Associated Press denies China’s claims of social media partnership

BEIJING – Memo to U.S. media executives: If you do a photo op in the headquarters of China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, be prepared for some surprises.

Gary Pruitt, CEO and president of the Associated Press, learned that this week following a March 27 meeting with his counterpart, Xinhua President Cai Mingzhao.

During his visit, Pruitt shook hands, posed for photos and toured Xinhua’s social media operations center. On Monday, Xinhua published a story saying “the world’s two leading news agencies have agreed to strengthen cooperation in social media.”

Xinhua’s story triggered a buzz in media circles. Some were aghast that AP might use its social media platforms to promote content from a government propaganda organ.

The only problem? The story wasn’t true, at least according to AP.

“There is no social media sharing arrangement planned between AP and Xinhua,” said Paul Colford, the AP’s media relations director, in a statement late Wednesday.

Colford didn’t respond when asked if AP would be seeking a correction from Xinhua. He characterized the Beijing visit as part of a routine exchange between the two news agencies. AP executives, he said, “told Xinhua leaders that if they visited our headquarters in New York we would be happy to give a similar tour.”

The Associated Press, a not-for-profit news agency owned by U.S. newspapers and broadcasters, has been steadily growing its business in China. In 2012, AP signed its first commercial contract with Xinhua, allowing the Chinese news agency to sell AP photos in China, so it wasn’t unfathomable that new deals might be in the works.

Even so, some media observers in Asia were immediately suspicious of Xinhua’s report, given the Chinese news agency’s record of hyping its global stature and distorting other information.

The Chinese government has long had a love-hate relationship with U.S. social media. While Beijing blocks its citizens from accessing sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Xinhua and other state-run media use those platforms and others to spread a benevolent view of China. In its news story Monday, Xinhua bragged that it had nearly 1.5 million Twitter followers, more than 900,000 likes on Facebook and more than 48,000 YouTube subscribers.