The Sino-Russian Propaganda Pact: How Moscow and Beijing bungled a media partnership meant to promote each other

For the past two years, several major state news organizations in Russia have been working with China’s biggest media conglomerate to trade publicity about each nation’s greatest achievements. Beijing’s efforts have fallen mostly flat in Russia, however, thanks to shortages of trained personnel and shortcomings in China’s grasp of the Russian mediasphere. Moscow, meanwhile, has struggled as the propaganda pact’s junior partner.

To learn more about how the Russian and Chinese state media work together, why this cooperation has stumbled, and how geopolitics plays into this relationship, “The Naked Pravda” turned to three experts, as well as Meduza’s own investigative editor:

• (1:23) Meduza investigative editor Alexey Kovalev explains how he first learned about media cooperation between state broadcasters in Russia and China.
• (5:07) Maria Repnikova, an expert in Chinese media politics and an assistant professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University, warns against using too negative a frame to analyze Chinese foreign broadcasting.
• (11:48) Alexander Gabuev, who chairs the Carnegie Moscow Center’s “Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program,” describes major differences between the Russian and Chinese media markets.
• (22:23) Professor of International Relations Sergey Radchenko discusses Moscow’s cautious approach to the expansion of Chinese influence, like the Belt and Road Initiative.

“The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at kevin@meduza.io with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”

Producer, sound editing, and mixing — Kevin Rothrock

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Executive producer — Alexandr Sadikov

Music — Victor Davydov

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