CMG to promote countryside sports in China with village football, basketball

China Media Group (CMG) signed strategic partnerships with the Village Basketball Association (VBA) in Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, and the Village Super League (VSL) in Taijiang County of Guizhou, on Saturday, for local sport events to play a bigger role in boosting comprehensive rural rejuvenation and development.

CMG President Shen Haixiong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Fan Yun and Lu Yongzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guizhou Provincial Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee, attended the signing ceremony of the deal.

According to the deal, CMG will, via its digital platform, the Yangshipin video app, work in depth with the two counties to broadcast games online, launch innovative media programs and develop local cultural and tourist resources among other things.

Fan pointed out in his speech that CMG has launched a series of programs related to the countryside in recent years, including the VBA, the VSL and the Village Gala to implement Chinese President Xi Jinping's instructions on the "three rural issues." He said that CMG has been working closely with Guizhou especially in reporting the VBA and the VSL which continued to spread all over the internet in a phenomenal way in the past year.

As both the VBA and the VSL became "a new window to observe Chinese modernization," Fan expressed CMG's resolve to build countryside sports into a new calling card for Chinese modernization in the rural areas by giving more people from all over the country and abroad more access to them.

Lu believes that as both the VBA and the VSL became hits both domestically and internationally, they not only brought more attention to the two counties and the province, but also stimulated local economic development. In 2023 alone, there were over 12 million tourist visits to Rongjiang and Taijiang. Local comprehensive tourist revenues surpassed 15 billion yuan (about $2.1 billion).