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Officially opening a three-week seminar for media and information officers from Zimbabwe, the Director of the International Office of the State Council Information Office, Mr Jiang WeiQiang, said the Western media monopoly presented obstacles to “our mutual understanding of each other” and this situation must be changed.

The Chinese government, he said, had adopted a three-pronged approach to dealing with this problem. This includes government-led comprehensive exchanges between China and developing countries.
“These exchanges are between government media organisations, infrastructural development, technological, bilateral and multilateral  exchanges through the China-Africa Forum. We also have synergies on the media professional front through direct contact between media organisations.

“We also encourage Chinese media contact with media organisations in developing countries. This entails exchanging reports and other news material with each other and joint reporting. There are also personnel exchanges through placement of interns. Our mandate is to build and deepen understanding between China and other developing nations and that includes countries on the continent of Africa,” said Mr Jiang.

He said the Chinese media was paying a lot of attention to African affairs especially Zimbabwean issues given the strong historical ties between the two countries.
“So for a lot of us we have been following the Zimbabwean situation since we were little children. That is why we were happy when the country attained its independence in 1980 and on the same day

China established diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe. Since then China has maintained sound relations with Zimbabwe.
“We have had very successful co-operation in various sectors especially under the China-Africa Co-operation initiative. That is why when we learnt that the Commerce Ministry was organising a seminar for Zimbabwean media and information officers, we decided to partner them. The mandate of our office is to tell the world all aspects of Chinese society,” Mr Jiang said.