On the morning of November 19, the first China Network Civilization Conference opened in Beijing. In the afternoon, an online content construction forum co-sponsored by the Network Communication Bureau of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Office and China News Service and undertaken by China News Network was held. Focusing on the theme of “Telling Chinese Stories Well and Helping Internet Civilization”, the guests at the meeting discussed the “break” and “establishment” of Chinese narratives, the “root” and “soul” of Chinese stories, and the “time” and “potential” of China’s development. In-depth discussion on how to tell Chinese stories well in the new situation, spread the voice of China, and create a credible, lovely, and respectable image of China.
Zhao Lijian, Deputy Director-General of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered a speech at the forum.Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
Zhao Lijian, Deputy Director-General of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:Dear Minister Pan, Director Niu, friends, I am very happy to have the opportunity to participate in the first China Internet Civilization Conference today. First of all, I would like to thank the organizer for the invitation, and also thank all of you present here for your great support to the work of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It’s good for melon sellers to praise melons, what they do, they can’t yell, business people don’t yell, it’s not enough to just yell, they have to yell well enough and rhyme enough so that guests can patronize. Today I mainly want to report to you on the work done by the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on how to strengthen international communication capabilities.
Zhao Lijian:The theme of this sub-forum is the “time” and “trend” of the international public opinion environment facing China. First of all, I want to say that General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly declared in his important speech on July 1 that the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process. We must deeply understand and accurately understand this strategic judgment, so that we can penetrate the “international fog” and see clearly the world‘s general trend under the century-old pandemic and the century-old change.
Not long ago, the situation in Afghanistan “changed” overnight, the United States withdrew hastily, and the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul. This great American rout is a microcosm of the changes in the world today, once again revealing the true appearance of American democracy, and the “figure” of the American government’s governance capabilities has been completely torn down by one after another incredible tragedy.
Zhao Lijian:Let me give you a few examples. In Florida, it was a collapsed apartment building; in California, it was a wildfire that raged almost every year; in Texas, it was a blizzard that easily caused hundreds of lives, and millions of people were cut off from electricity and water; from a national perspective, It was an epidemic that caused nearly 800,000 deaths due to government inaction. The moral superiority of the United States no longer shines. The evil consequences of political manipulation, partisan warfare, and the policy of swearing human life exposed by the United States and the West in the response to the epidemic have collapsed their proud personality and discourse, and also let more people. He recognized the true face of the so-called Western human rights, democracy and freedom that has long been regarded as a standard by the United States and the West.
Zhao Lijian:Let me report to you on the international communication work done by the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in overseas new media. At the end of 2019, the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened the first officially certified Twitter account of the Internal Commission of the State Council-“The Spokesperson’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, and opened the personal Twitter accounts of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hua Chunying and Wang Wenbin’s personal Facebook accounts respectively. My personal Twitter accounts, as well as the Facebook, Youtu, and Photowall accounts of the Spokesperson’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have achieved full coverage of mainstream new media platforms overseas.
Let me give you a few figures. Since the beginning of this year, our Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Office series of overseas new media account groups have published nearly 9,000 posts, with nearly 500 million views and more than 2.4 million fans. Among them, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying and my personal Twitter account fans The number has successively exceeded 1 million. This number is more than the number of fans of the US Secretary of State Blincoln’s Twitter account, and nearly twice the number of fans of the US State Department’s spokesperson account. To a certain extent, it has achieved our breakthrough in overtaking in the curve of new media’s international voice.
Zhao Lijian:The internal units of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassies and consulates stationed abroad have also opened accounts on overseas new media platforms, which has effectively strengthened China’s international voice. We have mainly done three aspects of work:
The first aspect is to take the centenary of the founding of the party as an opportunity to serve the diplomacy of the head of state, establish a name for the party in new media positions overseas, and make a name for the country. Regarding the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we have issued more than 1,500 relevant posts through ministry spokespersons, overseas new media account groups and more than 150 overseas new media accounts in foreign embassies. , A full-scale display of the party’s hundred-year glorious achievements, with more than 10 million readings. Regarding head of state diplomacy, we revolve around President Xi Jinping’s attendance at many summits, telephone calls, video meetings and other important diplomatic activities. We broadcast the English golden sentences of President Xi’s speech in pictures and texts, and promptly sound authoritative voices to show that we adhere to multilateralism, expand openness, and achieve win-win cooperation. The firm determination to develop and green development highlights our advanced concepts and vivid practice of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
We also launched the “100 Days to Tell the 100 Stories of the Communist Party of China’s Foreign Exchanges” series, which is a leading brand product in the field of international communication created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this year. It will continue to be released throughout the year. It has effectively guided the international community to establish a correct view of the Communist Party. The total reading volume on various platforms abroad is nearly 100 million, and the reading volume in China is 900 million.
Zhao Lijian:The second aspect is to tell the story of China well, focusing on seeing the big from the small, interpreting China’s development achievements from all angles and perspectives. We work hard to integrate Chinese and foreign interests, find the intersection of Chinese and foreign interests, common points of discourse and emotional resonance, and find the common divisor of international communication. We use languages that Western audiences can understand, in a way that can be heard, and content that can be heard and trusted. , Let the Chinese narrative become a world narrative and international consensus. We focus on showing the lives of ordinary Chinese people, using small cuts to show the big picture, using small stories to tell great truths, and strive to achieve a soft landing on the hard facts of my country’s development achievements on overseas new media platforms, showing a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China uses a down-to-earth approach to create a credible, lovable, and respectable image of China, and subtly influence the audience to form an objective and positive view of China.
We also carefully released various positive presentations on themes such as poverty alleviation, the Winter Olympics, anti-epidemic, environmental protection, and aerospace. We also published posts introducing the national poverty alleviation model Xia Sen and the era model Zhang Guimei’s story about poverty alleviation and education. We posted a tweet about resetting and returning to normal life in Henan’s medium- and high-risk areas, together with pictures of hot pot restaurants. We also released the “Beijing Blue” graphics and photos on the way to work. It seems casual, but it shows our efforts and effectiveness in environmental governance. We also released a video of Chinese workers breakdancing while resting on construction sites, showing the optimism and confidence of ordinary people.
Zhao Lijian:In the third aspect, we insisted on refuting and counterattack, actively setting up issues, and starting a good international public opinion counterattack and proactive battle. We insist on presenting facts, listing data, speaking of science, truth, reasoning, and morality. On the one hand, we insist on refuting and counterattacking, focusing on fighting public opinion on Xinjiang and human rights, and cracking down on the rumors and smears of the United States and the West against us. On Twitter, we took the initiative to normalize the topic of Xinjiang, introduce positively the development achievements of Xinjiang in various aspects, refute the so-called forced labor, genocide and other slanderous graphic videos in the United States and the West, and effectively counteract negative information about Xinjiang. To a large extent, the trend of Xinjiang-related public opinion in overseas new media has been reversed.
In fighting the initiative, we use the human way to treat the human body, insist that you beat you, I beat mine, and avoid falling into the other party’s speech trap. What we have to do is also set up a speech trap for the other party.
Zhao Lijian:Let me give you an example. A picture is worth a thousand words. The fact that we combined with the Australian military’s war crimes in Afghanistan was exposed by the Australian media itself, and the Australian government also issued a related report. We took the initiative to set the agenda, designed and published related computer illustration posts, and our spokesperson also made relevant statements, which achieved very good results. Just now some comrades mentioned that we should support whatever the other party opposes. The more the opponent opposes, the better we are.
Through this tweet, we firmly put Australia in the dock and let the world know about the heinous crimes committed by the Australian army in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister of Australia held a press conference after we posted the tweet and asked us to delete the tweet and apologize. He also said that he would go to the Twitter company and ask the Twitter company to delete the tweet. I did not delete this tweet, but put it to the top. Twitter also did not delete the relevant graphics and texts, but just added a tag. You can’t see this picture directly, which makes everyone more interested. I want to see what the picture under this tag is.
Zhao Lijian:After I posted this tweet, the Australian reporter wanted to pick something up and ask questions when our Foreign Ministry spokesperson spoke. As a result, they asked for three days in a row. Our spokesperson used their own report to point out more. The heinous crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. After three days, the Australian Prime Minister immediately changed his position, saying that we still want to develop a constructive relationship with China, and the Australian reporters never asked again.
We continued to criticize the relevant crimes committed by Australia in Afghanistan for a week, and our central media, new media, and self-media all followed up and reported, so we have achieved very good publicity effects.
Zhao Lijian:In addition, we continue to expose and criticize the human rights abuses committed by the United States in Afghanistan and other places. We published State Councilor Wang Yi’s statement that “Democracy is not Coca-Cola, and the United States produces pure puree in the world” into a picture, which has aroused widespread resonance among overseas netizens. We also produced and released pictures of U.S. military dogs evacuating from Afghanistan with U.S. troops, and compared them with pictures of more than 600 Afghans crowded in the cabin of a transport aircraft. In addition, 150 cats and dogs were evacuated from Afghanistan by special planes. Through these pictures and tweets, they snatched the microphone from the United States and the West, and removed the so-called Western-style democratic human rights mask from the West on their platforms, and established our image of upholding justice and speaking upright. This is what we have done. Related work.
Zhao Lijian:To do a good job in international communication, we must grasp the political direction, stand a firm political stand, always listen to and follow the party, continue to carry forward the spirit of struggle, strive to be warriors and fighters, not gentlemen and cowards. We must always defend the political security and regime security of the party and the country. The implementation of the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech on May 31 is inseparable from the extensive participation of all of you present. The Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is willing to work with everyone to implement the spirit of General Secretary Jinping’s speech, make good use of the “golden microphone” of overseas new media platforms, to open up the last mile of Chinese voices landing abroad, and jointly compose my country’s international communication capacity building New chapter. Let us grasp the “time” and “trend” of China’s development in the future international communication work, especially the overseas new media work, continue to cooperate sincerely, cooperate closely, tell the story of my country better, and form a comprehensive strength and cooperation with our country. The international discourse power that matches the international status creates a better external environment for hosting the Winter Olympics, for hosting the party’s 20th National Congress, and for our reform and opening up development.
(According to the forum text live broadcast)Return to Sohu to see more
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