By Entorno | 2025-07-24

China is quietly redrawing the media map of Latin America.

A book by the journalist and researcher Igor Patrick offers a timely and revealing look at how Beijing's state media strategy has gone from a soft-power experiment to a multi-pronged campaign of influence with real-world impact.

Titled Hearts & Minds, Votes & Contracts: China's State Media in Latin America, the March 2024 report sheds light on how Chinese media organs, including Xinhua, CGTN and China Media Group, are steadily embedding themselves into Latin American news ecosystems, not through overt propaganda but through content deals, journalist exchanges and strategic partnerships with cash-strapped local outlets.

China's state media are not trying to convince the world of the virtues of its system but rather to sow doubt about liberal democratic values and the credibility of Western media, the author says. In other words, Beijing is not trying to be loved; it just wants the West to be trusted less.

A story of influence, not invasion

What separates this book from alarmist takes on foreign interference is its attention to nuance. Patrick does not describe a hostile takeover of Latin American media by Beijing.

Instead, he chronicles a methodical, pragmatic approach that exploits declining US engagement and widespread distrust in local institutions.

China's playbook is simple: provide free or subsidized content, offer technical support and training and frame China's global rise as both inevitable and benign. Many Latin American outlets, particularly public broadcasters and underfunded regional papers, are eager to accept.

As the book notes, the Chinese state media model tends to be more appealing either because Latin American media outlets face "budget constraints" or because they are politically aligned with governments that seek alternatives to Western narratives.

"The Chinese strategy may not have won over Western scholars, but it found favor with certain authoritarian Latin American elites who were keen to attain prosperity without relinquishing political control," according to the book.

Beijing's state media approach in the region aligns with its broader global engagement model: one that challenges Western hegemony while positioning China's development path as an attractive alternative, according to Patrick.

It is not only a content issue. In several countries, Chinese embassies and state media outlets have signed memoranda of understanding with national broadcasters, often with little public scrutiny.

These agreements typically guarantee access to Chinese programming, joint production opportunities and sometimes even financial support.

Journalists on junkets

One of China's most effective tools has been a wave of journalist exchange programs. Since the early 2010s, hundreds of Latin American journalists have traveled to China on all-expenses-paid trips. Beijing frames those trips as professional development, but they often feature a steady diet of tightly controlled factory visits, staged interviews and glossy narratives about Chinese innovation.

China's outreach treats Latin American journalists less as independent watchdogs and more as partners in amplifying favorable narratives. It offers access, training and content in exchange for alignment, Patrick says.

Some journalists who participate in these exchanges later go on to lead newsrooms or public communications offices in their home countries, creating informal but powerful lines of influence.

Competing with silence

The book notes a growing contrast between China's sustained cultural and media outreach in Latin America and other international actors' more traditional approaches. Through investments in language programs, state media partnerships and journalist exchanges, Beijing has built a communication infrastructure that often flies under the radar.

Beijing is not competing for dominance. It is competing with absence, leveraging other actors' moments of disengagement to quietly advance its narrative interests.

China's strategy has gained particular traction in authoritarian-leaning countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, where governments are more receptive to its messaging.

But the reach of Beijing's narrative extends well beyond ideology. Conservative-led nations such as El Salvador and the Dominican Republic have entered into media agreements with Chinese entities, often framing them as opportunities for development, investment and global visibility.

Across the region, the Chinese Communist Party's narrative is steadily filling informational gaps, regardless of political alignment.

Yet these partnerships are not without risk.

China's growing media presence in the region often lacks transparency and can blur the lines between journalism, state messaging and strategic influence, Patrick says. He raises concerns about editorial independence and long-term press freedom.

Price of free content

The most troubling insight of Hearts & Minds, Votes & Contracts is not the presence of Chinese content itself but the opacity surrounding how it is integrated into local media. Few outlets disclose when they are running state-provided content, and even fewer indicate that it comes from a foreign government.

That opacity raises ethical questions and presents risks. As Patrick says, the blurring of lines among journalism, public relations and state messaging undermines public trust and weakens the press as a check on power.

The book calls for greater media literacy, stronger disclosure requirements and regional collaboration to defend editorial independence. The goal is to prevent quiet influence from becoming unchecked control.

Hearts & Minds ultimately offers a mirror not just on Latin America but on the Global South more broadly. China's media strategy is adaptable, patient and often invisible until its effects are baked in. As Beijing refines its approach, others would do well to understand not only what China is doing but why it works.