China is increasingly concerned about the image it transmits internationally and strives to reverse the negative opinions that the world has about the country. In Beijing’s view, this bad reputation is the result of misperceptions due to the way the Western media portrays the Asian country. In response, the Chinese communist regime seeks to influence global opinion and create a more positive view of China through state-owned media such as CCTV and the Xinhua news agency.
Beijing had been using the soft power to win over the foreign audience. But especially after 2020, China has been struggling to regain its image on the international stage. A survey by Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes shows that negative opinions about the country reached historic levels after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. For most respondents, of various nationalities, China did a poor job of dealing with the rise of Covid-19. In addition, Xi Jinping’s approval ratings among respondents from more advanced economies were declining.
Among the tools of soft power Chinese companies are promoting the country’s culture with cultural exchanges in education and research, economic cooperation, and the use of media for political messages.
However, these media outlets are criticized for their unbiased coverage of the Chinese dictatorship, for the distortion of information and for promoting narratives against governments of other countries, in defense of Beijing’s interests.
In 2016, China relaunched its state-owned television network as a new global brand. The international division of China Central Television (CCTV) was renamed China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Despite high state investment and support from the highest levels of Chinese leadership, the CGTN has failed to become a significant influence in the country. soft power in the global news sphere, concludes a study of the Lowy Institute, a think tank based in Australia.
That’s because, for many Western analysts, the CGTN’s association with the Chinese single party limits its ability to influence global discourse, the article says.
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China Central Television (CCTV) aired in 1958 in the People’s Republic of China, when few Chinese owned a television set. Today it has more than 40 channels, which reach practically every home in the country. The channel’s programming controlled by the Chinese Communist Party is a mixture of news, documentaries, educational programs, entertainment and soap operas.
Since 2016, its international arm has been called China Global Television Network (CGTN). Journalists working on the network’s international channels are pressured to present a positive view of China, according to various analyzes and reports.
CCTV is a central part of the Chinese government’s propaganda network. According to article from freedom house, the station “has a consistent record of flagrant and serious violations of journalistic standards and of encouraging or justifying hatred and violence against innocent people. CCTV is an essential component of the CCP’s brutal authoritarian regime and should be treated as such.”
According to the article’s author, Sarah Cook, director of research on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, part of the channel’s mission is to attack enemies of the Communist Party.
Praise for the regime, attacks on opponents
CCTV’s daily coverage is focused on promoting Communist Party policies and praising the party’s leadership. However, the programs are also used to attack adversaries when a new political threat emerges, defaming targets and downplaying regime-led human rights violations, explains Freedom House.
One such television campaign occurred during Beijing’s crackdown on the spiritual practice Falun Gong, which began in 1999. Other examples cited by Freedom House include the display of forced confessions – part of the 2015 crackdown on human rights defenders, attempts to justify detention in mass of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and a disinformation campaign about pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
More recently, Chinese state media and the social networks of regime figures have been running a disinformation campaign alleging that the new coronavirus has emerged at a US military base in Maryland, USA. According to theory, the virus causing Covid-19 was created and leaked from Fort Derrick, which is 80 kilometers from Washington.
The Chinese propaganda apparatus is also used to exploit divisions in rival countries and promote the narrative of Western decline. CCTV this month aired reports on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, treating the polarization generated by the case in the US as a sign of the “decline” and “disintegration” of American democracy, as reported by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong news portal.
International performance
Chinese state-owned media companies operate in foreign countries through partnerships with local vehicles (newspapers, television channels) that republish their content, and also with branches that publish and broadcast programming in the local language.
In Europe, only a few countries have local headquarters of Chinese media companies. France has the largest Chinese media presence on the continent, with Xinhua news agency, CGTN and China Radio International (CRI) broadcasting content in French, as well as Le Figaro newspaper’s publication of China Watch supplement China Daily newspaper, according to a survey by French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
In the UK, Ofcom, the government agency for media regulation, recently revoked CGTN’s license to operate in the country. Ofcom said in February that the company that held the British license for CGTN did not have control over the day-to-day life of the Chinese channel, which is against the agency’s rules.
According to Ofcom, Star China Media Limited, which owns the license, “had no editorial responsibility” for the English-language news channel. Therefore, it was not meeting the requirements of the broadcast license.
In 2019, Grupo Bandeirantes, from Brazil, closed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese state-owned media company. The contract establishes joint productions and content sharing, as well as partnerships for the production of entertainment products, such as soap operas and documentaries. China inaugurated, in partnership with Band, the base for Latin America of CCTV in São Paulo. The Chinese group also signed, in the same year, a similar agreement with Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC).
Peng Shuai case
CGTN was recently involved in another controversy. Following concerns about the whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who had not been seen in public since she accused a Chinese regime minister of sexual abuse, CGTN alleged that the athlete had emailed the director of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Steve Simon, saying that it was “okay” and that she wasn’t missing, just resting at home.
The network posted on Twitter an image of what would be Peng’s email to the WTA. Simon said the release of the message by Chinese state media “only heightens my concerns about his safety and whereabouts.” He, like other sportsmen and activists, doubted that the e-mail was written by Peng’s own will.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/cctv-what-is-china-central-television-beijings-propaganda-arm/
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