China Clamping Down On Media

(Reuters) -- Chinese state media must tell China's story to the world better and become internationally influential, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, during a visit to three of the country's main media outlets.

Chinese news outlets spanning television, radio and the Internet have been expanding across the globe with state encouragement, aiming, Chinese leaders have said, to combat the negative images of China they feel are spread by world media.

State news agency Xinhua has opened dozens of news bureaus around the world; China Central Television (CCTV) has launched a 24-hour English-language channel in the United States, and the official China Daily newspaper publishes several regional editions across the globe.

President Xi

Visiting the People's Daily, CCTV, and Xinhua, Xi said China must increase its ability to broadcast internationally, increase its voice on the global stage and "tell China's story well", state television said.

China must also create "flagship media with strong international influence" aimed at foreign audiences, Xi added.

State television broadcast images of Xi visiting CCTV's control room and making a video call to CCTV's Washington-based North America branch.

China's efforts to expand its global media footprint have been controversial.

Reuters has found that state-owned China Radio International (CRI) has little-known ownership stakes in a global network of private radio stations from Houston to Finland to Bangkok in partnerships with overseas Chinese.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice have said they are investigating a California firm whose U.S. radio broadcasts are backed by CRI. Click Here to read more.

Xi also signaled that the ruling Communist Party would not be relaxing its tight grip on the media any time soon.

Media must follow the party line, uphold the "correct guidance of public opinion" and promote "positive propaganda as the main theme", the reports paraphrased Xi as saying.

Critical articles must be "accurate and have objective analysis", he added.

FOREIGN MEDIA BLOCKED

Meanwhile, a Chinese ministry has issued new rules that ban any foreign-invested company from publishing anything online in China, effective next month, according to qz.com.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s new rules could, if they were enforced as written, essentially shut down China as a market for foreign news outlets, publishers, gaming companies, information providers, and entertainment companies starting on March 10.

“Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative ventures, and foreign business units shall not engage in online publishing services,” the rules state. Any publisher of online content, including “texts, pictures, maps, games, animations, audios, and videos,” will also be required to store their “necessary technical equipment, related servers, and storage devices” in China, the directive says.

Foreign media companies including the Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and the New York Times have invested millions of dollars—maybe even hundreds of millions collectively—in building up China-based news organizations in recent years, and publishing news reports in Chinese, for a Chinese audience. Many of these media outlets are currently blocked in China, so top executives have also been involved in months of behind-the-scenes negotiations to try to get the blocks lifted.