China in ‘culture export’ push as it seeks to expand soft power overseas with global media platforms

The Chinese government is pushing exports of the country’s “cultural products” to the rest of the world, including helping domestic companies to build up global new media platforms, in Beijing’s latest move to boost its soft power on the global stage.

A group of 17 Chinese government agencies, led by the Ministry of Commerce in charge of services trade, the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Parry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, this week jointly issued policy guidelines to boost the country’s “national cultural export bases”, namely 29 districts and places designated by the government as China’s production centres of traditional artworks as well as films, video games and books.

Related businesses registered in these designated “bases”, which include the Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts of Beijing, Xuhui district of Shanghai, Wuxi of Jiangsu province, as well as Changsha in Hunan and Kunming in Yunnan, will be entitled to a long list of preferred treatment, including funding support, strict intellectual property protection and easier visa processes for foreign employees, according to a document posted by the 17 government agencies this week.

One purpose of the policy framework is to encourage exports of “films, television episodes and video games”, according to the document.

It also states that the government will encourage the “bases” to carry out cooperation with “overseas new media platforms” to broaden the channels for Chinese cultural products to an overseas audience.

The new policy encourages companies to “carry out cultural investment and cooperation abroad, build international marketing networks and branches, and expand the scale of quality cultural assets abroad”. If there is a condition, it said, “companies are supported to build new media platforms that cover the entire world”.