China’s state-owned broadcaster has launched an aggressive international push to extend the country’s influence, opening a new headquarters in Washington that will broadcast English-language programming from the heart of the US capital.

China Central Television, which produces the ruling Communist party’s news and other propaganda programmes, is constructing a studio in Washington which will serve as its US broadcasting centre. It aims to begin broadcasting by the middle of 2012 and produce up to six hours of original programming a day, according to people familiar with the plans.

CCTV has also built a studio facility in Nairobi, in Kenya, from where it will broadcast its English-language channel in Africa, and plans to open a broadcasting centre in Europe, according to people briefed on the expansion.