China, explained.
AI-powered live streaming machines at a workshop in Huangshan, China, on 8 December 2025 (Shi Yalei/VCG via Getty Images)
The Maritime Silk Road Media Cooperation Platform offers opportunities for media outlets from Indonesia – but also poses risks.
Subscribe to The Informer for monthly expert analysis, and to Events for advance notice of visiting world leaders and distinguished guests.
You may unsubscribe from Lowy Institute newsletters at any time. For information on our privacy practices and how to unsubscribe, see our Privacy Policy.
China’s new media platform: Telling stories, shaping narrativesChina’s new media platform: Telling stories, shaping narratives
When the Maritime Silk Road Media Cooperation Platform (MSRMCP) opened in Guangzhou on 1 December 2025, it was heralded as a milestone for global journalism: a collaborative endeavour by media outlets from 11 countries, including Indonesia, aiming to build a more “constructive” information ecosystem across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. The founding media group, South – under the Chinese Nanfang Media Group – laid out a six-point plan for cooperation: joint reporting, cross-country content production, coordinated coverage of major events, cross-platform sharing, sustained strategic dialogue, and business and cultural collaboration.
In an era when global narratives are often shaped by Western outlets, the idea of a network that gives voice to journalists from the Global South holds undeniable promise.
On the face of it, this seems like a welcome antidote to today’s fractured media landscape, an effort to transcend the narrow confines of domestic newsrooms and algorithmic echo chambers. In an era when global narratives are often shaped by Western outlets, the idea of a network that gives voice to journalists from the Global South – to tell stories of culture, development and cooperation in their own words – holds undeniable promise.
But the MSRMCP isn’t just another journalistic initiative. It must be understood as part of a broader and increasingly assertive media-diplomacy strategy by China, one that seeks to shape how Indonesia and other nations see themselves, their region, and their future.
The new media platform has the potential to shape how Indonesia and other nations see themselves, their region, and their future (John Lockwood/Unsplash)
The participating media are not independent global beacons of objective journalism. They include outlets under China’s media apparatus. The MSRMCP does not speak neutrally of “diverse perspectives” so much as promote narratives of “peace and mutual success”, as framed by its Chinese leadership. That framing, at once idealistic and strategic, sends a clear signal about whose version of reality will be amplified.
It’s easy to appreciate the appeal from Jakarta’s perspective: many Indonesian media outlets struggle with shrinking resources, digital disruption, and competition for attention. Collaboration with a well-funded international media platform offers access to production infrastructure, broader distribution, and a chance to project Indonesian stories to a wider regional audience. Combined with strong bilateral economic and maritime ties under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), painting a picture of shared progress, connectivity, and cultural exchange becomes politically and economically convenient.
But this cooperation comes with a steep trade-off. When newsrooms become nodes in a Chinese-led narrative network, editorial independence risks being compromised. Coverage of sensitive issues – such as the environmental impacts of infrastructure development, debt dependency, or maritime sovereignty disputes – may be muted or absent, overshadowed by emphasis on development success, regional harmony, and cooperation. Over time, media under such frameworks may become instruments of soft power rather than watchdogs serving the public interest.
For Indonesia – a nation with a dynamic, pluralist media ecosystem and a rapidly evolving digital public sphere – the MSRMCP represents a test.
This is not speculation: China has long recognised media cooperation as a central pillar of its global influence. Events such as the 2025 Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road in Kunming and the newly launched MSRMCP illustrate how Beijing is systematically building a network of media alliances designed to shape global discourse on its terms.
For Indonesia – a nation with a dynamic, pluralist media ecosystem and a rapidly evolving digital public sphere – the MSRMCP represents a test. The challenge is to engage with such platforms selectively and judiciously, extracting the benefits of cooperation without sacrificing critical autonomy. There is value to cross-border storytelling, cultural exchange, and giving Indonesian voices broader reach. But these gains must not come at the cost of Indonesian media outlets becoming conduits for predetermined narratives that serve foreign interests.
Joining the MSRMCP is not merely a journalistic decision; it is, unavoidably, a geopolitical one. Indonesian media stakeholders and civil society must ask: are we stepping into a new era of inclusive global journalism or opening the door to a subtler form of influence, where soft power is writ large across headlines, bylines, and broadcast packages?
If Indonesian journalism is to remain a forum for critical inquiry, public accountability, and self-definition, we must treat the MSRMCP not as a neutral tool but as what it is: a powerful instrument shaped by a state with clear strategic ambitions.
About the authors
Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat Director of China-Indonesia Desk at Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) in Jakarta.
Yeta Purnama
Yeta Purnama is a researcher at the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The most-pressing world events explained by Lowy Institute experts and global contributors, in your inbox, every Thursday.
You may unsubscribe from The Interpreter at any time. For information on our privacy practices and how to unsubscribe, see our Privacy Policy.
