In brief
Wong Chun Wai, chairman of Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama, told Xinhua that China is well positioned to help media organisations in the Global South grow through AI and international partnerships. He urged the 7th World Media Summit to focus on practical cooperation and capacity building. Wong also recalled a previous summit trip to Xinjiang that gave reporters a real‑life view of China’s rapid development.
Wong Chun Wai, chairman of Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama, told Xinhua on 6 November that China could help media organisations in the Global South grow through AI technology while he attended the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing. He said the summit, themed "Media in the Intelligent Age: From Consensus to Action," should focus on how the region’s outlets can use AI, build skills and collaborate with Chinese partners.
China has advanced artificial intelligence research and built many media partnerships worldwide, Wong explained. He added that the technology gives new tools for newsrooms but also demands a rethink of how they operate.
"It’s very easy to buy a tool and put it in your company," he said, emphasizing the need to consider how AI could fundamentally reshape newsroom operations.
Wong pointed to Malaysia as an example. Because its geography brings it close to China and the country sees frequent exchanges, Malaysian media can benefit from Chinese AI advances, he noted. He hoped the summit would provide a platform where practical discussions about AI applications and newsroom transformation could happen.
Wong also recalled his participation in the 6th World Media Summit held in northwest China’s Xinjiang region in 2024. He described a visit to Kashgar where reporters saw cotton‑fields and the machines that cultivated them. "When they passed the cotton fields, they saw a lot of machines, machines that were being used to cultivate the cotton," he said, adding that such visits let journalists see a "real Xinjiang" rather than just stories in the news.
He said that experience showed the rapid development taking place in China and the potential for media practitioners to learn from it. "Such visits offered valuable opportunities for international journalists to gain a firsthand understanding of China, where rapid development continues to bring new changes even to places like Kashgar," Wong added.
Overall, Wong urged the summit to bring together media organisations from the Global South and China to discuss real‑world tools, training and collaboration that can strengthen media coverage worldwide.
