Author: David Bandurski

Now Executive Director of the China Media Project, leading the project’s research and partnerships, David originally joined the project in Hong Kong in 2004. He is the author of Dragons in Diamond Village (Penguin), a book of reportage about urbanization and social activism in China, and co-editor of Investigative Journalism in China (HKU Press).

China’s Monologue Machine

In the latest iteration of the leadership’s efforts to expand local-level involvement in the national project of global propaganda, Wangcheng District in Changsha, Hunan province’s capital city, has established the region’s first county-level international communication center, which the state-run China Daily says will “tell Wangcheng’s story” as well as convey the wisdom of Chinese leadership and development to the world.

The new hub offers a glimpse not just into the strategies of China’s leadership to advance the country’s “global discourse power” — but how such strategies may be seriously misguided, even foolish, as they unfold from the heights.

Located on the northwestern outskirts of Changsha city, Wangcheng is a rapidly industrializing district known for its historical ceramic production at Tongguan Kiln, the Lei Feng Memorial Hall (commemorating the model soldier celebrated in Communist Party lore), and several ancient towns along the Xiangjiang River. Once primarily agricultural, the district has been absorbed into Changsha’s expanding urban area since its conversion to district status in 2011.

The CCP’s mythologized selfless soldier, Lei Feng (雷锋), is claimed by Wangcheng District. But can his image translate into global soft power? SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons.

The Wangcheng International Communication Center (望城国际传播中心) was unveiled on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by the deputy director of Changsha’s propaganda office under the local Chinese Communist Party leadership, Yang Yi (杨溢), and Chen Kuang (陈旷), a district member of the CCP committee. At the launch event, officials said the center aims to “bring Wangcheng to the world and let the world understand Wangcheng.” They described the center as an “upgraded new media communication system” focused on “integrating resources and innovative communication.”

International Communication Centers (国际传播中心), or ICCs, have proliferated across China since 2018 as part of a broader program under Xi Jinping designed to modernize the Party-led system for global propaganda. The initiative gained momentum following 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). This push was given further momentum after the Third Plenum in July last year, where Xi made what state media described as “important deployments” regarding “constructing a more effective international communication system” (构建更有效力的国际传播体系).

At the local level, these ICCs have intersected with a decade-long program under Xi to digitize and modernize Party-run “mainstream media,” preparing them to lead domestic public opinion — and now, international public opinion — in the 21st century.

Schools Become Recruitment Centers

As local and regional leaders have leapt to obey Xi Jinping’s instructions on international communication, one key issue local ICCs have faced is a lack of requisite talent. Communicating effectively requires a range of skills and savviness that are often scarce in China’s highly controlled and oxygen-deprived media space, and also a more international knowledge and outlook. Local leaders have increasingly tried to fill this gap by enlisting the country’s universities.

The launch in Wangcheng included the formation of “international communication volunteer teams” (国际传播志愿小分队) from three local colleges: Hunan Information Vocational Technology College, Central South University of Forestry and Technology’s Foreign Affairs School, and Hunan Foreign Trade Vocational College.

The government appointed what it calls the first batch of “Wangcheng International Communication Recommendation Officers” (望城国际传播推荐官) who will reportedly “showcase Wangcheng’s ‘ancient charm’ and ‘new trends'” to international audiences. Hoping to leverage the ICC to promote local culture and tourism, officials announced five “premium interview routes” — essentially, maps for promotion tours — that comprise more than 20 locations of interest. Not surprisingly, the list included the district’s Lei Feng Memorial Hall (雷锋纪念馆).

The center says it will use its “regional advantages,” including culture, to “display a real, multidimensional, and comprehensive Wangcheng to the world” through what officials term a “1+3+N” international communication model — one center, three workstations, and multiple college volunteer teams.

Xi Jinping’s vision for global propaganda and public opinion dominance in the 21st century is built on a basic, and deeply flawed, assumption that voices can communicate effectively if only they are mobilized politically.

Models like the “1+3+N” have multiplied across the country. Just one administrative level up, at the Changsha International Communication Center, the formula is “1+2+9+N,” describing a system of one city-level center, two sub-centers, nine district-level centers, and a range of “cooperation units” such as schools, think tanks, overseas liaison offices (海外联络站) and so on. In such formulas, “N” has become a variable describing the real extent to which this renewed national push for global influence has enlisted all aspects of Chinese society, both at home and abroad.

“N” speaks to what the leadership clearly regards as a primary strength of the international communication center push — the collective might of people and institutions across sectors. But it also stands in for one of the key vulnerabilities of this latest effort: its often haphazard and scattershot approach.

Xi Jinping’s vision for global propaganda and public opinion dominance in the 21st century is built on a basic, and deeply flawed, assumption that voices can communicate effectively if only they are mobilized politically. In an era of boundless information, however, the approach does little to account for audience preferences or interests, lacking meaningful feedback mechanisms. To the extent that “N” represents conscripting local and international students, enterprises, and other social actors, it also underscores the significant trade-offs the leadership demands to amplify its message — essentially requiring society to redirect resources and attention away from core missions toward politically-determined communication goals.

War Games

On Tuesday, China’s military released a propaganda video called “Vanquishing Evil” (降妖除魔) that framed military exercises encircling Taiwan in a show of military force as a blockbuster of mythic dimensions. Complete with video game references, the propaganda spot, promoted widely by state media, made it all seem like a testosterone-fueled game for adolescents — rather than drum-beating about aggressive actions that could set off a deadly regional conflict.

Staged by the Eastern Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army, the video — released as China announced joint military drills in waters around Taiwan — employed supernatural imagery from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West” (西遊記) to depict the military operations as an epic battle morally justified.

Screenshot of a version of the PLA video on China Central Television, with an inset (by CMP) of the video game from which the animation footage seems to have come.

Slicing through bellicose montages of naval vessels, jetting aircraft, descending parachutes, and hustling ground forces, were title cards with martial arts terminology — overlaying video of the mythological Monkey King (孫悟空), the chief protagonist of the above-mentioned novel. These appeared to have been lifted directly from a popular video game, “Black Myth Wukong” (黑神话:悟空), which last year became the first major Chinese game to achieve breakthrough success in the West.

In Taiwan, meanwhile, audiences were not enjoying the theater.

Taiwan’s Presidential Office responded swiftly to the PLA’s exercises, with spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui (郭雅慧) saying that President William Lai (賴清德) had directed national security and defense agencies to monitor the situation closely. “In the face of external threats, our government will continue to defend our democratic and free constitutional system,” Kuo said. “We have the confidence and ability to safeguard national sovereignty, protect people’s safety, and maintain social stability.”

The PLA video made the rounds on midday news shows across Taiwan, and the country’s Central News Agency quoted China’s Global Times newspaper as saying that “the film seamlessly connects Sun Wukong’s demon-slaying abilities with the PLA’s powerful combat capabilities, highlighting the PLA’s aim to fight against and eliminate independence movements.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Propaganda from the Eastern Theater Command of China’s PLA depicts Taiwanese President William Lai as a parasite, a frequent recent line of attack.

In recent weeks, Taiwanese President William Lai has faced a torrent of criticism from China after he characterized Beijing as a “hostile foreign force” (外部敵對勢力) during a March 13 national security meeting. This rhetorical escalation came alongside Lai’s announcement of plans to restore military trials​​​​​​​​​​​​ amid a surge in Chinese espionage cases, with official data showing 64 people in Taiwan were indicted for spying for China in 2024 (three times that in 2021).

China’s official state media have portrayed Lai as a “parasite” gnawing away at Taiwan’s well-being and future — another theme featured in propaganda from the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command on Tuesday.

The PLA video’s five title cards all draw from “Journey to the West” mythology, repurposing supernatural abilities from China’s literary heritage as modern military capabilities. The first, “Vanquishing Evil” (降妖除魔), frames military action as a sacred duty to eliminate demonic forces, while the last, “Immobilization Technique” (定身术), represents the ability to paralyze an opponent’s defenses through electronic warfare and precision strikes.

While Beijing frames its military posturing as fantasy-inspired heroism, Taiwanese citizens face the sobering reality that these metaphorical “demon-vanquishing” techniques represent actual missiles, blockades — and presumed plans for invasion. The gamification of conflict may entertain mainland audiences. But across the strait, the consequences could not be more real.

Pen Names, Stern Warnings

A forceful warning against wasteful government investments intended for local authorities appeared on Sunday in a central-level newspaper dedicated to economic policy. Though the source of the message was masked in one sense by an official pen name, its import was nonetheless unmistakable — revealing a key fact about how China communicates policy priorities.

The commentary, published in the Economic Daily (经济日报), a newspaper directly under the State Council, highlighted concerning evidence of declining investment efficiency as Beijing pushes to stimulate domestic demand. The article noted that China’s incremental capital output ratio — which measures how much new investment is required to produce each additional unit of GDP growth — has deteriorated from 2.84 in 2008 to 9.44 in 2023, higher numbers indicating worsening efficiency.

These numbers suggest that China now requires more than three times the capital investment to generate the same economic output as 15 years ago. This, the commentary suggests, pointing a finger at local governments, indicates serious structural inefficiencies in how capital is being deployed across China’s economy.

The article appeared under the byline “Jin Guanping” (金观平), a homophone for “Economic Daily’s observational commentary” (经济日报观察评论), signaling that this represents an institutional position rather than an individual author’s view. In all likelihood, “Jin Guanping” commentaries are penned by a “writing group,” or xiezuozu (写作组) at the newspaper, with senior editors and possibly officials reviewing and approving the final text before publication.

“Some localities blindly launched vanity projects to pursue short-term political achievements, causing large amounts of capital to flow into inefficient projects,” the commentary said. It castigated local governments for pursuing what it called “grandiose plans”  (大手笔) that had resulted in “massive debts” (大笔债) — and, in the end, yielded little in terms of economic benefits.

Finance Minister Lan Fo’an (蓝佛安) revealed in November that local governments had accumulated 14.3 trillion RMB (1.97 trillion dollars) in hidden debts by the end of 2023, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

What’s in a Pen Name?

The “Jin Guanping” byline has frequently been used for commentaries at the Economic Daily, pointing to consensus viewpoints in the central government. On average, the byline appeared for 13.3 articles per month in the newspaper over the past year. What distinguishes Sunday’s commentary, however, is its cautionary tone. It directly criticizes wasteful projects with terms like “grand gestures” (大手笔) and “large-scale debt” (大笔债), and it warns that such cases bear “profound lessons” (教训深刻). 

This practice of using “homophonous pen names” is an internal coding system within China’s official state media. The pen names, even as they seem to disguise the source of the messaging, often work as signals indicating the institutional weight behind particular messages. As we have previously noted at the China Media Project, these propaganda labels “form an internal system of not-so-secret codes by which those in positions of power, both departments and individuals, can voice their official positions and put their stamp on a course or policy.” 

The practice of using official pen names dates back decades in China. During the Cultural Revolution, radical factions used pen names to signal political attacks. In more recent times, pen names have regularly appeared in Party-state media such as the flagship People’s Daily. For example, the pen name “Zhong Sheng” (钟声) — a homophone for “Voice of China” — is used to mark important commentaries on international affairs where the leadership wishes to register its view, often critical, of foreign countries without direct attribution. The pen name “Guo Jiping” (国纪平), a homophone of “important international commentary,” is used on occasion to mark international affairs commentaries that represent the central CCP consensus.

By parsing these coded bylines, observers can better understand not just what is being communicated, but who might be communicating it and how seriously the message should be regarded within China’s complex political-economic system.

The appearance of this stern warning under the “Jin Guanping” byline at this particular moment suggests heightened central government concern about local investment practices as China struggles to revive economic growth. 

A River Crisis Prompts Rare Coverage

According to rare reports today from Chinese media, an environmental crisis is unfolding along a stretch of the Leishuei River in Hunan province that impacts the prefectural city of Chenzhou (郴州), home to more than four million people. Abnormal concentrations of thallium — a highly toxic, colorless heavy metal that causes organ damage and cancer through water contamination — have reportedly prompted the city to activate a Level IV emergency response, and residents are stockpiling drinking water.

In neighboring Guangdong province, the Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报), a commercial newspaper published under the state-run Nanfang Daily Group, splashed the crisis across its front page today, with the headline: “Thallium Abnormality in Hunan’s Leishuei River.”  

The front page of today’s edition of Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily.

According to reports from both the Southern Metropolis Daily and Caixin Media, the crisis began nearly a week ago, on March 16, as automatic monitoring stations along a section of the river between the cities of Chenzhou and Hengyang, population 6.6 million, showed abnormal thallium levels, “causing trans-municipal pollution and threatening downstream water safety” (造成跨市污染,威胁下游饮水安全).

Jimu News, an online official outlet from Hubei province, immediately to the north of Hunan, reports that both Chenzhou and Leiyang cities have established emergency command centers to address abnormalities in local water quality in the Leishuei basin. Local officials have insisted that drinking water remains safe in the area impacted by the abnormal readings. However, Shanghai’s The Paper said in a report this afternoon, adding wider context to the breaking story, that abnormal thallium concentrations had been detected in 17 out of 22 drinking water sources along the Xiangjiang River in Hunan province, a separate basin, since 2020 — pointing potentially to wider and more longstanding public health risks.

It was only yesterday that that local government in Chenzhou finally acknowledged publicly through its government website what local officials had been responding to for a week: “Water quality in some sections of the Leishuei basin has shown abnormalities.” This public statement came seven days after automatic monitoring stations first detected abnormal thallium levels on March 16, and six days after Yongxing County activated its Level IV environmental emergency response, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Caixin Media reports on the Hunan thallium story through its English account on X this afternoon.

New Messages from China’s Ancient Capital

In a city where Buddhist rock carvings have gazed over the Yellow River valley for more than a millennium, local officials are now on their own sacred mission — to join the Chinese state in amplifying its message to the rest of the world.

On Wednesday this week, Chinese Communist Party officials gathered at the offices of the official Luoyang Daily (洛阳日报) to inaugurate the city’s new Luoyang International Communication Center (洛阳国际传播中心), the latest addition to China’s expanding network of provincial media hubs designed to “tell China’s story” to international audiences. For Luoyang — an industrial center in central China’s Henan province that served as imperial capital during multiple dynasties — the new center aligns ancient heritage with contemporary propaganda objectives.

The state-run China Daily newspaper reported that the center will “integrate government, media, academic institutions and social resources to build a comprehensive, multi-level international communication system.” The paper, which is itself a key external propaganda organ published by the Information Office of the State Council — essentially the same office as the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department — called the initiative “an important platform for Luoyang to promote high-quality development of international communication and enhance international discourse power” (提升国际话语权).

Since 2018, and accelerating since 2023, the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping has called on provincial and city-level governments to join the national push to raise the country’s “discourse power” — hoping to close what it sees as a gap with the influence of the West — by launching local “international communication centers,” or ICCs. These are meant to leverage the resources of local media groups and propaganda offices, along with partnerships with universities and other entities, to promote Chinese cultural, economic and political influence.

A new crop of official ambassadors for Luoyang. Wild guess: These are foreign students recruited for a photo opp. SOURCE: China Daily.

Alongside the launch of the Luoyang center, officials announced the formation of the “Luoyang International Communication Alliance” (洛阳国际传播联盟), which according to official reports comprises more than 100 members from various sectors with overseas experience. The Luoyang ICC has also signed cooperation agreements with four local universities, including Henan University of Science and Technology — presumably to develop content and recruit talent for international messaging efforts. Foreigners from a number of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Belarus, South Korea, and Morocco, were present at the launch ceremony, promoted as “Luoyang International Promotion Ambassadors” (洛阳国际推荐官).

Whether these provincial centers will significantly influence international opinion remains to be seen. State media reports, including from China Daily, claim that since preliminary operations of the Luoyang ICC began in December 2024, the center has “actively expanded overseas communication channels” and produced more than 600 articles and videos — content that reportedly attracted attention from China’s own Foreign Ministry. Aside from occasional announcements about the ICC’s formation posted on Instagram and Facebook by the state-run China News Service, however, we could find no evidence of any meaningful international impact.

Blackmail Blogging

In a stark illustration of media corruption in China, a prominent financial blogger named Kou (寇某), who ran a pair of prominent consumer-related social media channels, was sentenced on March 12 to more than 10 years in prison for “news extortion” (新闻敲诈). The case, which unfolded between 2022 and 2023, highlights a chronic problem in the country’s controlled media environment. By fabricating false news stories about companies and threatening reputational damage, he systematically extorted over 700,000 yuan through manipulative tactics that exploit the vulnerabilities of China’s information ecosystem, according to a report by the Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报), a paper under Shanghai’s state-run SMG.

The recent reporting stems from the completion of Kou’s legal case and ongoing efforts, officials say, to clean up the online information environment — serving as a warning to other potential offenders. The channels in question, “Consumer Financial Channel” (消费金融频道) and “Payment Encyclopedia” (支付百科), were previously included in a 2023 list of cautionary cases issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s top internet control body. That list accused the channels of exploiting the principle of “public opinion supervision” (輿論監督) — a term associated with media monitoring and even investigative reporting — to commercially exploit companies. 

Kou’s “Consumer Financial Channel” was also profiled last year in a feature story from Shanghai’s The Paper (澎湃). In addition to Kou’s case, that story detailed a 2019 case in which a young couple in Shanghai illegally established 41 fake news websites, systematically publishing over 100,000 negative articles about companies and individuals across 20 provinces. By charging 500 yuan per negative article and targeting thousands of businesses, the couple earned over 1 million yuan in less than a year through their online extortion scheme.

What are the vulnerabilities of China’s information ecosystem to which the Xinmin Evening News report referred?

One crucial underlying issue is the state’s control of the press environment itself, which has led to rent-seeking behavior by powerful state media journalists who can threaten exposure of alleged malfeasance and demand “hush money” (封口費). Importantly, cases of news extortion over the past two decades in China have often implicated powerful state-run media as well as outright fraudsters. The most notorious example is the 2002 “Gold Nugget Case,” where eleven reporters, including four from Xinhua News Agency, accepted cash and gold nuggets to cover up a mining explosion that killed 37 workers, highlighting the deep-rooted corruption within China’s media landscape.

China’s Campus Propaganda Pipeline

In a move that highlights China’s expanding use of institutions down to the local level to supercharge the state’s global influence efforts, the School of Foreign Languages at Xi’an Jiaotong University, a leading public university in the central Chinese city, has formed a partnership with a center run by the province’s propaganda office. 

On March 5, the Shaanxi International Communication Center (陕西国际传播中心), or SICC, a provincial-level external propaganda office formed in December 2023 through the state-run Shaanxi Radio and Television Group — directly under the propaganda office of the provincial CCP committee (中共陕西省委宣传部) — announced that it would partner with the university to work on international communication issues using “interdisciplinary approaches.” The goal, according to state media coverage, is to provide “talent guarantees” for “telling Shaanxi stories” and promoting Chinese culture internationally, both references to the broader the state-driven goal of expanding China’s global influence, which Xi Jinping has advanced under the phrase “telling China’s story well” (讲好中国故事).

School of Foreign Languages Director Chen Xiangjing (陈向京) and SICC chief Wang Dong (王冬) sign the agreement for cooperation on external propaganda.

The agreement, signed by School Dean Chen Xiangjing (陈向京) and SICC Director Wang Dong (王冬), who is also a ranking provincial propaganda official, further underscores the serious ethical issues at play as China blurs the lines between higher education and state propaganda in its efforts to address a shortage of talent for its ambitious external communication goals as set by Xi Jinping.

Since its formation in late 2023, the SICC claims to have built a “global communication matrix” targeting neighboring countries in Central Asia through branded platforms on social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube, both services that are blocked in China.

The SICC also, like a number of China’s expanding international communication centers, has a vertical relationship with China Daily, the state-run newspaper directly under the State Council Information Office (in practice, the very same office as the Central Propaganda Department) whose primary role is to advance the government’s external communication.

According to the agreement signed last week, the two sides pledged to establish a “dual-purpose base” (双基地) for talent cultivation and research, including a “Graduate Collaborative Education Base” (研究生协同培养育人基地) between the university and Shaanxi Broadcasting and Media Group, as well as the launch of an “International Communication and External Discourse Innovation Center” (国际传播与对外话语创新中心).

Ancient Outpost Seeks a New Voice

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.

Prato Gets Wenzhou Media Liaison Office

The Tuscan textile city of Prato, home to thousands of fashion shops and warehouses and one of the most concentrated Chinese populations in Europe, can now boast formal links to China’s growing national network of local centers that are meant to revolutionize its state-led global communication.

In a ceremony held this week, Prato’s “Green Dragon Club” (青龙俱乐部), a local Chinese community center and dragon boat club, was presented with a pair of plaques designating it as both the “overseas communication base” and the “liaison office” of the Wenzhou International Communication Center (温州国际传播中心).

This international communication center, or ICC, is one of a growing number of local hubs in provinces and cities across China meant to harness the strength of local media groups — in coordination with local propaganda offices — to supercharge the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to “tell China’s story well,” and strengthen its “discourse power” globally. As CMP has previously reported, Zhejiang province has led the charge in forming local ICCs. By our latest count, it now hosts 16 local centers — five times the national average.

The ceremony at the “Green Dragon Club” was attended by a top Wenzhou media official, Liu Shenyang (柳深扬), identified in a report by the weekly Europe Chinese News (欧洲华人报) as the editor-in-chief of the Wenzhou News Media Center (温州市新闻传媒中心), a local government-run media office founded in 2023 — and identified at the time as a “new milestone in the development of [the city’s propaganda work.” Liu was previously the top official at the city’s state-run television and radio broadcaster.

It is unclear how the new “overseas communication base” of the Wenzhou ICC will operate in practice, and how it means to drive China’s agenda in Italy or Europe beyond. But it was an opportunity, at the very least, for Wenzhou officials to claim a small victory in their effort to heed Xi Jinping's call to "restructure the pattern of [China's] international communication."

“This recognition brings our cooperation to a new level," Liu said as he unveiled the pair of plaques in Prato and, according to the Europe Chinese News report, "made commemorative gifts to major Chinese community organizations."

A Paint-by-Numbers Push for Influence

Perhaps you have never heard of cultural specialties like “Tea Opera” or the “Four Famous Dishes.” But if local government hype can be believed, these and other special attributes of Linchuan (临川), one of two districts in the coastal city of Fuzhou, could be coming to a social media account near you. This week, the district became the latest local administration in China to establish its own “international communication center” (国际传播中心), adding to a growing network of local-level propaganda hubs aimed at amplifying China’s voice on the global stage — often through accounts on major international social media platforms.

Attended by Fuzhou’s top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official, Wu Yiwen (吴宜文), and its chief of propaganda, Liao Xiaoyong (廖晓勇), the center’s inauguration was billed in official media coverage as a significant shift in the area’s external propaganda strategy. Referencing the central leadership’s move over the past three years to strengthen global communication through local government and media participation, Wu Yiwen told those gathered at the launch event that the Linchuan ICC was “an important measure in thoroughly implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s key discourse on strengthening international communication capabilities.”

The Linchuan initiative mirrors similar moves across China, where local authorities have established dedicated international communication centers equipped with social media teams and foreign language expertise. The Linchuan center, said Wu, would have three key priorities: promoting local achievements in economic development, expanding overseas exchanges, and “accelerating our district’s external propaganda and promotion.”

Local officials in Linchuan District stand for a photo op for the unveiling of the brass plaque for the new local international communication center.

The aim of this nationwide push is to leverage local resources and storytelling in the hope that this might present a more colorful and appealing picture of China to international audiences, moving beyond the one-dimensional messaging of central state media — for years the primary vehicle of efforts to raise China’s “discourse power,” which leaders say is critical in bolstering the country’s comprehensive national power (CNP).

But Linchuan’s reports of its redoubled efforts to seek global influence may just be more hype about hype. While the ICC launch trumpeted the district’s efforts in recent years to build what it called “a social media platform account matrix” (社交平台账号矩阵), our search turned up no related accounts on foreign social media channels.

In fact, Linchuan’s new ICC joins a growing list of local centers that speak more to domestic political priorities than international engagement. The brass plaque unveiled in official photographs may be the center’s most potent statement — a signal to Party superiors that local leaders have heeded Xi Jinping’s call.

Standing in the background as officials unveiled the glistening sign was the center’s motto: “Using Linchuan as ink to paint a world painting scroll.” Awkward in its phrasing, and indistinct in its meaning, the slogan reads like a cautionary note about the central-level policy by which Xi Jinping has hoped to sharpen the focus of external propaganda. In some cases, certainly, the leadership’s strategic push to leverage local resources for global influence might leave a lasting impression. In many more cases at the local level, however, it results only in ink blotches of bureaucratic self-congratulation.