China Launches Massive International Propaganda Effort on Tibet

The ambitious “Xizang [Tibet] International Communication Center” started its work this month.

by Lopsang Gurung

*The launching conference of the Xizang [Tibet] International Communication Center, Lhasa, September 2. From Weibo.*

Wang Junzheng, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, announced earlier this month that a “Xizang [the Chinese name for Tibet] International Communication Center” has been established.

This is not the first “International Communication Center” created by the CCP. The policy started in 2018 and is becoming a key feature of Beijing’s international propaganda, part of which is now subcontracted to regional or provincial organizations.

On September 2, a conference on “Building a More Effective International Communication System Related to Tibet” was held in Lhasa in connection with the opening ceremony of the Xizang International Communication Center.

Secretary Wang explained that the aim of the Center is to reestablish “Chinese hegemony” in the international discourse over Tibet. He said that unfortunately so far “the main media and platforms for international information dissemination about Xizang [Tibet] are basically in the hands of the United States and the West.”

In the West, Wang explained, “communication is subject to various restrictions, which objectively makes it difficult for us to fully assert our right to speak. The richness of China-promoted development of Xizang [Tibet] is sometimes not conveyed; and it is sometimes difficult for us to effectively refute the dirty water thrown on China.”

Zhang Taofu, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Fudan University, said that, “In the powerful Western discourse system about Xizang [Tibet], China is only allowed to respond passively and is often in the passive position of being demonized and stigmatized.”

*Secretary Wang Junzheng formally inaugurating the Communication Center. From Weibo.*

These claims are somewhat paradoxical. The CCP, which systematically suffocates any voice of dissent in Tibet, claims that there are “restrictions” about how Tibetan news are reported in the West.

The new Center is generously supported and funded by the central CCP Propaganda Department and is expected in a few years to “seize the power in the international discourse about Xizang [Tibet],” Secretary Wang said.