SANTIAGO, Chile — China’s President Xi Jinping arrives at the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday. Jinping is in Chile after attending the APEC summit in Peru.
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chinese President Xi Jinping has extended an invitation to Caribbean and Latin American media houses to establish branches in China as part of what he and his Government hope will lead to greater cooperation between journalists from all three regions.
The gesture set the tone for the inaugural China-Latin America and the Caribbean Media Summit held here Tuesday and Wednesday and attended by 123 delegates.
President Xi, in an obvious effort to demonstrate his Government’s commitment to the summit’s goal, said China will set up “a centre for exchange” under the proposal and declared that over the next five years, his Administration wants to have 500 journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean travel to China.
President Xi spoke on arrival here following his attendance at the just-concluded APEC Summit in Peru.
“China would like to welcome more media from this region to open up branches in our country, and I would like to offer you greater facilities and easier conditions for you to do your work there,” Xi told the official opening session of the summit inside the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) building Tuesday evening.
Arguing that the media can play a vital role in fostering friendships in all three regions, President Xi recommended that new technologies, such as the Internet, be utilised “in order to reinforce the capacity for transmission of information… to show to the world what the reality is in China and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as transmitting our confidence in the development [and] make our voices heard together with regards to our positions on topics of peace and development on the world level”.
He also proposed that the media “try to be objective about the primordial trend of our cooperation in order to be able to explain adequately the importance of our wide perspective and complementary advantages… and foster enthusiasm and confidence in cooperation between both sides”.
In addition, President Xi urged media houses in the three regions to “foster mutual learning” through exchange programmes that, he said, will “lead to new heights”.
The summit was organised by the Chinese State Council in collaboration with ECLAC and Xinhua news agency.