CMG President delivers New Year message to overseas audiences

Shen Haixiong, President of China Media Group, extends his New Year greetings to overseas audiences via radio and online. [Photo: China Plus]

On January 1, 2019, President of China Media Group, Shen Haixiong, delivers a New Year message to overseas audiences via radio and online and extends his warmest greetings.

Mr. Shen says that China Media Group will stay true to its mission of reporting news of China to the world, reporting news of the world to China, and enhancing understanding and friendship among people of different countries.

He notes that the New Year will usher in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and that China Media Group will strive to present to the world a vivid, realistic and comprehensive view of China in the new era.

Here is his message in full:

Dear friends,

As the first rays of sunshine brighten the earth in the new year, on behalf of China Media Group and my colleagues, I would like to extend my warmest greetings to our overseas audiences. Happy New Year!

More than 1,300 years ago, when Wang Bo, a great poet of China’s Tang Dynasty, gave a send-off to his good friend Mr. Du, he wrote the famous verse "A bosom friend from afar brings a distant land near". This is, I feel, an appropriate verse to use to describe my feelings towards all our friends at this moment.

For you, this may be a brand new voice. Indeed, in March last year, in line with the trend towards global media integration, China Media Group was born. It combines China Radio International, China Central Television, and China National Radio. At the time, an Argentinian netizen, Ricardo Huerta, congratulated us on the establishment of CMG and said “She made me feel that China is as close and beautiful as ever, and helped deepen my understanding of the power of friendship."

Thanks to the sincere encouragement of friends old and new, we are motivated to remain true to our mission. The newly formed China Media Group shoulders the same mission of reporting news of China to the world, reporting news of the world to China, and enhancing the understanding and friendship among people of different countries. We hope to do better and to better serve you all!

President Xi Jinping has said that "China's development cannot be separated from the world, and the prosperity of the world also needs China." In the past year, we have been working hard to strengthen communication between China and the world using our lenses, our microphones, and our pens. We’ve done this through our coverage of events such as the celebration of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, the first China International Import Expo, and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Our coverage received a great deal of attention from around the world. We spoke with a voice of fairness and justice that showed our clear-cut attitude towards maintaining free trade and promoting economic integration. We reported frequently on China’s voice at the APEC Summit and G20 Summit, and gained universal recognition for it. We have strived to connect China and the world by improving the user experience of our multilingual mobile apps including "Chinese and Russian headlines", "CINITALIA", "China Japan Communication", and "CMG Español". Our interactive online events such as "Upvote the Shanghai Cooperation Organization," and "Meet the Shanghai Import Expo" attracted the attention of our fans worldwide. Our coverage of the "Asia Media Summit at the Boao Forum for Asia" and the "Hongqiao International Financial Media and Think Tank Forum" sparked global media attention. And events such as our "China Film Africa Tour", "Chinese Theatre", and "'I am a fan of China" have enabled more friends to become fascinated with China and to fall in love with it.

The New Year will usher in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. China Media Group will present to our friends a vivid, realistic and comprehensive view of China in the new era. Also in the new year, we will offer you a large number of eye-opening, inspiring, and enticing programs that showcase China as "a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order." We will work hard to be innovative in how we communicate, and make full use of new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing. And we will leap-frog towards high-quality development and strive to create a new type of world-class mainstream media, so that we can serve you better.

Let me quote an old friend of ours, Yuri Tavrovsky, who is a famous Russian Sinologist and author of the book Xi Jinping: Fulfilling the Chinese Dream. He once called us to say that he firmly believed China's proposal to build a community with a shared future for mankind is the guiding light on the road of world development. Needless to say that humankind has only one earth and that there is only one world for all countries to share. Let us work together to build a community of shared future for mankind and a world that has lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and one that is clean and beautiful!

Thank you and best wishes!