
X Marks the Spot
Elon Musk’s new messaging app was built with Chinese users in mind. It was censored before it ever reached them, with related news coverage from state media also pulled down.

China News Service (中國新聞社), established in October 1952, is China’s second-largest state news agency after Xinhua. The agency has been under the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party since 2018, focusing on overseas Chinese communities and residents of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The agency maintains offices throughout mainland China and internationally, operating what it calls the “Global Chinese Media Cooperative Union” to redistribute state media content. In 2020, the U.S. State Department designated CNS as a “foreign mission.” According to the Media and Journalism Research Center, as of September 2024, CNS is classified as “State Controlled Media.” The agency expanded into film and television production, launched “China News Video” in 2007, and publishes several periodicals, including “China Newsweek” (中國新聞周刊).
