Beginning in November 2016, the Washington Post regularly ran the “China Watch” printed insert of China’s government-run China Daily in the pages of its newspaper, accepting advertising payments from China Daily USA in return. The paid supplements were designed to look like news articles, but were vehicles for pro-China propaganda. According to filings by China Daily with the US Justice Department, the Washington Post accepted 4.6 million dollars for the inserts between 2016 and April 2020.
Beginning in November 2016, The Wall Street Journal regularly ran the “China Watch” printed insert of China’s government-run China Daily in the pages of its newspaper, accepting advertising payments from China Daily USA in return. The paid supplements were designed to look like news articles, but were vehicles for pro-China propaganda. According to filings by China Daily with the US Justice Department, the The Wall Street Journal accepted 6 million dollars for the inserts between 2016 and April 2020.
A four-page China Daily supplement in the Sunday Des Moines Register in September 2018 sought to undermine Iowa farm support for President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, according to political experts. The Chinese government-backed English-language newspaper’s insert highlighted mutual U.S.-China trade benefits and President Xi Jinping’s three-decade Iowa relationship, aiming to pressure the Trump administration by showing potential Republican electoral costs. Political scientist David Skidmore said the effort targeted midterm elections, though he questioned its effectiveness compared to farmers’ economic concerns. Iowa farmers faced projected $2.2 billion losses from trade wars, with ripple effects across the state’s economy and tax revenues.
An eight-page China Watch supplement appeared in the financially-struggling Los Angeles Times in June 2020, distributed by the Chinese government-backed China Daily. The standalone insert, branded “All You Need to Know,” featured content promoting Chinese perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The supplement was clearly labeled as not involving the newspaper’s editorial staff, but presented as news reading material. The timing coincided with the LA Times’ well-documented financial difficulties, suggesting economic motivations for accepting the paid insert. China expert Clayton Dube documented the supplement’s appearance, highlighting the case as another example of Chinese state media’s efforts to reach American audiences through established US newspaper distribution networks.
A China Watch supplement appeared in India’s Hindustan Times on October 30, 2020, as part of China Daily’s global propaganda campaign targeting foreign audiences. The insert featured environmental stories including “Yellow River cleanup brings bright future” and coverage promoting Chinese development initiatives. China’s “China Watch” pages, which have appeared in newspapers across the world, blur the lines between Chinese propaganda and legitimate journalism, with the Chinese Communist Party paying substantial sums—including one million dollars annually to the UK’s Daily Telegraph—for such supplements. These payments represent a key component of China’s external propaganda (外宣) strategy to shape international perceptions.
Kenya’s Star newspaper signed a content-sharing agreement with China Daily Africa on July 16, 2025, at the Star’s Westlands headquarters in Nairobi. Radio Africa Group CEO Martin Khafafa and China Daily Africa Director Wang Xiaodong (王晓东) officiated the deal, which will see “China Watch” inserts published weekly in the Star, leveraging its “100,000-copy circulation.” Khafafa welcomed the partnership as showcasing China’s “contributions to Kenya’s economic growth,” while China Daily’s Kennedy Mureithi said the goal was to “break down Western bias” and expand influence across 15 African countries through local partnerships countering “misperceptions” about China’s continental role. This language closely mirrors Chinese state talking points, including Xi Jinping’s notion of “telling China’s story well.” Mureithi was quoted by China Daily as saying: “We believe that by telling our story in our own voice, more Africans will come to appreciate the values, innovations, and opportunities that China offers.” Xi’s notion of “China’s story,” however, does not suggest individual stories but refers to the “discourse power” (話語權) and voice of the Chinese Party-state, which is perpetuated also through restraints on discourse.
In October 2016, the People’s Daily Overseas Edition (人民日報海外版) signed a cooperation agreement with the Nordic Chinese Times (北歐時報) in Beijing. People’s Daily Editorial Board Member and Overseas Edition Editor-in-Chief Wang Shucheng (王樹成) met with Nordic Chinese Times President He Ru (何儒) to reach what they called a “consensus on in-depth cooperation” (深入合作達成共識). Under the agreement, the Nordic Chinese Times would publish four pages of authorized People’s Daily content in each issue, with distribution centered in Stockholm and reaching across five Nordic countries. The Nordic Chinese Times, founded eight years earlier by the Nordic Chinese Chamber of Commerce (北歐中國商會), claimed it would “tell China’s story well” and “spread China’s voice” (講好中國故事，傳播好中國聲音). Despite positioning itself as a “neutral media” (中立媒體), analysis by the China Media Project found that by 2024 the paper’s “China News” section was sourcing 100 percent of its content from Haiwainet (海外網), the People’s Daily‘s overseas platform.
On July 11, the European news outlet Euractiv published an article labeled as “Advertiser Content” and authored by “Xin Ping Mission of China to the EU” that presented Chinese government propaganda arguing that Taiwan was legally and historically an inseparable part of China. The piece cited UN Resolution 2758, post-WWII agreements including the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations, and bilateral treaties to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, dismissing any claims of Taiwanese independence as “ridiculous” and “dangerous revisionism.” While the byline claimed “Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs,” this writer is not a human being but rather an official pen name used by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency for opinion pieces, particularly on China-EU relations, and the author was explicitly identified as representing China’s Mission to the EU — making clear that this was official Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs propaganda published through Euractiv’s paid content arrangement.
Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang (馬強) published an article titled “Working Together to Build a Community of Shared Future for Mankind” in several South Sudanese media outlets including The Dawn (黎明報) newspaper, City Review (城市評論報), and Juba Echo (朱巴回聲網) on January 15, 2024. The article highlights President Xi Jinping’s concept of building a “community of shared future for mankind” (人類命運共同體), which was first proposed in 2013 during Xi’s address to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Ambassador Ma emphasized China’s commitment to global cooperation and described ongoing China-Africa partnerships, including infrastructure projects like railways and ports. He specifically noted China-South Sudan cooperation in oil, broadcasting facilities, and the Clement Mboro Bridge (克萊門特·姆博羅大橋) project in Wau. Ma stated that China has responded to South Sudanese President Kiir’s call to shift assistance “from humanitarian to developmental areas” and mentioned upcoming implementation of several projects including the Juba Teaching Hospital (朱巴教學醫院) phase two and water well drilling initiatives.
