Nestled in the south of the diamond-shaped Ningxia region, the city of Guyuan radiates the sort of charm for which China’s ancient northwest has become known. Once a stopover on the northern Silk Road, the city is home to the towering Xumishan grottoes, a collection of Buddhist cave temples dating back to the fifth century A.D. Now, with the help of a state-run media giant, the local government hopes to translate its cultural capital into global impact. 

In a ceremony last week, local propaganda officials in Guyuan signed an agreement for framework cooperation with China Daily, the government-run multiple-language outlet that serves as one of the country’s primary communication vehicles. The agreement corresponded with the official launch of the local “Guyuan International Communication Center” (固原国际传播中心), a rebranded entity under the local propaganda office that will leverage local media content production — and the China Daily relationship — to promote Guyuan to the world. 

The local initiative is yet another point of implementation of Xi Jinping’s national strategy since 2018 to strengthen China’s global discourse power (话语权) through a campaign of grassroots storytelling — empowering local governments and media groups to add their voices to China’s collective voice. To date, the China Media Project has documented the launch of 28 provincial-level international communication centers (国际传播中心), or ICCs, and at least 50 at the city and district level — most of these established only since 2023.   

Guyuan officials said their new international communication center marked “a new page in our city’s overseas communication work,” adding that they aimed to showcase the city’s “beautiful natural scenery, profound cultural heritage, simple and hardworking customs, and specialty agricultural products” to international audiences.

Going Vertical

The framework agreement with China Daily points to another important aspect of Xi’s national push: The vertical integration of provincial, city and district-level ICCs with more influential and resource-rich central media groups, which can help to push local stories globally.

While presented as revolutionary approaches to enhance China’s global voice, these vertical integration efforts often amount to little more than performative compliance with central directives. The local implementations often lack substance beyond recycled rhetoric about “turning new chapters,” focusing more on communicating upward to leadership than outward to international audiences. It remains to be seen whether the local ICC push championed under Xi Jinping will result in meaningful global engagement.

Coverage of the ICC launch by the official Guyuan Daily, published by the city’s CCP Committee, referred to the tie-up with China Daily as a “central-local CP” (央地CP) partnership — “CP” being shorthand in this case for “coupling,” or peidui (配对). Similar terms have frequently been used in other cases over the past three years to refer to vertical integration in the context of global propaganda efforts, suggesting such arrangements are on the rise. 

In an article on ICC development published in December last year, the official communications magazine Media (传媒) wrote that, “The collaborative model between central media and local media is becoming increasingly important in advancing the construction of local international communication centers.” It cited the example of China Daily’s cooperation agreement with Nantong Radio and Television Media Group in Jiangsu, which resulted in the formation of Nantong International Communication Center (南通国际传播中心), the province’s first city-level international communication center.” In February 2024, the city of Cangzhou in eastern Hebei province formed its international communication center (沧州市国际传播中心) through a partnership with Xinhua News Agency.