Kofi Ampeah Woode
The Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in a three pronged approach to ‘explain the world to China’, ‘explain China to the world’, and ‘explain the world to the world’, held a two-week Seminar on Press Officers and Journalists of Belt Road Initiative (BRI).
The two-week seminar spanned 14 to 27 May 2024, and had thirty-two (32) media personnel from Ghana, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Grenada, Iraq, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, South-Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan, undergoing an intriguing and fascinating dialogue with Chinese media and other industry experts.
The international seminar was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC, and was organized by the Shandong Foreign Trade Vocational College (SFTVC), Qingdao, while participants were mainly accommodated at the Qingdao Hualan Hotel.
In this 5-parts serialized write-up, yours truly, who was Ghana’s sole representative to the conference – which took participants to Qingdao (Shandong Province), Beijing, and Kunming (Yunnan Province) – will endeavour to extensively capture China’s contemporary history and policies on media development, enthralling experiences of the seminar, and other matters of culture, with the matter bearing heavier towards the media.
COUNTRY PROFILE
The PRC, with 9.6 million square kilometers, is one of the Five Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with a population of 1.4 billion (2024), hosting 56 ethnic groups – the largest being the Han group with about 92% – whose lingua franca is Mandarin. Its Currency is the Yuan or RMB.
The PRC has a Constitution and a governance system which is termed the “Socialist Consultative Democracy”, while others call it “Whole-Process People’s Democracy” or “People’s Democratic Dictatorship”. It has 23 Provinces, 5 Autonomous Regions, 4 Municipalities, and 2 Special Administrative Regions.
Chinese Communist Leader – His Excellency (HE) Mao Zedong, declared the creation of the PRC on 1 October, 1949, ending the full-scale civil war between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party, after which the country has had its fair share of national struggles, until it appeared to have overcome, opened-up and reformed in 2001, highlighting education starting from the grassroots, prioritizing infrastructure and innovation, with a Socialist Market Economy of Chinese characteristics.
From 1949, its Leaders have been; 1) HE Chairman Mao Zedong (1949-1976); HE Chairman Hua Guofeng (1976-1981); HE Chairman Hu Yaobang (1981-1987); HE President Zhao Ziyang (1987-1989; HE President Jiang Zemin (1989-2002); HE President Hu Jintao (2002-2012); and HE President Xi Jinping (2012-).
PRC’s economy grew remarkably in the new Century, and this is often attributed to strong intervention by its government – one that can mobilize large amounts of resources to clear any challenges to growth or institutional reform: the Beijing Consensus.
The country was granted access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, after its access application had long been hindered by the United States of America (USA). The country engrossed itself in mechanized agriculture with a thriving Industry, and worked assiduously, to transform its transportation network into an efficient one that entails road, rail and air network, further opening up its economy.
The Chinese Government now advocates peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and benefits, promoting practical cooperation in all fields, and working to build a community of shared interests, destiny and responsibility, including mutual political trust, economic integration and cultural inclusivity.
BELT ROAD INITIATIVE (BRI) – The Silk Road Development
The Silk Road is a series of routes connecting the East and the West of China, extending more than 6,000 kilometers, and was named after ancient China’s silk trade which played an important role in the development of civilization of China, South Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
There were two major routes of the Silk Road: one was overland, and the other was across the Indian Ocean. The northern Silk Road on the land usually refers to the routes starting from Changan, travelling west to Wuwei, passing though Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang heading west to Europe. The Indian Ocean sea route of the Silk Road was from Guangzhou (Guangdong Province) or else towns on the southeastern coast of China, through the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the South China Sea to Southeast Asia, with target destinations being ports of Africa and Europe.
This maritime Silk Road, which began in the 2nd Century BC, combined with the development of China’s ancient shipbuilding industry and voyages to the West in the 15th century. It played a great role in the field of economic and trade exchanges, spiritual and cultural exchanges between western countries and China.
In addition to silk, materials exported by China also included tea and porcelain (porcelain’s production and export rose in the Tang Dynasty and continued to develop in the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and other dynasties), thus the maritime silk road was also called “Maritime Silk Porcelain Road”.
While China’s silk, porcelain and tea were sold overseas, a large number of foreign goods, such as spices, medicine, glass, gold and silver ware, dishes and other exotic treasures also entered China, with people also carrying out spiritual and cultural exchanges.
Buddhism in India, Manichaeism and Islam in West Asia, Catholicism and Christianity in Europe were introduced into China, whiles West ephemeris, medicine, architecture and musicology in Asia, South Asia and Europe also influenced China.
It was through the Silk Road that Chinese papermaking, gunpowder, the compass, the printing press, silk, tea and porcelain, spread all over the world, and greatly promoted the colourful exchanges between Asian, European and African economies, technologies and cultures.
Belt and Road
The Belt and Road covers 26 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, with a population of about 4.4 billion people and an economic aggregate of about 21 Trillion United States Dollars (USD).
Belt: It is the Silk Road economic belt, of routes of trade and cultural exchanges that linked the major civilizations of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Road: It is the 21st Century Maritime Silk Route.
Significance of BRI to World Economy
The Belt and Road promotes mutual economic development, improves the competitive capacity of Asia, builds a partnership network along the Route, improves China’s comprehensive national strength and influence, forms a new pattern of opening up to the world, accelerates economic development, which is helpful for international trade, and protects the safety of energy.
Achievements
The Initiative has so far signed 103 agreements with 88 countries, and international organizations, and cooperated with more than 30 countries in the field of national system and industry.
Connectivity
The BRI involves more than 200 countries, with over 600 harbours. By the end of June 2018, Europe-China had transported 9000 times, Asia-Kyrgyzstan railway, China-Mongolia railway have been promoted, signed bilateral aviation transport agreements with 62 countries, with China having straight flight with 45 countries, and Belt and Road countries investing over USD 1.2 Billion in electricity.
Trade
The BRI has garnered more than USD 5 Trillion, with investments being over USD 70 Billion.
STATE OF THE MEDIA IN CHINA
Newspaper
In 2021, a total of 1,752 newspapers were published in China. (Source: 2021 Press and Publishing Industry Analysis Report). There are national, provincial, prefecture-level and county-level newspapers by regions. Additionally, there are comprehensive, professional and life service newspapers, as well as Readers Digest-type newspapers by content.
There are 18 newspapers including People’s Daily, Xinhua Daily Telegraph and Reference News with an average print run of 1 million or more. (Source: Development of China’s News Media – released in 2022).
Radio & Television in China
By the end of 2021, there were 2,542 radio & TV broadcasting agencies in China. There are 2,106 county-level radio & TV broadcasting agencies, accounting for 83%, 401 radio & TV broadcasting agencies at the prefecture level and above, and 35 educational TV stations.
Internet News
On April 20, 2024, China celebrated 30 years of Internet Access. As of the end of 2021, there were a total of 3,208 Internet Information Service Providers in China, including 1,846 Internet sites, 2,910 applications, and 7,671 official accounts.
As of December 2023, the number of Internet users in China reached 1.092 billion, with an Internet penetration rate of 77.5%, of which the number of rural Internet users reached 326 million, and the digital divide between urban and rural areas was bridged at an accelerated pace. The number of mobile Internet users reached 1.091 billion, and 99.9% of Internet users used mobile phones to surf the Internet. (Source: The 53rd Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development).
To be continued.
