▲ During the meeting, the official launch of the Media Partners Mechanism of the Global South was held, where concerns about the content consumption of generation Z were addressed.Photo Luis Hernandez Navarro
Luis Hernandez Navarro
Sent
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 9, 2025, p. 11
Xi’an. Imposing, the 8,000 figures of terracotta warriors and horses continue fighting the same battles they undertook 2,200 years ago, when Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the creation of the mausoleum, so that they would accompany him in his death and care for his spirit and empire. Stoic, they observe the up to 65 thousand visitors who travel to the municipality of Xi’an every day to look at them.
Considered the eighth Wonder of the World, discovered by humble peasants who dug a well in 1974, two years before the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, it has had among its thousands and thousands of “chili, sweet and butter” visitors. Among all of them, a special place is occupied by a commission that literally “blew the wall”: the Mexican presidential delegation of June 2001. Mexico was then governed by Vicente Fox and the first lady, Martha Sahagún. If there were a Guinness record of ridiculous diplomats, that journey would occupy a prominent place.
In grave one of the archaeological zone, with an area of 14,260 square meters and with the remains about 4 meters below the surface, the government delegation began to chatter among the monuments. Instead of honoring the clay army, with all its history on its back, the chancellor, Jorge Castañeda and his friend and special guest on the tour, the host Adela Micha, played hide-and-seek among the terracotta colossi. They hugged them as if they were stuffed animals, while the Presidential photographer took flight with the camera.
And, as icing on the cake, to highlight the glories of national culture – Juan Manuel Venegas reported in his chronicle in this newspaper – Sara Bermúdez, president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, joined the party; the image coordinator of the Presidency, Francisco Ortiz, and the then president and vice president of Televisa, Emilio Azcárraga Jean and Bernardo Gómez.
The Xi’an that Vicente Fox visited was a very different city than it is today. Eastern end of the Silk Road during the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the city is currently the core center of the new initiative that bears the same name, with infrastructure projects that link China with Central Asia and Europe. The initiative launched in 2013, when President Xi Jinping announced the creation of the Silk Road economic belt.
The XIII World Video Media Forum was held in the new Xi’an on November 6 and 7 and, within the framework of this activity, the official launch of the Global South Media Partners Mechanism was carried out.
The backbone of the global South media dialogue were China Global Television Network and CCTV+, communication giants. Representatives from more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America also participated. A kind of United Nations. Officials from the information ministries of several nations attended, such as Patrick Muyaya, minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Nguyen Thanh Lam, President of Vietnam Television, and Agnes Kalekye Nguna, General Director of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
In line with the principles of China’s international cooperation, the members of the dialogue constitute a diverse conglomerate of media, agencies and institutions, ideologically plural. They are all very different from each other. There is no political homogeneity among them, as a whole. They are only identified by being part of the global South.
One of the interventions that best summarized the spirit of the meeting was that of the representative of Sri Lanka. “We are countries full of vigor and dynamism, but we do not own the narratives,” he mentioned. The representative of South Africa walked in the same direction: “We lack representation. Our voice is being usurped by others. We have been silenced,” he said.
There were three core concerns shared by many speakers. One was what to do with generation Z. Our stories – he explained – have not been captured by youth. How to get this generation to read newspapers and watch television, instead of being glued to their cell phone screens. Two, how to deal with artificial intelligence. And three, what to do to address the technological gap.
The meeting began with a beautiful children’s dance. It had simultaneous translation into Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The interventions were substantive, to the point, constructive and brief (most lasted only three to five minutes). In several of them poetic language was used. All activities were carried out with strict punctuality. The deployment of cutting-edge technology resources was not spared. The videos worked when they needed to work. The acoustics of the microphones were perfect. The work was conducted by a multilingual and professional driver.
A true anchor.
High-quality information exchange
Among the conclusions reached by consensus is supporting the joint production and transmission of programs, focusing on common themes, such as global governance, the economy, the environment and culture. Global South Media Nexus will be supported to facilitate the circulation and exchange of high-quality information. The innovative application of artificial intelligence in the media field will be promoted.
China usually accompanies the holding of political, academic, technological and sporting events with complementary activities, such as visits to factories, rural projects and artistic activities. It’s an old tradition. When the Mexican Vicente Lombardo Toledano (the first to do so) visited Popular China in 1949, barely two months after the triumph of the revolution, that country’s diplomacy showed him the strength and power of its economy and its culture. This is what China regularly does with its guests and guests. The travel books of Maestro Lombardo, Fernando Benítez and Antonio Rodríguez are full of pages describing the beauty and vitality of Chinese culture.
The dialogue between the media of the global South towards another Silk Road of communication was no exception. Each other was accompanied by gargantuan banquets, visits to museums, plays, meetings with large consortiums, railway companies and vegetable oil processors, at the end of the work days. Fortunately, unlike the embarrassments of Jorge Castañeda and his guests in 2001, on this occasion, there was nothing to be ashamed of when visiting the Terracotta Warriors.
