China.org.cn and the Japanese website Searchina will join hands
for the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the two sides
announced on January 22, 2008.
China and Japan have close ties with each other. With the steady
improvement of this bilateral relationship, the strategic
partnership between the two countries' media will facilitate mutual
understanding and promote the Beijing Olympic Games in Japan via
comprehensive coverage of the Games' preparation and operation.
China.org.cn opened in 2000. It is a media website under the
State Council Information Office that provides China-related news
in nine languages to users from more than 200 countries and
regions. Its upgraded special website for Beijing Olympics is
China's only multimedia coverage of the Games in eight major
languages. The Japanese version provides Olympics-related news,
background information, photos and comments, thus opening a window
and a mutual communication platform for Japanese people to the
Beijing Games. It is highly praised by visitors.
As the biggest Japanese website offering China-related
information, Searchina.ne.jp has 270,000 registered members in
China. It has co-launched a Japanese Olympic website with
China.org.cn and will present Olympic news from China.org.cn's
Japanese version until the end of this year.
In March 2008 the two websites will open a new programĀ --
"The Olympics through Beijing Residents' Lens", inviting users to
record the Games-related scenes via camera phones and present a
real and exiting Games to Japanese sport fans. In addition, this
February, Searchina.ne.jp will provide Japanese tourists with
selected culinary information in Beijing via www.gnavi.co.jp.
The cooperation will enable Searchina.ne.jp to obtain more news
resources from its partner and China.org.cn will certainly expand
its influence in Japan.
Huang Youyi, President of China.org.cn as well as Deputy
Director of China International Publishing Group (CIPG), the
umbrella organization that directly manages China.org.cn, and Li
Jiaming, Executive Vice-president of China.org.cn, attended the
press conference. Significantly, the two sides agreed to facilitate
cooperation in other fields in addition to Olympic coverage.
(China.org.cn January 22, 2008)