Entity Type: PRC Party-State Agency

The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, or “MOFCOM,” serves as China’s primary state organ for domestic and international trade policy. Established in 2003 through institutional consolidation, MOFCOM merged the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation with select functions from the State Development Planning Commission and State Economic and Trade Commission.
The ministry’s extensive mandate encompasses both domestic commercial regulation and international economic diplomacy. Current Minister Wang Wentao (王文濤), appointed in 2020, oversees operations from the Beijing headquarters at 2 East Chang’an Street. MOFCOM’s institutional evolution reflects China’s economic transition – from centrally-planned trade apparatus (1952-1982) to market-oriented commercial governance. Key responsibilities include formulating trade policies, managing foreign investment approvals, conducting WTO negotiations, and coordinating anti-dumping investigations. The ministry also administers China’s foreign aid programs and oversees special economic zones. Recent organizational changes in 2018 transferred antitrust enforcement to market regulators and foreign aid coordination to the newly created National International Development Cooperation Agency, indicating ongoing institutional refinement within China’s economic governance structure.

Established in 2016, the China-South Asia and Southeast Asia Exchange Center (中國-南亞東南亞交流中心) operates under the China Public Diplomacy Association. The center organizes annual 10-month programs inviting journalists from South Asian and Southeast Asian countries to China for thematic reporting, media exchanges, and cultural experiences. Despite its active role in facilitating cross-cultural understanding and strengthening China’s ties with Belt and Road Initiative countries, the center maintains minimal public visibility, lacking an official website or social media presence. Its activities are primarily documented through Chinese state media coverage of diplomatic events and journalist exchanges.

The Propaganda Office of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is the functional department of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in charge of ideological work. The department’s main responsibilities include formulating and implementing tasks, policies and measures for propaganda work in the region in accordance with the deployment of the central government and the regional party committee, coordinating and guiding the work of all units of the regional propaganda and cultural system and the propaganda departments of the party committees at all levels in the region.

The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s Yunnan Provincial Committee serves as the primary ideological oversight body for the province, controlling all state media operations including its flagship publication, Yunnan Daily (云南日报). Based in Kunming, the provincial capital, the department executes propaganda directives from both central party headquarters and provincial leadership to ensure “correct” political messaging across all local media platforms. The department regulates information dissemination, shapes public discourse, orchestrates propaganda initiatives, and supervises cultural activities throughout Yunnan Province — guaranteeing that all communication channels uniformly promote party doctrine and reinforce official policy positions.