AFP By Felicia Sonmez
March 20, 2015 2:00 AM
Beijing (AFP) – A hard hat-clad American TV host grips the bamboo-and-steel scaffolding, the dizzying urban landscape of China’s commercial centre Shanghai unfolding far below him.
“I’m bringing cameras and questions to places outsiders are rarely permitted, to investigate the aspirations of the world’s fastest-growing middle class,” architect Danny Forster tells Discovery viewers.
There is just one catch: both the cameras — and the questions — are co-funded by the Chinese government.
Beijing has long sought to boost its “soft power” abroad, spending billions of yuan on expanding the international presence of its state-run media — including broadcaster CCTV and official news agency Xinhua — and through its ubiquitous government-sponsored language centres, known as Confucius Institutes.
Now, the ruling Communist Party appears to be pursuing a new tactic: Investing heavily in “documentaries” on China that are hosted by foreign TV personalities and air on major international networks, but are created under the auspices of the party’s messaging chiefs.
The State Council Information Office (SCIO), the propaganda arm of China’s Cabinet, unveiled its latest such effort this week in Beijing at the premiere of “How China Works”, a three-part series that will air on The Discovery Channel.
The show — hosted by Forster and created “with the support and guidance” of the SCIO — is part of a three-year deal in which Discovery will air an hour of Beijing-approved, China-themed programming each week, reaching 90 million viewers in 37 countries and territories.
Discovery executives declined to detail the financial terms of the deal, dubbed “Hour China”.