China Tells

英国金融时报报道，中国新华社最近将开播英语类新闻节目并面向全球直播。此举令全球华人欢呼雀跃，大鼓人心。但是西媒并没有对新华社的举动给与任何正面评价。从金融时报心情复杂的描述中，可以看出西媒对于中国力量的担心，恐惧和嫉妒。毕竟，一个是现行世界上的主流媒体，一个是新加入的后来者，各种不同的意见价值观不免产生冲突碰撞。中西文化在世界文苑的交融冲突实乃本世纪最值得期待的历史事件。

Xinhua, China’s official news agency, will launch an English-language tele­vision news programme this week on screens in supermarkets and outside Chinese embassies in Europe, in a cautious first step towards spreading Beijing’s view of the world to western audiences.

The move, planned for Wednesday, comes six months after the Chinese government launched a plan to improve its global image through English-language television news channels to be built by trusted state-owned media.

“Our goal is to get China’s voice and perspective of things out there and to offer a different choice to a news audience all over the world,” said a department head at Xinhua with detailed knowledge of the TV preparations. “We have been hiring aggressively and building our TV capabilities for months. But still, it will take a long time until we can actually challenge CNN or BBC.”

Xinhua this month started offering Chinese-language TV news on Kaixin001, a social networking site. But editorial staff at the agency said broadcasting overseas would require a lot more preparation.

“We decided to test viewers’ reactions first by putting up some screens at Chinese embassies in Europe so people can watch it while they wait for their visas,” said one person. “Also, we will have Xinhua English-language TV in supermarkets in Brussels and other cities.” Academics with an advisory role in the plan have said the government would hand out Rmb30bn-Rmb45bn ($4.4bn-$6.6bn, €3.1bn-€4.7bn, £2.7bn-£4bn) to media groups.

The government has de nied the numbers and re fused to comment further, but many state media have focused on the project for months. China Daily, the country’s first nationwide English-language news paper, started overseas circulation this year. In April, Global Times, an affiliate of People’s Daily, the Communist party’s mouthpiece, launched an English-language edition.

Senior Xinhua journalists, advertising industry sources and media executives said the agency had been picked as the main media organisation for the TV portion of the propaganda push, and state funds for the project had started pouring in.