China's state news agency launches global TV network

Jul 1, 2010, 12:45 GMT

Beijing - China's official news agency on Thursday launched an English-language television network that it said would eventually cover 100 nations and compete with global broadcasters.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said its China Xinhua News Network Corp (CNC) World television service would 'acquire overseas media market share by 2014' and was 'expected to grow into a TV news terminal with global influence by 2020.'

'CNC World will report international news with a China perspective and China news with a global vision,' Xinhua president Li Congjun said at a launch ceremony in Beijing.

The agency said CNC's one-month trial operation would aim to give viewers new ideas about China, which is 'still sometimes misunderstood by some foreign countries from illusions of 'China collapse' to 'China threat.''

'Lack of understanding of China among the international audience offers CNC World room for expressing China's voice and potential for promoting China's global image,' it quoted Sun Yingchun, an international relations expert at the Beijing-based Communication University of China, as saying.

Xinhua, which has more than 10,000 staff, said CNC was part of its global expansion that reflects Chinese president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao's 'aspiration for a modern communication system and communication capacity for Chinese media at home and abroad.'

The government has invested heavily in English-language media in recent years, expanding the flagship China Central Television and the official China Daily newspaper.

It has also launched an English version of the Global Times, a daily newspaper owned by the Communist Party-run People's Daily group.

But all state media remain subject to strict controls aimed at ensuring content broadly follows the party line, especially on politics and other sensitive issues.

In March, the government said it planned to introduce a new qualification system for journalists, including tests on Marxist theory and the Communist Party.