During a visit to Sydney in 2017, Tan Tianxing, the deputy minister for China’s overseas influence and intelligence gathering apparatus, the United Front Work Department (UFWD), reportedly told a gathering of Australia-based Chinese media to promote Beijing’s interests by putting a positive spin on its controversial Belt and Road Initiative.
Tan stressed his hope that Australia’s Chinese-language media would actively “spread the voice of China” and tell “Belt and Road stories, and record the great era of the Belt and Road Initiative.”
