Entity Type: PRC Media Outlet

China Economic Information Service, abbreviated as CEIS, is an economic information service enterprise under Xinhua News Agency (新華社). Established in October 1989 and restructured in April 2016, CEIS has become China’s most authoritative economic information service institution with the broadest service areas and most comprehensive information types. With information collection points covering 180 countries and regions and branches in 30 Chinese provinces, CEIS claimed it “serves over 130,000 institutional users and 39 million individual users globally.” The company built several national platforms, including Xinhua Finance, Xinhua Silk Road, Xinhua Credit, and Xinhua Index, while operating national projects such as the National Integrated Government Service Platform. CEIS positioned itself as the “national economic information flagship” (國家級經濟資訊旗艦) offering services in consulting, data processing, information integration, and system maintenance.

China Today, originally titled China Reconstructs (中國建設) until 1990, is a monthly magazine founded in 1952 by Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡) in association with Israel Epstein. The publication is an official outlet of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨) serving as what the Party terms “external propaganda” (對外宣傳). Published in seven languages including Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German and Turkish, it claims to “promote knowledge of China’s culture” and present a “positive view” of China to foreign audiences. It is published by the China International Communications Group (中國國際傳播集團), also known as China International Publishing Group (中國國際出版集團), a state-controlled media organization established in 1949 that operates under the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. As of September 2024, independent media researchers classified the organization as “State Controlled Media,” challenging its claims of editorial independence.

The Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party serves as the local leadership organ for the Communist Party in Shanghai. The committee wields significant political influence, with its secretary traditionally being a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political Bureau. The municipality has historically produced numerous high-ranking national leaders — including two General Secretaries, Jiang Zemin (江泽民) and Xi Jinping (习近平), and two premiers, Zhu Rongji (朱镕基) and Li Qiang (李强) — and other top national officials.

China Central Television (CCTV), established in 1958, is China’s national television broadcaster. Operated by the National Radio and Television Administration under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, with Shen Haixiong (慎海雄) as the current president. CCTV functions as a key player in state media, providing news, education, culture, and entertainment services. Headquartered in Beijing, it serves as a vital component of China’s propaganda network. It produces news broadcasts three times daily, with its flagship evening news program “CCTV Tonight” (新闻联播) reaching nearly 500 million viewers and requiring mandatory carriage by local stations.

The Xinmin Evening News, was established on September 9, 1929, in Nanjing as Xinmin Po (新民報) by three editors from Central News Agency: Chen Mingde (陳銘德), Wu Zhusi (吳竹似), and Liu Zhenghua (劉正華). After 1946, the newspaper expanded to Shanghai, where it launched its evening edition as Xinmin Evening News. Currently owned by Shanghai United Media Group (上海報業集團), the publication underwent significant transformation in 1958 when the evening edition was formally renamed from Xinmin Po Evening Edition to Xinmin Evening News. In October 2020, the United States Department of State designated the newspaper as a foreign mission of the Chinese government. On January 1, 2025, Xinmin Evening News was integrated with Liberation Daily (解放日報) and Wenhui Daily (文匯報) into the unified Shangguan News platform (上觀新聞), consolidating Shanghai’s three major newspapers under a shared digital framework.

China Radio International, founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking, is the state-owned international broadcaster headquartered in Beijing. The organization started its English service on September 11, 1947, broadcasting from a cave in Shahe in the Taihang Mountains during China’s civil war. Now part of China Media Group under the Central Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, CRI claims it “endeavors to promote favorable relations” between China and the world while “playing a significant role” in China’s soft power strategy. A 2015 Reuters investigation identified at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that are part of a global radio web structured to obscure CRI as its majority shareholder. The US State Department designated CRI as a “foreign mission” in February 2020.