[Xinhua President] Tian [Congming] has given signals of his global ambitions. In a recent speech carried in a Xinhua-owned magazine, he couched Xinhua's desire to compete with Reuters, Bloomberg and others in terms of protecting China's economic security and national sovereignty. Xinhua's plans, he said, had the support of China's central leadership. "Therefore, it's truly a rare opportunity. We must grab it firmly," he said. The final goal is "basic replacement of the competition."There's a bit of a logical disconnect here -- how can Xinhua compete with Reuters and Bloomberg on protecting China's economic security and national sovereignty? The Western news agencies certainly don't see this as part of their missions. If Tian really means that he wants to elevate the status of Xinhua to be on a par with Reuters et al in terms of a reliable source of news for people to turn to, good luck. I think back to what Xinhua was saying in the 1980s about competing with Western wire services and becoming a "World News Agency." It didn't happen then, and it ain't gonna happen now. The main reasons: Quality of content, and Xinhua's "mouthpiece" role -- it simply can't be trusted to consistently broadcast unbiased news about China.
To learn more about NCNA/Xinhua's early efforts to compete with China Daily and foreign news agencies, see my precis of Robin Porter's Reporting the News from China.
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