Archives: Dispatches

On May 21, 2026, the “China–Greece Media Think Tank Dialogue Roundtable” (中希媒體智庫對話圓桌會) was held at the Chinese School of Classical Studies at Athens (CSCSA), an institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中國社會科學院), inaugurated in Athens on November 28, 2024. The event was co-hosted by the All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA — which, according to its own constitution, operates as “a national people’s organization of the Chinese press under CCP leadership” — and the CSCSA. The ACJA also plays a critical role for the CCP in enforcing domestic controls on journalists, including mandatory training in the “Marxist View of Journalism” (馬克思主義新聞觀), a framework that prescribes CCP dominance over the press and public opinion. Representatives from the Chinese Embassy in Greece, the ACJA, and multiple Chinese media outlets attended alongside Greek organizations including the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the Greek public broadcaster ERT, and the Chinese-language China–Greece Times (中希時報). Participants discussed expanding joint reporting, exchange programs, a proposed annual China–Greece journalism prize (中希新聞獎), and a shared fact-checking mechanism, while framing journalists as “guardians of truth” in an AI-driven information environment marked by “fake news” and algorithmic bias. The gathering promoted a narrative of “civilizational dialogue” and invoked the Piraeus Port project — a flagship Belt and Road Initiative (一帶一路) investment — as a symbol of bilateral ties, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the China–Greece comprehensive strategic partnership, signed in 2006.