Xinhua president meets foreign media counterparts in Guangzhou

Fu Hua, executive chairman of the World Media Summit (WMS) and president of Xinhua News Agency, held meetings with heads of several international media outlets on Saturday in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province.

The media leaders — Ahmed bin Saeed Al Rumaihi, director general of Qatar News Agency (QNA); Sakai Katsuhiko, president and CEO of Japan’s Jiji Press; Fahd bin Hassan Al Aqran, president of Saudi Press Agency; Vugar Aliyev, chairman of the board of Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC); Koh Hyun Kohn, president and executive editor of the Joongang Ilbo of the Republic of Korea — are in China to attend the 5th WMS.

Extending a welcome to the media leaders, Fu stated that the summit is the largest offline media forum convened in China post-pandemic, as well as a grand event for global media.

Fu stated Xinhua’s readiness to focus on the summit theme of « Boosting Global Confidence, Promoting Media Development » with media guests, and jointly discuss how the global media industry can address global challenges and contribute to world peace, prosperity, and progress.

Ahmed bin Saeed Al Rumaihi said that the QNA valued its friendly cooperation with Xinhua and is willing to expand their collaboration to jointly embrace opportunities and tackle challenges, thus promoting the friendship between the peoples of Qatar and China.

Lauding the long-term and productive collaboration between Jiji Press and Xinhua, Sakai Katsuhiko said that Jiji Press is willing to make additional efforts to enhance mutual understanding between the peoples of China and Japan and contribute to safeguarding peace in Asia.

Fahd bin Hassan Al Aqran noted China’s crucial role in international affairs and expressed the willingness of the Saudi Press Agency to strengthen exchanges with Xinhua, enhancing practical cooperation in various fields to better serve the development of relations between the two countries.

Vugar Aliyev noted that fruitful results have been yielded since the establishment of cooperation between AZERTAC and Xinhua 20 years ago, and AZERTAC will continue to play an active part under the WMS mechanism.

Koh Hyun Kohn, on behalf of the Joongang Ilbo, expressed the hope to deepen bilateral and multilateral exchanges with Xinhua to promote the friendship between the two countries and the common development of the region.

The 5th WMS, which runs from Dec. 2 to 8 in the cities of Guangzhou and Kunming, gathers over 450 participants from 101 countries and regions, including representatives of 197 mainstream media outlets, think tanks, government agencies, diplomatic missions to China, as well as UN agencies and international organizations.

Earlier this week, Fu also met with leaders of TASS Russian News Agency, Kyodo News, and Reuters respectively in Beijing and held a high-level meeting with executives of Reuters, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse.