China Is Building a Global Infrastructure for Its Cultural Industries

Por Leonie Spangenberg — The Diplomat

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When a cultural industry expands overseas, that usually means exporting content. China is increasingly exporting the infrastructure behind entertainment products.

On September 4 , Lingang New Area in Shanghai launched an AI+micro-drama overseas service station , with initial service points in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The initiative is designed to help Chinese companies navigate overseas regulations, localize content, and connect production with distribution in foreign markets. The service station covers the full export chain including content development, production, translation, and distribution. Rather than simply helping companies sell finished dramas abroad, it brings several stages of the export process into one system. 

Online literature, games, and micro-dramas are increasingly described in China as the “ New Three ” of cultural exports. All three can be adapted, translated, and distributed through digital platforms, making the process of taking them overseas simpler.

In July, Guangxi Publishing & Media Group launched FLYTOTO, an AI-powered platform for short-drama co-creation. The platform connects Chinese production teams and creators with audiovisual institutions in Southeast Asia. FLYTOTO offers tools for script analysis, automated video production, and multilingual translation, alongside computing and distribution support. The platform was launched alongside the 2026 China-ASEAN Micro-Drama Competition , which includes both live-action and AI-generated micro-dramas. 

For China, the cultural industry is moving beyond the export of finished content to the systems that allow content to be produced, adapted, and distributed across markets. 

This shift did not begin with AI micro-dramas, although they provide the latest examples. China Literature, one of China’s largest online publishing companies, launched its international Webnovel platform in 2017, initially bringing Chinese online fiction to readers abroad through translated works. Webnovel has since expanded beyond translation. The platform now hosts original fiction by writers outside China, while providing the translation, publishing, and monetization systems around their work. By the end of 2025, China Literature said Webnovel had 537,000 international writers and 830,000 original works from overseas. 

The goal is no longer only to find foreign readers for Chinese stories. Platforms can also provide the tools, business models, and distribution channels through which stories reach international audiences. As these platforms expand, the distinction between exporting Chinese culture and producing culture for foreign markets becomes less clear. A Chinese company can operate the platform and provide the infrastructure while the content itself is increasingly created by writers and producers outside China.

A recent analysis by researchers at the London School of Economics argued that Chinese micro-drama platforms can exercise what they call “platform soft power.” The platforms themselves increasingly exert an invisible influence, as recommendation systems, data, monetization, and user participation shape what audiences see and engage with. Lingang’s new AI+micro-drama overseas service station and FLYTOTO in Guangxi suggest that this trend will only strengthen. The infrastructure behind cultural exports is becoming part of China’s export strategy itself.

To be sure, there’s no guarantee this will result in greater Chinese cultural influence. Companies have strong commercial reasons to build production and distribution networks abroad, and adapting content to local audiences can make its Chinese origins less visible. A Chinese company can provide the platform, technology, and investment without the resulting content saying much about China at all. But it does change what Chinese companies are capable of doing in foreign markets. They are gaining infrastructure and local connections that allow them to produce and distribute cultural content across borders.

China’s cultural industries have spent years learning how to reach audiences beyond the country’s borders. From online literature to micro-dramas, Chinese companies are building platforms, translation systems, production tools, and overseas partnerships that can be used across markets. The payoff is more than an overseas audience. It is the ability to produce, adapt, and distribute cultural content across markets without treating each market as a separate export project.

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On September 4 , Lingang New Area in Shanghai launched an AI+micro-drama overseas service station , with initial service points in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The initiative is designed to help Chinese companies navigate overseas regulations, localize content, and connect production with distribution in foreign markets. The service station covers the full export chain including content development, production, translation, and distribution. Rather than simply helping companies sell finished dramas abroad, it brings several stages of the export process into one system. 

Online literature, games, and micro-dramas are increasingly described in China as the “ New Three ” of cultural exports. All three can be adapted, translated, and distributed through digital platforms, making the process of taking them overseas simpler.

In July, Guangxi Publishing & Media Group launched FLYTOTO, an AI-powered platform for short-drama co-creation. The platform connects Chinese production teams and creators with audiovisual institutions in Southeast Asia. FLYTOTO offers tools for script analysis, automated video production, and multilingual translation, alongside computing and distribution support. The platform was launched alongside the 2026 China-ASEAN Micro-Drama Competition , which includes both live-action and AI-generated micro-dramas. 

For China, the cultural industry is moving beyond the export of finished content to the systems that allow content to be produced, adapted, and distributed across markets. 

This shift did not begin with AI micro-dramas, although they provide the latest examples. China Literature, one of China’s largest online publishing companies, launched its international Webnovel platform in 2017, initially bringing Chinese online fiction to readers abroad through translated works. Webnovel has since expanded beyond translation. The platform now hosts original fiction by writers outside China, while providing the translation, publishing, and monetization systems around their work. By the end of 2025, China Literature said Webnovel had 537,000 international writers and 830,000 original works from overseas. 

The goal is no longer only to find foreign readers for Chinese stories. Platforms can also provide the tools, business models, and distribution channels through which stories reach international audiences. As these platforms expand, the distinction between exporting Chinese culture and producing culture for foreign markets becomes less clear. A Chinese company can operate the platform and provide the infrastructure while the content itself is increasingly created by writers and producers outside China.

A recent analysis by researchers at the London School of Economics argued that Chinese micro-drama platforms can exercise what they call “platform soft power.” The platforms themselves increasingly exert an invisible influence, as recommendation systems, data, monetization, and user participation shape what audiences see and engage with. Lingang’s new AI+micro-drama overseas service station and FLYTOTO in Guangxi suggest that this trend will only strengthen. The infrastructure behind cultural exports is becoming part of China’s export strategy itself.

To be sure, there’s no guarantee this will result in greater Chinese cultural influence. Companies have strong commercial reasons to build production and distribution networks abroad, and adapting content to local audiences can make its Chinese origins less visible. A Chinese company can provide the platform, technology, and investment without the resulting content saying much about China at all. But it does change what Chinese companies are capable of doing in foreign markets. They are gaining infrastructure and local connections that allow them to produce and distribute cultural content across borders.

China’s cultural industries have spent years learning how to reach audiences beyond the country’s borders. From online literature to micro-dramas, Chinese companies are building platforms, translation systems, production tools, and overseas partnerships that can be used across markets. The payoff is more than an overseas audience. It is the ability to produce, adapt, and distribute cultural content across markets without treating each market as a separate export project.

Leonie Spangenberg is an economic sinologist. She studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Hanyang University in Seoul. She writes about contemporary debates in the Chinese-speaking world.

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Fonte: The Diplomat