China is overhauling its state media to better control domestic content and to create a propaganda behemoth that will spread Beijing's message around the world. Both objectives align with President Xi Jinping's goals of ensuring that his people and the global public hear the messages that he wants them to hear and see the images that he wants to project. The rest of the world must be alert to the intent behind this effort and understand that the Chinese state and media operate in concert. Objective truth is an alien concept to the Chinese leadership: All messages are political and thus subject to state — and party — control.
Last week, China announced that it was merging three national radio and television entities — China Central Television, China Radio International and China National Radio — to create a single "Voice of China." The new broadcaster will be one of the world's largest, with nearly 15,000 employees and dozens of bureaus around the world, producing programs in more than 60 languages. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, reported that the Voice of China seeks to "guide hot social issues, strengthen and improve public opinion, push multimedia integration, strengthen international communication and tell good China stories."
The name is a shrewd one. It echoes that of Voice of America, the U.S.-government funded entity established during World War II to advance U.S. interests, and its adoption will make it difficult for foreign governments to object that the new entity is a propaganda outlet. There is no evidence, however, that Voice of China, like VoA, will offer a complete image of China. Xi said as much in remarks during a 2016 speech to state-run media broadcasters: "The media run by the party and the government are the propaganda fronts and must have the party as their family name."