Islamabad hosted the 9th CPEC Media Forum on December 24, 2025, organized by the Pakistan China Institute in partnership with China Economic Net and the Chinese Embassy. The three-hour event gathered senior Pakistani and Chinese officials, diplomats, media leaders and enterprise representatives to reinforce media collaboration around CPEC 2.0, promote fact-based narrative building, and respond to growing challenges from misinformation, disinformation and fake news.<\/p>\n
Mustafa Hyder Sayed<\/strong>, Executive Director of the Pakistan China Institute, opened the forum by noting that the CPEC Media Forum has been a flagship cooperation platform since 2015, continuing through virtual formats during COVID. He underlined the forum\u2019s goal to shape a narrative rooted in verifiable facts and exemplary Pakistan China cooperation, stressing the special significance of this edition amid the launch of CPEC 2.0 and rapidly expanding bilateral ties, including enhanced defense cooperation witnessed earlier in the year.<\/p>\n Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed<\/strong>, Chairman of the Pakistan China Institute, placed the discussion in a broader strategic context and warned that fake news and disinformation have become a strategic challenge. Citing the EU DisinfoLab “India Chronicles” investigation, he urged faster, coordinated responses against information campaigns perceived to oppose Pakistan China progress and emphasized the joint action plan that includes media and people-to-people cooperation across multiple domains.<\/p>\n Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali Kharal<\/strong>, Minister of State for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, reflected on her experience as a Dong Feng Scholar in China and called for a joint Pakistan China media mechanism to respond immediately to disinformation. She highlighted China\u2019s engagement with scholars from the Global South and framed Pakistan China ties as an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership built on trust and mutual support on core issues.<\/p>\n Attaullah Tarar<\/strong>, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, traced his long engagement with Pakistan China exchanges and urged narrative evolution through digital platforms such as Digital Pakistan TV. He recommended that PCI host a dedicated fact-check forum or platform to label falsehoods around CPEC and supply correct facts, seeking government and embassy support to counter negative propaganda in the digital realm.<\/p>\n Ambassador Jiang Zaidong<\/strong> praised cross-party friendship between the two countries and reaffirmed China\u2019s one-China stance. He highlighted media\u2019s essential role in countering distortions and outlined priorities for CPEC 2.0 in agriculture, mining and industry, stressing export-oriented projects, livelihood impacts and continued infrastructure and Gwadar-related connectivity improvements.<\/p>\n Chinese media and publishing leaders urged deeper storytelling and cultural exchange. Zheng Qingdong<\/strong> of Economic Daily called on journalists to present a multidimensional, truthful picture of CPEC and to expose smears. Yang Chunyan<\/strong> of Foreign Languages Press proposed expanded translation and publishing cooperation, including e-books and audiobooks, to foster people-to-people ties. Hu Pingping<\/strong> of China Media Group offered a personal appeal in Urdu to tell ground realities, from poverty-alleviation models to value-added trade stories such as Pakistan\u2019s pink salt exports.<\/p>\n Senior Pakistani journalists raised practical challenges for narrative building. Hamid Mir<\/strong> urged confronting structural elements behind disinformation and called for stronger international advocacy on regional security concerns. Mohammad Malick<\/strong> highlighted local perceptions in Gwadar that development benefits have not fully reached communities and stressed the need for credible verification to build public trust.<\/p>\n Industry voices focused on people-centered delivery under CPEC 2.0. Liu Yonggang<\/strong> of C-SAIL cited clean-energy contributions from CPEC 1.0, including the 720 MW Karot Hydropower Project and significant wind investments, and argued that sustained transparency, professionalism and responsible journalism are essential to defeating misinformation and delivering inclusive growth.<\/p>\n During the forum the Pakistan China Institute also launched a research report titled “An Analysis of the Practical Application of Chinese Technical Standards in Pakistan.” The event attracted more than 200 delegates and emphasized practical steps to deepen media cooperation, strengthen fact-based reporting on CPEC 2.0 and build resilient channels to counter disinformation across Pakistan and China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders at the CPEC Media Forum strengthened media cooperation to counter disinformation, promote fact-based CPEC 2.0 narratives and deepen Pakistan China ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}