The Paper (澎湃新聞) is a news platform operated by the CCP-run Shanghai United Media Group (上海報業集團) that launched on July 22, 2014. Media scholar and former Southern Weekly journalist Fang Kecheng has described the outlet as having “the face of commercial media, and the heart of Party media,” while David Bandurski, the director of the China Media Project, called it an experiment in producing propaganda content that can “attract” and “attach” to mobile audiences. Between 2018 and 2023, The Paper said it received over 400 domestic and international awards. The news platform covers current affairs, finance, and lifestyle content through a mobile-first app and website. It features sections including “Striking Tigers” (打虎記) for anticorruption coverage (generally focusing on small-time cases of malfeasance), and “Translating China” (譯中國), which aggregates foreign reporting on China.
Xinhua Silk Road (新华丝路网) advertises itself as a comprehensive information service platform focused on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, operated since 2015 by the China Economic Information Service (中国经济信息社有限公司), or CEIS, under Xinhua News Agency. The platform positions itself as providing databases, information consulting, think tank research, and international communication services to Belt and Road participants. Key products and services include a multilingual Belt and Road database, a global project opportunities and risk analysis system, an overseas brand voice monitoring system for Chinese companies, international business coordination services, and Xinhua enterprise information services (pointing to the expansion of state media content distribution globally). Xinhua Silk Road also manages the construction and maintenance of the official website of the Leading Group for Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (中国一带一路网), directly linking it to the highest levels of Chinese government Belt and Road coordination. In July 2023, coinciding with the platform’s eighth anniversary, Xinhua Silk Road launched a “Belt and Road Project Case Database” tracking over 500 key Belt and Road projects across seven sectors including infrastructure, industrial investment, industrial park development, financial cooperation, energy resources, logistics, and cultural exchange. The database features exclusive research reports on state-owned enterprise and private enterprise participation in Belt and Road projects compiled in cooperation with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission Research Center, revealing close coordination between the platform and China’s economic planning apparatus.
Gansu Daily (甘肅日報) is the official mouthpiece newspaper of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (中共甘肅省委機關報), established on September 1, 1949, and headquartered in Gansu Province, China. The organization positions itself as a comprehensive party newspaper covering the entire province and operates an array of related media under the direct oversight of the propaganda office of Gansu province. The publication was founded when the Gansu Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was established in July 1949, with the inaugural issue signed by Peng Dehuai, then commander of the First Field Army. The newspaper adopted the masthead personally inscribed by Mao Zedong on December 1, 1949, which continues to be used today.
China Today (今日中國) magazine was established in 1952 as China Reconstructs by Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡), widow of Sun Yat-sen and later honorary president of the People’s Republic of China, in collaboration with naturalized Polish-Chinese journalist Israel Epstein. The magazine was renamed China Today in 1990 and is now operated under the China International Communications Group (CICG), which was established in October 1949. The publication describes itself as an official outlet intended to promote knowledge of China’s culture, geography, economy, and social affairs to international audiences. China Today currently publishes nine printed and 10 digital versions in multiple language,s including English, French, German, Arabic, Turkish, and Chinese, while also operating related magazines such as CHINAFRICA, Dialogue Chine-France, and Potala. According to the organization’s materials, the Center distributes over two million copies annually to more than 160 countries and regions through offices in Egypt and South Africa, and maintains partnerships with publishers in France, Turkey, and Senegal.)magazine was established in 1952 as China Reconstructs by Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡), widow of Sun Yat-sen and later honorary president of the People’s Republic of China, in collaboration with naturalized Polish-Chinese journalist Israel Epstein. The magazine was renamed China Today in 1990 and is now operated under the Center for Europe and Africa, part of the China International Communications Group (CICG), which was established in October 1949 as the China International Publishing Group. The publication is described as an official outlet intended to promote knowledge of China’s culture, geography, economy and social affairs to international audiences. China Today currently publishes nine printed and 10 digital versions in multiple languages including English, French, German, Arabic, Turkish, and Chinese, while also operating related magazines such as CHINAFRICA, Dialogue Chine-France, and Potala. According to the organization’s materials, the Center distributes over two million copies annually to more than 160 countries and regions through offices in Egypt and South Africa, and maintains partnerships with publishers in France, Turkey, and Senegal.
Yunnan Media Group (雲南廣播電視台), or YMG, serves as the provincial state broadcaster of southwestern China’s Yunnan province under the leadership of the provincial Chinese Communist Party committee. Established on August 29, 2012, through the merger of Yunnan Television Station and Yunnan People’s Radio Station, YMG operates nine television channels and eight radio frequencies. The organization functions as a directly administered institution under the Yunnan provincial government while receiving guidance from the provincial party propaganda office. YMG plays a strategic role in China’s media and cultural outreach to Southeast Asia, working closely with the provincial government and Yunnan’s South and Southeast Asia Regional International Communication Center (雲南省南亞東南亞區域國際傳播中心) to promote cross-border exchanges with neighboring countries.
China Economic Information Service(中國經濟信息社), 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.
Science and Technology Daily is the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, established in 1986 with its name calligraphed by Deng Xiaoping. Based in Beijing, it’s a state-run media outlet described by Chinese authorities as a “central mainstream media” tasked with “propaganda missions for the Party and the state in science and technology.” The publication claims to maintain 33 domestic bureaus and 14 international offices, positioning itself as a comprehensive media organization connecting domestic and international science communities. The paper gained historical significance as one of the few Chinese publications to cover the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In 2021, it launched an English edition “dedicated to telling China’s science and technology innovation story to the world.”
China Newsweek (中國新聞周刊), launched in January 2000, is a Beijing-based magazine published by China News Service (CNS). The publication produces editions in multiple languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, and South Asian languages. CNS claimed the magazine has been “widely accepted by the mainstream society” due to what it called stories written with “keen, profound, incisive and original perspective.” The magazine gained some recognition in the 2000s for its professional reporting, including investigative coverage.
The China Daily (中國日報) is an English-language newspaper operated by the Information Office of China’s State Council, which is essentially the same office as the Central Propaganda Department (中共中央宣傳部) of the Chinese Communist Party. Published in multiple languages, the newspaper and its associated outlets are a key aspect of China’s official communication strategy toward the world. It claims to have “the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China” — a misleading claim as all such publications are closely regulated and controlled. The U.S. State Department designated China Daily as a “foreign mission” in 2020, while scholars describe it as “an instrument of China’s public diplomacy.” The newspaper produces sponsored content called “China Watch” for Western publications and has faced accusations of spreading disinformation about Hong Kong protests, COVID-19, and Uyghur issues. Former staff have described working there as prioritizing making “the Chinese government look good” over journalism.
