Jun. 29 – China’s state-owned news agency, Xinhua, will soon launch a trial run of its news program in English to be broadcast in supermarkets and outside Chinese embassies in Europe.
The English-language program is part of Beijing’s plan to improve its image abroad. Chinese media companies are flush with advertising money and compared to Western media institutions that have been downsizing rapidly, are willing to spend billions of dollars to expand abroad.
This year, China Daily begun overseas circulation in the United States and Europe. Even China Central Television has already expanded to include broadcasts done in English, Spanish and French.
The news program will surely be met with skepticism on how a state-owned media network can be trusted with credibility compared to other major Western news agencies.
“Our goal is to get China’s voice and perspective of things out there and to offer a different choice to a news audience all over the world,” a department head at Xinhua told the Financial Times. “We have been hiring aggressively and building our TV capabilities for months. But still, it will take a long time until we can actually challenge CNN or BBC.”
Propaganda director, Liu Yunshan was reported by The New York Times as writing in an essay last January: “It has become an urgent strategic task for us to make our communication capability match our international status.”
He added, “In this modern era, who gains the advanced communication skills, the powerful communication capability and whose culture and value is more widely spread is able to more effectively influence the world.”
