Xinhua News Agency Opens Branch in Guinea-Bissau

BISSAU, Xinhua: China’s Xinhua News Agency inaugurated its Bissau branch on Friday, with the approval of the government of Guinea-Bissau.

At the unveiling ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau Yang Renhuo said that during the state visit of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo to China last July, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Embalo reached an important consensus on deepening cultural and people-to-people exchanges and media cooperation between the two countries, providing strategic guidance for bilateral cooperation in the field of journalism.

As China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua took the lead in establishing a branch in Bissau, which is a major measure to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, the ambassador said.

This move marks a milestone in promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges, enhancing mutual trust, and deepening traditional friendship between China and Guinea-Bissau, he said.

Florentino Fernando Dias, Guinea-Bissau’s minister of social communication, said that the country maintains a “positive and open attitude” toward strengthening cooperation with Chinese media, including Xinhua, and welcomes the establishment of a Xinhua branch in Bissau.

Ying Qiang, director of Xinhua’s Africa Regional Bureau, expressed hope that the Bissau branch will do a good job reporting on Guinea-Bissau’s social development, people’s lives, and the fruits of China-Guinea-Bissau cooperation to help the African country’s voice reach more audiences in China and around the world.

Xinhua will take this as an opportunity to take root in Guinea-Bissau and radiate across West Africa, tell more real, vivid and warm stories, and contribute media power to deepening the friendship between China and Guinea-Bissau as well as that between China and Africa, Ying said.

The Bissau branch is the 184th overseas branch established by Xinhua News Agency.