Xi Calls for Bolstering the CCP’s Image in Global Media

Journalists sit next to screens showing Chinese Leader Xi Jinping delivering a speech via video on Nov. 4, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

As international pressure mounts on China, regime leader Xi Jinping is pushing for a media campaign to promote the image of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the global community.

During a high-level meeting with the CCP’s Central Committee on May 31, Xi called on CCP officials and state-controlled media to “tell the story of China well,” so that the “spirits and ideology” can be displayed as “the narrative and interpretation of the Chinese Communist Party,” according to state-run media Xinhua.

Xi emphasized that the Chinese media should “make great efforts” to improve its ability in making an impact on other countries and its voice should reflect China’s “strength and international status,” Xinhua reported.

At the meeting, Xi encouraged the other Party leaders to cultivate more allies for Beijing through various channels such as international experts and foreign media.

“We should fully utilize the high-level experts, speaking through major international conferences and forums, foreign mainstream media, etc.,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying.

Beijing has recently encountered diplomatic setbacks. New Zealand and Australia recently appeared as a united front in countering the Chinese regime by issuing an extensive joint statement after their Annual Leaders’ Summit in Queenstown, New Zealand.

In the joint statement, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed “deep concern over developments that limit the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong” and “grave concerns about the human rights situation” in Xinjiang.

Beijing has denounced the criticisms.

Meanwhile, new reports from mainstream media regarding the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that the origin of the CCP virus could be linked to a top-security laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan city, Hubei Province. The lab is just a few miles away from the Huanan wet market, where the first cluster of infections reportedly emerged in December 2019.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a May 26 statement that he wants the U.S. intelligence community to produce a report on the virus’s origins within 90 days.

Australia has also pushed for an investigation into the origins of the virus.

Hu Ping, a U.S.-based China expert and political commentator, shared his views about Beijing’s media campaign in an interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on June 1.

In response to the recent pushback from democratic countries, Xi’s hope of creating a “trustworthy, lovable, and respectable” image of the CCP is “in vain,” said Hu, because “the problem is its actions.”

Xi’s instructions on bolstering the CCP’s image suggest that Beijing is attempting to tone down its aggression, Hu said.

He speculated that the regime will use its media to convey to the world that China is not an enemy. However, Hu warns that this could just be a tactic to deceive the international community.

He added that people can only see the real meaning behind Xi’s strategic narrative if they understand how the CCP truly operates as an authoritarian regime.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.