua item on the launch also ran in the newspaper eye (報眼), the small box beside the masthead reserved for high-priority items, on page one of the People’s Daily on August 31, 2026.

MIR Interstate Television and Radio Company

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The “Mir” Interstate Television and Radio Company (Мир), or МТРК, is a state-owned broadcasting consortium founded on October 9, 1992, when the heads of state of ten former Soviet republics signed an agreement in Bishkek establishing it as a joint media project of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an intergovernmental organization comprising states in the Eurasian region. The founding “shareholders” of “Mir,” which was organized as a closed joint-stock company, were Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The company operates national branches and representative offices in nine CIS countries, including Belarus, alongside its Moscow headquarters, and broadcasts primarily in Russian. Its output today includes the television channels Mir and Mir 24, Radio Mir, and the online portal MIR24.TV, which the broadcaster describes as covering the political, economic, and humanitarian cooperation of CIS member states and helping preserve a shared post-Soviet information space. In April 2023, Moldova’s government revoked the intergovernmental agreement governing Mir’s operation in the country, part of a wider distancing from CIS-era arrangements with Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Government spokesman Daniel Voda said at the time that Moldova “will no longer finance propaganda and disinformation,” referring to Mir’s coverage of the war.

National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan

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The National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan (Oʻzbekiston Milliy teleradiokompaniyasi), known by the acronym MTRK, is Uzbekistan’s state broadcaster, headquartered in Tashkent. Its current organizational structure dates to a presidential decree issued November 8, 2005, and a subsequent Cabinet of Ministers resolution the following month, both published on Uzbekistan’s official legal-documents portal, directing a restructuring of MTRK’s staffing and production operations to modernize its broadcasting output. The company operates multiple national television channels, including the flagship Oʻzbekiston channel, alongside a national radio service, broadcasting primarily in Uzbek and Russian. MTRK is wholly state-owned.

Pakistan Television Corporation

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Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) is Pakistan’s state television broadcaster, headquartered in Islamabad and operated under the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The broadcaster traces its founding to a pilot television station established in Lahore, which began black-and-white transmission on November 26, 1964, according to the Ministry’s own account. Television centers followed in Karachi and Islamabad in 1967, and in Peshawar and Quetta in 1974, later expanding to Multan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The broadcaster describes its mandate as providing public-service broadcasting both within and outside Pakistan, producing programming in Urdu and regional languages including Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, and Balochi. PTV’s terrestrial coverage reaches about 90 percent of Pakistan’s population, with its channels also distributed by satellite across South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America, per the Ministry.

Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan

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The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Oʻzbekiston Respublikasi Vazirlar Mahkamasi) is the central executive body of the Uzbek government, established under Chapter 20 of Uzbekistan’s constitution, adopted December 8, 1992. Its composition and powers are set out in a national law on the Cabinet of Ministers, first adopted May 6, 1993 and most recently revised in a version dated October 25, 2024, published on Uzbekistan’s official legal-documents portal. Per the current law, the Cabinet consists of the prime minister, deputy prime ministers, and government ministers, and answers to Uzbekistan’s parliament, the Oliy Majlis, and to the president. It oversees the country’s ministries, state committees, and subordinate agencies, including state broadcaster MTRK Uzbekistan, which was ordered to report directly to the Cabinet under a 2005 Cabinet resolution reorganizing the broadcaster. The Cabinet is seated at the Government House on Independence Square (Mustaqillik Maydoni) in Tashkent.