Schooling China’s Storytellers

Since August 2013, Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of “telling China’s story well,” a euphemistic phrase for what he called “external propaganda” elsewhere in the same speech. The goal is to support China’s foreign policy goals — and the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy — by spreading positive narratives about China among international audiences. Now, a growing number of Chinese universities are leaping headlong into this whole-of-society project by opening international communication schools (国际传播学院) meant to train the country’s next generation of storytellers. 

Why it matters

These schools are another key aspect of a rapidly expanding national system to support external propaganda. In 2021, Xi Jinping called on universities to cultivate “reserve talent” (后备人才) for international communication. The purpose is to train people who will carry China’s message abroad — including journalists, translators, and analysts for state media and think tanks.

Hang on, don’t other universities do this too?

Outside of China, the professional study of international communication looks nakedly different. American University in Washington, D.C., has been offering a master’s degree in Intercultural and International Communication since 1968. The program says it “examines the geopolitical, technological, economic, and cultural relations among peoples, societies, nations, and communities,” and trains students to work across cultures. In Taiwan, National Chengchi University (國立政治大學) has been offering an English-language master’s degree in international communication since 2006, which similarly focuses on cross-cultural communication with an Asia-Pacific regional focus. 

China’s schools, by contrast, are clear about their primary role as facilitating communication for the Party-state. At the Communication University of China’s founding ceremony for its international communication institute this May, President Zhang Shuting (张树庭) pledged that the university would build “a new high ground in serving the country’s international communication capacity building” and “shoulder the mission of the national team” (扛起国家队使命). Announcing a partnership with the government run Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai’s Fudan University said it would transform Xinhua’s global network into a “practical classroom” for students.