International communication center

International communication centers (ICC, ) are state media institutions established by provinces and cities of the People's Republic of China. They operate under the supervision of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, with state media outlets such as China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and China News Service providing infrastructure and serving as a partner to many. The first ICCs were established in 2018 in response to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's call to "innovate" foreign-directed propaganda.[1][2] According to Qiushi, the theoretical journal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), ICCs are "developed based on local propaganda needs" and aim to be a "new force" in the party's global propaganda ecosystem.[3]

ICCs have been described as part of the PRC's soft power initiatives and have represented a shift from foreign-directed propaganda being created at mostly the central government level to creation and dissemination by the country's provincial and local governments.[2][3][4] According to Gary D. Rawnsley, ICCs were created with the strategy that China's foreign-directed propaganda desired more tailored and issue-specific messaging.[5] Certain ICCs have specific geographic and country targets for their messaging and act as fusion centers for pooling jurisdictional media resources. They are known to leverage overseas institutional partners to increase their reach and use foreign influencers for astroturfing purposes.[6]

History

In 2018, Chongqing established the first ICC in the country, which operates under the iChongqing platform.[2][7] Its social media accounts were documented by ProPublica to downplay concerns and controversies at the 2022 Winter Olympics that would portray the PRC in a negative light.[8] Also in 2018, the newspaper Gansu Daily and the propaganda department of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the CCP jointly launched an ICC.[9] In 2020, the newspaper Sichuan Daily and the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the CCP jointly formed an ICC.[10] In May 2022, China Daily and the propaganda department of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party established an ICC called the South and Southeast Asian Media Network that publishes content in multiple regional languages.

See also

• China International Communications Group
• Telling China's stories well
• Party media takes the party's last name