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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

Xinhua and TASS Sign Cooperation Strategy Agreement

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On September 2, 2025, Russia’s TASS news agency and China’s state Xinhua News Agency signed a cooperation strategy for 2026–2030 in Beijing, on the sidelines of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China for the 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional intergovernmental organization founded in 2001 that groups China, Russia, and several Central and South Asian states. The agreement was signed by TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov and Xinhua President Fu Hua (傅華). Under the agreement, the two agencies pledge to exchange multilingual news feeds, collaborate on AI in editorial work, and share photo and video content. Both agencies also agreed to cooperate within the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), a Russia-based body co-founded in 2025 by TASS. 

Gongong News Agency Courts Malaysian and Malawi Representatives in Guangzhou

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On May 15, 2026, Huang Weijian (黃偉健), director of the international communication center of Hong Kong-based Gonggong News Agency (共工新聞社), attended a cross-border and overseas media forum held at the ICC Trade Centre (ICC環貿大廈) in Guangzhou. Huang delivered a keynote address titled “Rooted in Hong Kong, Connected to the World, Promoting the International Dissemination of Chinese Culture” (立足香港 聯通全球 推動中華文化國際傳播), in which he described the agency’s mandate using the CCP-sanctioned formulation “telling China’s story well, spreading China’s voice” (講好中國故事、傳播中國聲音), and invoked Hong Kong’s role as a platform “backed by the motherland, connected to the world” (背靠祖國、聯通世界). During the event, the agency’s international communication center presented a copy of the Gonggong News Agency Publicity Booklet (共工新聞社宣傳冊) to the deputy commercial consul of the Malaysian Consulate General in Guangzhou, after which the two sides exchanged views on deepening international communication and cultural exchange cooperation, though no formal agreement was announced. Also present was Jani Grey Kasunda, a Malawian student of International Relations in China who has declared his candidacy for the Malawian presidency in the 2030 general elections — a contest still four years away — and who has separately courted Chinese investment in Malawi’s agriculture, mining, energy, and digital sectors. At the forum, Kasunda praised the agency’s communication philosophy and expressed interest in future China-Africa media cooperation.

CMG and Naftemporiki Sign Memorandum of Understanding

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On October 30, 2023, Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), president of China Media Group (CMG), signed a memorandum with Dimitris Melissanidis, owner of the financial newspaper Naftemporiki. The Chinese and Greek partners agreed, according to a release from CMP, to cooperate in international news reporting, finance, and joint production of economic news. The signing of the agreement happened on the sidelines of a CMG-hosted China-Greece Belt and Road Dialogue” (中國希臘”一帶一路”對話會) in Athens, marking the Belt and Road’s 10th anniversary. Former Greek president Prokopios Pavlopoulos, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni, and Chinese Ambassador to China Xiao Junzheng (肖軍正) also attended the ceremony.

The Brussels Times

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The Brussels Times is an English-language Belgian news outlet founded in 1965 as a broadsheet newspaper and revived in its current digital and print form in 2014. Owned by BXL Connect and headquartered on Avenue Louise in Brussels, it describes itself as Belgium’s largest daily news medium in English, with over two million monthly visits. Its stated mission is to provide expatriates, foreigners, and internationally oriented Belgians with coverage of Belgian news, EU affairs, and opinion. The outlet’s editorial policy and code of conduct, published on its website, commits the publication to independence from advertisers, sponsors, and owners, and to full transparency on funding sources and conflicts of interest. The magazine is distributed across EU institutions, more than 100 embassies and representations to the EU, and over 7,000 hotel rooms, giving it particular reach among Brussels-based diplomats and policymakers. 

Dimokratia

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Dimokratia (Δημοκρατία) is a Greek daily newspaper founded in 2010. It covers national politics, social issues, and foreign affairs, with particular attention to Greece’s relations with neighboring countries. The paper is published across print and digital platforms. Its coverage of Greek-Turkish tensions has at times drawn international attention. In 2020, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into the paper and its editors after it published a headline insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, in response to disputes over contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean.

University of Salamanca

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The University of Salamanca (Universidad de Salamanca), founded in 1218, is one of the oldest universities in the world and Spain’s foremost public research institution, enrolling over 30,000 students across four campuses with 72 undergraduate and 86 official master’s programs. In October 2017, the Chinese Embassy in Spain sent an urgent email to the university’s president and dean demanding cancellation of its inaugural “Taiwan Cultural Days” — warning the event “would affect the university’s good relations with China” — and the university complied the same day, deleting all mention of the event from its website and social media. The incident, which only became public knowledge in August 2018 after a lecturer went public with the embassy’s email, drew widespread condemnation as an instance of Beijing pressuring European academic institutions. In May 2025, the university and Guizhou University (貴州大學) jointly established a Confucius Institute (孔子學院) — institutions that have faced sustained criticism over academic freedom — which a Guizhou University representative described as “advancing the Belt and Road Initiative” (推進一帶一路倡議).

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia (馬來西亞外交部), also known as Wisma Putra (威士馬布特拉) after the complex in Putrajaya from which it operates, is the Malaysian government ministry responsible for the formulation, planning, and implementation of Malaysia’s foreign policy, and for managing bilateral, regional, and multilateral relations with foreign countries and international organizations. Its origins date to 1956, a year before Malaysian independence, when a pioneer batch of eleven career diplomats was sent to the United Kingdom and Australia for training. The ministry was initially established as the Ministry of External Affairs before being renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966. It has operated from its current premises at No. 1, Jalan Wisma Putra, Precinct 2, Putrajaya since 17 September 2001. The ministry oversees a global network of over 110 diplomatic missions, including the Consulate General of Malaysia in Guangzhou.

BXL Connect

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BXL Connect is a Belgian private limited liability company founded in March 2013. It manages The Brussels Times, an English-language Belgian newspaper.

Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union

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The Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union is China’s principal diplomatic representation to EU institutions. Diplomatic ties were established on May 6, 1975, when European Economic Community Vice-President Christopher Soames and Premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) agreed to normalize relations; China’s first ambassador to the European Communities presented credentials that September. The mission operates a press office and regularly publishes op-eds and statements in European media. Relations have grown increasingly strained since the European Commission in 2019 formally described China as simultaneously a partner, an economic competitor, and a systemic rival, a characterization the mission has consistently rejected.