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Entity Type: PRC-Linked Institution

Institute for China-Europe Studies

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The Institute for China-Europe Studies (ICES) is a Brussels-based think tank with roots in China’s Hainan province that was founded in 2020 It publishes research, organizes events, and supports academic exchanges on China-Europe relations. The Institute’s publications cover EU trade defense instruments, critical raw materials, ocean governance, maritime law, and EU-China diplomatic relations. ICES organises webinars, roundtables, and an annual conference. It has also co-hosted events with international organizations such as the Washington-based Institute China-America Studies (ICAS) and the Carter Center. The Institute for China-Europe Studies was created by the Hainan Nanhai Research Foundation (海南自貿港研究基金會) which is a funding body that supports South China Sea research, training programs, and policy consultation work. That foundation shares both its physical address and its website URL with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院), or NISCSS, a government-backed research institute dedicated to advancing China’s position on South China Sea sovereignty disputes and based in Hainan’s capital of Haikou. The director of ICES is Wu Shicun (吳士存), who is also founding president of the above-mentioned NISCSS and a member of the Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy Advisory Committee (外交部外交政策咨詢委員會). The institute’s executive director is Yang Li (楊力), a former diplomat in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to cooperating with NISCSS for international events, ICES has also partnered with the Beijing Club for International Dialogue (北京對話), which is affiliated with Shanghai’s Guangcha Online (觀察網), a media outlet with private participation that maintains a strongly pro-government and even nationalistic stance. The Beijing Club, launched in September 2014, is represented in registration documents by Jin Zhongwei (金仲伟), the founding editor of Guacha Online and a distinguished research fellow at Fudan University’s China Institute, a think tank led by one of China’s core official strategists on external propaganda, professor Zhang Weiwei (张维为), who led a study session for the CCP Politburo on the top in May 2021.

National Institute for South China Sea Studies

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The National Institute for South China Sea Studies (中國南海研究院) is a Chinese public institution and think tank, headquartered in Haikou, Hainan Province, under the Hainan provincial government. The institute describes itself as “a national-level specialist think tank” (國家級特色專業智庫), with more than 50 researchers across five divisions covering maritime law and policy, South China Sea history and culture, regional studies, maritime security, and public diplomacy, and states its mission includes providing policy support for China’s South China Sea sovereignty and maritime rights positions, as well as promoting regional ocean governance. Its predecessor, the Hainan Research Center for the South China Sea (海南南海研究中心), was founded in 1996 and in July 2004 was renamed under its current designation. A Beijing branch of the Institute was established in January 2013 when then-president Wu Shicun (吳士存) said that the branch was established to provide a “more direct and convenient way to hear the central government’s voice and receive policy and operational guidance from relevant state departments.” Wu, who frequently speaks through Chinese state media on South China Sea issues, is also identified as the president of the Institute for Europe-China Studies. While his public bio emphasizes his academic credentials, including a doctorate in modern Chinese history from Nanjing University, Wu spent more than a decade rising through Hainan’s provincial foreign affairs and overseas Chinese affairs apparatus, serving successively as deputy director, director, and Party secretary, before taking on his current role. He has served since 2013 as a Hainan provincial people’s congress standing committee member and provincial party committee member.

World Chinese Media Co-Operation Union

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Established in 2009, the Global Chinese Media Cooperative Union is a global organization operated by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department through China News Service (中國新聞社), one of two official wire services in China. While the union claims to be a “non-profit organization voluntarily comprised of overseas Chinese-language media outlets,” it functions as a vehicle to promote Chinese Party-state narratives. The organization publicly states its mission to support official Chinese Communist Party agendas such as the Belt and Road initiative and to “rationally guide the public opinion of ethnic Chinese.” China News Service, which oversees the union, was established on October 1, 1952, and was absorbed into the United Front Work Department in 2018 when its previous oversight body, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, was merged into the UFWD.

Taiwan China Journalism Society

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The Taiwan China Journalism Society (台灣中國新聞學會) is described by the All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, the party-led body that serves as the leading instrument of CCP press and journalism control in China, as an association of Taiwan mass media practitioners, originally founded in Chongqing in March 1941 and, according to the ACJA, “revived in Taiwan in 1965.” The ACJA profiles the Taiwan China Journalism Society on its own website alongside its own member organizations, and the society’s chair described, in the above-linked CNTV coverage, a longstanding tripartite cross-strait meeting mechanism between the society, the ACJA, and Hong Kong press organizations. The society has been closely tied to Taiwan’s private Shih Hsin University (世新大學) since its founding. The university was established by the society’s founder, Cheng She-wo (成舍我), and the chairperson of the university’s board of directors has concurrently served as the society’s president. In November 2019, Zhou Chenghu (周成虎), Shih Hsin’s board chair and Cheng She-wo’s grandson, was elected society president, succeeding his mother Cheng Chia-ling (成嘉玲), who had held both roles before him. The society is not a part of Taiwan’s recognized civic journalism sector, and is generally unknown by journalists in the country. Taiwan’s acknowledged representative journalism body is the Association of Taiwan Journalists (台灣新聞記者協會), a member of the International Federation of Journalists. The society publishes the Chinese Press Institute Bulletin (新聞界), a monthly publication covering Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and international media industry news. Until 2016, full versions were archived on its website, but since then can only be found in the “events” sections of the site. Analysis of the bulletin’s content suggests a consistent orientation toward PRC-framed cross-strait media cooperation. A 2016 issue documented a society delegation visit to Sichuan organized at the ACJA’s invitation and attended by Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), then head of the Taiwan Affairs Office’s news bureau, who urged cross-strait media practitioners to preserve the “results” of eight years of exchanges regardless of how political relations developed. The same issue covered a cross-strait journalism camp co-organized with the ACJA, in which participants were encouraged to “tell our story well” (說好我們的故事), an echo of Xi Jinping’s “tell China’s story well” directive. The society is formally registered with Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior, according to its charter, which was last revised at the 10th general membership meeting in May 2011 and filed under Ministry of the Interior reference number 1000142664. The charter explicitly provides for mainland Chinese news organizations and journalists to hold honorary membership, a structural mechanism that institutionalizes the society’s cross-strait ties with the ACJA and its affiliated bodies. In September 2025, a 19-member delegation led by the society’s chair visited Zhejiang University of Media and Communications (浙江傳媒學院). The visit was accompanied by Shen Yibing (沈毅兵), head of the ACJA’s Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Department, making the operational relationship between the two bodies explicit. In April 2026, society representatives attended the 40th anniversary dinner of the Hong Kong News Executives’ Association (新聞行政人員協會) in Hong Kong.

Chinese School of Classical Studies at Athens

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The Chinese School of Classical Studies at Athens (Κινεζική Σχολή Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα), or CSCSA (中國古典文明研究院), was announced on November 7, 2024, at the first World Conference of Classics in Beijing, an academic summit focused on ancient civilizations, and formally inaugurated in Athens on November 28, 2024. Established by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中國社會科學院), or CASS, with the Greek Ministry of Culture as primary partner, the CSCSA is registered in Greece as a non-profit legal entity and describes itself as a “non-profit research institution” (非營利性研究機構). The WHOIS record for the CSCSA’s domain lists the registrant as the Chinese Academy of History (中國歷史研究院), a CASS-affiliated body, with a @cass.org.cn contact email, suggesting the institute operates under direct CASS administrative oversight. CSCSA leadership has framed the institute as a vehicle for Xi Jinping’s Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), aiming to “construct an independent Chinese knowledge system” within classical studies. The institute’s activities span archaeological fieldwork in Greece, academic seminars, exhibitions, training programs for young scholars, and a scholarly journal. According to CASS, the CSCSA was established to fulfill understandings previously reached between Chinese and Greek leaders on deepening exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations.

Chinese and Cypriot Friendship Promotion Association

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The Chinese and Cypriots Friendship Promotion Association (中塞友好促進會), or CCFPA, presents itself as a nongovernmental organization that fosters business collaboration and sister city activities between China and Cyprus. However, there are clear indications in identifying information for the association that it is operated by the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus as a front organization. An e-mail address given on the association’s website footer (hcyprus@163.com), was provided as the official submission address in May 2022 when the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus hosted a contest asking people to offer stories of China-Cyprus friendship, with no mention whatsoever of the association. The same e-mail address was again listed on the backdrop onstage at the 2025 China Cyprus Europe Media Forum, an event chiefly organized by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Traced through the ICP license, Chinese business registration records also reveal that the association’s website (hcyprus.com) is operated by Youlu Wuhan Business Co., Ltd. (優路武漢商務有限公司), a commercial services company established in 2013 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The company’s legal representative is Shi Zhenglan (时正兰), about whom no information can be found, and its business scope includes immigration intermediary services, study abroad consulting, tourism services, and business agency operations. Hosted on the CCFPA website, a user agreement for the WeChat-based information platform “Cyprus Home” (塞岛家园) — whose handle is “hcyprus,” matching the e-mail address — indicates that “Cyprus Home” is operated by the company under the CCFPA. The agreement makes clear that the platform is an information service for Chinese in Cyprus that has stringent registration and security requirements, suggesting it might also serve as a surveillance tool used by the embassy. Further establishing the links between these various entities and platforms, the website for the CCFPA is also associated with the X account “HomeInCyprus Chinese” (@Cyprusxixi), which almost exclusively reshares content from the X account of China’s ambassador to Cyprus. An analysis of more than 200 posts from the account in November 2025 showed that nearly 30 percent were retweets of Ambassador Liu Yantao (刘彦涛), who accounted for almost 90 percent of all retweeted content. The association also has a Facebook account, with a separate e-mail address provided (info@cyprusandchina.org) that further connects the association with the Cyprus-China Cultural & Communication Association (中塞文化商务交流协会), or CCCA, which appears alongside the CCFPA, “Cyprus Home” and seven other ostensibly independent Chinese organizations on an August 2022 statement, posted to the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus website, opposing the visit of US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

Madrid China Cultural Center

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The Madrid China Cultural Center (or Centro Cultural de China en Madrid) officially opened on December 9, 2013, following a bilateral agreement signed during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s November 2005 state visit to Spain. The center operates under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and promotes Chinese language and culture through courses, exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, and other cultural activities.

All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese

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The All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (中華全國歸國華僑聯合會), or ACFROC, established October 12, 1956, operates as a “people’s organization” — or a state-sanctioned, mass-membership group under the CCP — within the united front system to influence overseas Chinese communities worldwide. Tracing its roots to Yan’an-era associations, ACFROC gained expanded authority in 2018 when the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee transferred responsibilities for “friendship with overseas Chinese associations” from the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office to ACFROC. The organization maintains ties with diaspora communities through cultural exchanges, business networks, and friendship associations, working to mobilize overseas Chinese support for Beijing’s economic development and geopolitical objectives. Through its network of affiliated organizations and direct engagement programs, ACFROC serves as a primary channel for the party-state to extend influence among Chinese communities abroad while facilitating technology transfer and advancing China’s vision of national rejuvenation.

Chinese Cultural Center in Laos

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The Chinese Cultural Center in Laos, an official cultural exchange institution of the People’s Republic of China, was inaugurated on November 3, 2014, in Vientiane. Initially located in the Sisattanakdiscrict, the center relocated to a new 1,800 square meter facility on Kayson Phomvihane Avenue in January 2021, officially opening to the public on February 5, 2021. The center was the third Chinese cultural institution established overseas in 2014, following Denmark and Sri Lanka. The facility claims comprehensive amenities including exhibition halls, a multi-purpose room, library, culinary classroom, Chinese language classrooms, dance and martial arts studios, and cultural experience areas. The institution states it aims to “contribute positively to promoting development of China-Laos relations and enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples,” operating under China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism network of global cultural centers.