Xinhua news agency team visits the The Guardian

A delegation of China’s Xinhua News Agency yesterday paid a courtesy visit to the Abuja office of The Guardian newspaper.

Speaking during the visit, Mr. Wang Jida, General Manager, Xinhua News Agency, said the China news medium is interested in professional partnership with The Guardian in the area of news and information sharing.

He commended the newspaper for its strength, describing the paper as the strongest and leading newspaper in Nigeria. “I like the quality, colours and professionalism of The Guardian.

The printing quality of the paper is very good, the design is awesome and it speaks for Nigerians. That is why China needs collaboration with a local newspaper like The Guardian.”

Jida maintained that the Xinhua News Agency has established 20 bureaus in Sub-Sahara region of Africa, including its offices located in Abuja and Lagos, and two in South Africa adding “the agency pays more attention to Nigeria, that is why we have to set up two offices here in the country”.

Abuja Bureau Chief of Xinhua News Agency, Baoping Zhang, stressed the need for Nigeria to partner with China in training, saying that Nigeria stands to gain a lot from China in terms of technological advancement. According to Zhang, the media is the leader of any country. He, therefore, urged media practitioners to be fair when reporting events, especially when it comes to inter-ethnic crisis and cases of insurgency.

Responding, Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian, Mr. Igho Akeregha, assured the visitors of the management’s support and cooperation in considering the partnership, which he said, will be mutually beneficial to the two organisations.

He advised the agency to be proactive and focus more on news that directly affect Nigerians and the communities they live in.