China's Communication Strategy in Latin America

Mundo China: The media partnership reframing China's image in Brazil

“…Besides the dominant influence of Western media, Guo (2016) argues that China's limited external communication capabilities make it difficult to strengthen the country's image in Latin America. However, China's international media are shifting from external actors to increasingly close partners (Morales, 2022). While in the 20th century Beijing targeted Latin American audiences by setting up Spanish and Portuguese versions of their international media – including magazines ( China Today ), radio (Radio Peking, later renamed as Radio Beijing and China Radio International), and television (CCTV, later rebranded as CGTN), over the last decade its ‘going global’ strategy has diversified to build new partnerships with local media organisations.…”

“…Scholarly research on China's media ‘going out policy’ has largely focused on the geopolitical implications of such a strategy (Thussu et al, 2018) by mostly examining CCTV's internationalisation efforts (Zhang, 2011). Few studies, however, have probed Beijing's broadcasting ambitions beyond the Anglophone world (see Camoça and Araújo, 2021; Li and Liu, 2016; Madrid-Morales, 2015; Mihoubi, 2019; Ye and Albornoz, 2018), as is the case of Latin America (see Dai and Ding, 2009; Morales, 2018, 2022). Here, China's external communication engagement has become more sophisticated with the signing of cooperation agreements with several prominent media organisations, including both those that are privately owned, such as Globo Group and Bandeirantes Group in Brazil, or Caracol in Colombia, and those that are state-owned, such as Televisión Pública Argentina (TPA) in Argentina, Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) in Brazil, Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión del Perú (IRTP) in Peru, or Telesur in Venezuela, among others (Morales, 2022).…”

“…Few studies, however, have probed Beijing's broadcasting ambitions beyond the Anglophone world (see Camoça and Araújo, 2021; Li and Liu, 2016; Madrid-Morales, 2015; Mihoubi, 2019; Ye and Albornoz, 2018), as is the case of Latin America (see Dai and Ding, 2009; Morales, 2018, 2022). Here, China's external communication engagement has become more sophisticated with the signing of cooperation agreements with several prominent media organisations, including both those that are privately owned, such as Globo Group and Bandeirantes Group in Brazil, or Caracol in Colombia, and those that are state-owned, such as Televisión Pública Argentina (TPA) in Argentina, Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) in Brazil, Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión del Perú (IRTP) in Peru, or Telesur in Venezuela, among others (Morales, 2022). Seen as an attempt by Beijing to influence the framing of China-related reporting with the intention of reshaping global conversations about the country (International Federation of Journalists [IFJ], 2020), this development has raised concerns among critics, who warn of its implications for democratic values and freedom of expression in the region (Walker, 2019).…”

Assessing China's news coverage and soft power in Latin America in the wake of the Belt and Road Initiative (2013–2021)

“…In addition, an increasing number of Chinese diplomatic and affiliated social media accounts have amplified content generated by Chinese government agencies or state-owned media. They also used hashtags such as “solidarity” and “country cooperation” to win the hearts of Latin Americans (Micolta, 2020). Bottom-up communication between publics is essential to public diplomacy (Cull, 2019), but this phenomenon has yet to surface.…”

“…The percentage of Latin Americans who harbor positive sentiments toward China is still lower than that toward the U.S. by ten percentage points. Moreover, communication between Latin Americans and the Chinese appears limited beyond the Chinese government's public and digital diplomacy efforts; the exchange between the two publics is minuscule, partly due to incompatible digital platforms (Micolta, 2020).…”