Earlier this month, the southern island province of Hainan put its international communication efforts on the global map with the launch of its international media center (ICC). The move follows a trend pushed actively by China’s leadership since 2021 with the idea that local and regional state media and propaganda offices can help energize the country’s “discourse power” globally.
Inaugurated on June 19 at a formal ceremony at Dubai’s Expo China Pavilion, the Middle East Liaison Center (海南国际传播中心中东联络中心) of the Hainan International Media Center (HIMC) represents what Chinese officials described as a “key step” for Hainan’s free trade port in expanding its international media presence and “injecting innovative momentum” into China-Arab media cooperation (video HERE).
More than 50 guests attended the inauguration, including Chinese Deputy Consul General Xian Yi (鲜忆), Dubai Tourism’s Asia-Pacific Director Shahab Shayan, Hainan Broadcasting Group (海南广播电视总台) Deputy Director Wang Lei (王雷), and Dubai Radio Director Salama Suwadi.
Xian Yi called the center “another important milestone” in China-Arab relations that would serve as an “important bridge connecting China and Arab countries.” Dubai Tourism’s Shayan said the facility would become a “bridge for bilateral cultural dialogue, content co-creation and cultural exchanges.”
The language of bridge formation and cultural exchange is a common trope in China’s state led public diplomacy emphasizing that even professional activities such as media and the arts should serve the goals of bilateral harmony and “friendship.” Under this friendship formula, critical media practice has no place and is seen as undermining relations.
A reporter for China-Arab TV is given a privileged question opportunity at a press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2024. His softball question was a setup.
Nowhere was the intent and mechanics of “friendly” media relations more apparent than in the presence at the ceremony of China-Arab TV, an outlet that a previous CMP investigation has shown has extremely close ties to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the ceremony, Hainan Broadcasting Group (HBG), the provincial-level radio and television conglomerate that along with the Hainan International Media Center (HIMC) forms two of the province’s three primary external propaganda outlets, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Arab TV (中阿卫视). The partnership will focus on programming about Hainan’s free trade port “institutional innovation,” industry openness and trade facilitation, as well as cooperation between Hainan and the UAE.
Officials said the collaboration would target Arab audiences through “program exchanges, content co-creation and channel sharing” to increase understanding of Hainan’s free trade port development and add “new highlights” to China-Arab relations.
Though formally referred to as a “media center,” HIMC is Hainan province’s answer to Xi Jinping’s call for the nationwide creation of what are known as “international communication centers,” or ICCs. These centers have proliferated across China since 2018 as part of a broader program under Xi intended to modernize the Party-led global propaganda system. The initiative gained further momentum in the wake of Xi’s May 31, 2021 call at a Politburo study session to revolutionize Party-state communication with the goal of making China “credible, lovable and respected” (可信 | 可爱 | 可敬). At the Third Plenum in July last year, he again urged what state media described as “important deployments” to “construct a more effective international communication system” (构建更有效力的国际传播体系).
