Archives: Dispatches

Gonggong News Agency (共工新聞社), also known as Gong Gong News, is a privately operated news service that provides a range of China-related news, often drawn from PRC state sources such as Xinhua, as well as domestic news from the African continent — but whose primary purpose seems to be facilitating business connections between China and Africa, and in particular between China and Uganda. Though the news service reportedly began operations in 2015, founded by Chinese national Gong Jianguang (龔建光), it was not registered under the “Gong Gong” name in Hong Kong until December 2020 with the registration of “Gong Gong News Agency Limited,” also “Gonggong Newspaper Limited.” Prior to that time, the chief entity was Hong Kong’s Fanzhou International Group Limited (泛洲國際集團有限公司), previously “Africa International Limited” (泛非国际有限公司), which remains the top shareholder in Gong Gong News (51 percent) and has been fully held by Gong Jiangguang since a series of share transfers in 2011. Although Gong’s history with Uganda and Africa are unclear, his involvement with Fanzhou, formerly “Africa International,” since 2011 hints at involvement in related business. Gong, whose hometown according to Hong Kong records is the village of Xiwanzhou (西湾洲) in Hunan, north of the city of Yuanjiang, appears in numerous online sources, including as late as November 2024, as the “Chief Commercial Liaison Officer, Embassy of the Republic of Uganda to China” — a position he has reportedly held since at least 2013, two years before the full operation of the news agency. A 2017 article from Phoenix News reports that the Ugandan Embassy in China had officially appointed Gong Gong as its “foreign publicity unit” (外宣单位) in China, while a more recent report in 2024, from Gong Gong News itself — announced that Charles Madipo Wakiduso, the director of the Commercial Center of the Ugandan Embassy, had been appointed as “Honorary President” (名誉社长) of the Gonggong News Agency. Gong has an active website at cn.kgongcn.com as well as a currently inactive website at gonggong.hk. Gong Gong News also has active YouTube, Facebook and X accounts. The outlet claims to have international desks and departments in Uganda, the United States, Indonesia, and Taiwan — though this could not be confirmed. Gong Gong News describes itself — somewhat speciously — as a member of multiple international Chinese-language media associations. These include the International Union of Chinese Media and Journalists (國際華文媒體與記者聯盟), of which no credible record can be found outside of Gong Gong’s own claims, and the International Communication Organization (國際傳播組織), an organization started by an individual called Chen Xuegang (陈学刚) that claims registration in the United States but now has only an active .cn domain Chinese-language site. Until the end of 2024, the organization had another URL, now inactive, that displayed only dummy content archived by the Internet Archive. Born in 1971, Gong graduated from the University of International Business and Economics (外經濟貿易大學). In 2016, he also launched Guangdong Fanzhou Culture Communication (廣東泛洲文化傳播有限公司), which operates across media, news and cultural promotion, while maintaining diverse holdings in real estate development, logistics, technology services, and food trade. Gong is also listed as having been appointed in 2020 as a researcher for the Beijing-based China Academy of Management Science (中國管理科學研究院), or CAMS, a research institution originally under the sponsorship of the China Tourism and Culture Resources Development Association that was revoked in June 2024 for numerous violations. The CAMS website had previously featured a section called “caring guidance” (親切關懷) that displayed photographs of Gong meeting with various officials, including Ugandan Vice President Edward Sekandi and Chinese provincial leaders.