Spanish Journalists Visit China for 10-Day Training Course

In August 2025, 26 Spanish journalists and analysts traveled to Beijing for a ten-day training course on China, organized by the China International Communications Group (中國國際傳播集團), a state media organization established in 1949 and directly under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. The course was co-sponsored by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (國家國際發展合作署), Beijing’s foreign aid body under the State Council, established in 2018, and by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. Spanish participants included representatives from the digital newspaper El Semanal de La Mancha; the Madrid-based organization Fundación Cátedra China; Mundo Global, a publication affiliated with the same foundation; and El País, one of Spain’s largest daily newspapers. The program included conferences, institutional visits, and cultural exchange activities, and was promoted as fostering “a richer and more nuanced vision of contemporary China among Spanish media professionals,” language that echoes Beijing’s longstanding directive to “tell China’s story well” (講好中國故事). The delegation visited the headquarters of Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV), both state-controlled outlets. At the opening ceremony, Guan Zhiyong (關志勇), a deputy director-general within CIDCA’s Department of International Cooperation, described the event as “a concrete action to implement initiatives proposed by President Xi,” linking it to the Action Plan for Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2025–2028), a bilateral cooperation framework also covering cultural exchanges, adopted during Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Beijing in April 2025.