China Daily

China Daily () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Overview.
"China Daily" has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. The headquarters and principal editorial office is in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The newspaper has branch offices in most major cities of China as well as several major foreign cities including New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and Kathmandu. The paper is published by satellite offices in the United States, Hong Kong, and Europe. "China Daily" also produces an insert of sponsored content called "China Watch" that has been distributed inside other newspapers such as "The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal," and "The Washington Post".
"China Daily" in China targets mainly diplomats, foreign expats, tourists as well as locals wishing to improve their English. The China edition also offers program guides to Radio Beijing and television, daily exchange rates, and local entertainment schedules. It has been used as a guide to Chinese government policy and positions of the Chinese Communist Party. Scholar Falk Hartig describes the newspaper and its various international editions as an "instrument of China's public diplomacy."
"China Daily"'s editorial policies have been described as slightly more liberal than other Chinese news outlets. Its coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was positive. The newspaper's coverage of the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak was reported to be more critical, fact-driven, and less laudatory than that of the "People's Daily". A 2018 discourse analysis from Uppsala University found that prior to Xi Jinping's accession, many "China Daily" articles portrayed their government as a particular kind of democracy, with democratic ideals such as the implementation of universal suffrage (in Hong Kong) and grassroots elections sometimes endorsed. After his accession, articles became more negative in tone toward democracy and shifted focus to portraying the "vices" of democracies in the West, particularly the United States.
Editorial control.
Scholars have described "China Daily" as effectively controlled by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Ideologically, it tends to adopt similar perspectives to the "People's Daily". According to its 2014 annual report, "China Daily" is formally managed by the State Council Information Office (SCIO), which was formed from the Propaganda Department in 1991. The SCIO holds regular meetings with journalists and editors from "China Daily" on what they should publish. A former copy-editor (or "polisher" as termed at "China Daily") for the newspaper described her role being "to tweak propaganda enough that it read as English, without inadvertently triggering war."
History.
"China Daily" was officially established in June 1981 after a one-month trial. It was initially led by Jiang Muyue, with Liu Zhunqi as editor in chief. It was the first national daily English-language newspaper in China after the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. Its initial circulation was 22,000, which grew to 65,000 by the following year. By July 1982 the newspaper had plans to publish editions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and tentatively Australia. Initially, it struggled to find English-speaking journalists.
The paper was a departure from other Chinese newspapers at the time: it was "a Western-style paper", in content, style, and organizational structure.
It began distribution in North America in 1983. It introduced an online edition in 1996 and a Hong Kong edition in 1997. By 2006, it had a reported circulation of 300,000, of which two thirds were in China and one third international. "China Daily" registered as a foreign agent in the United States in 1983.
In 2015, "China Daily" published a fake op-ed which they claimed was penned by Peter Hessler. They combined part of the transcript of an interview he had done with comments from another person interviewed as well as completely fabricated parts and ran it as an op-ed under Hessler’s byline without his knowledge or permission. The fabricated op-ed contained made up praise for China and misrepresented Hessler’s own words by taking them out of context. The editorial repeated Chinese Communist Party talking points and "China Daily" refused to retract it although it subsequently removed the English language version of the op-ed.
In 2018, the paper fabricated a quote by the mayor of Davos, Tarzisius Caviezel. 
In September 2020, India's Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying that comments made by "China Daily" were falsely attributed to Ajit Doval.
In February 2020, a group of U.S. lawmakers asked the United States Department of Justice to investigate "China Daily" for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Later the same month, the United States Department of State designated "China Daily", along with several other Chinese state media outlets, as foreign missions owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
International editions.
China Daily Group has 12 print editions. "China Daily" is a member of Asia News Network (ANN).
African edition.
In December 2012, "China Daily" launched an Africa edition, published in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. This edition is a way to expand the "China Daily" readership and boost China's interests in Africa, especially in mining and immigration policies, and prestige. In addition, the African edition is aimed at both African people and Chinese people who live in Africa.
"China Asia Weekly".
"China Daily Asia Weekly" is a tabloid-sized pan-Asian edition of the "China Daily". The newspaper launched on 9 December 2010 in Hong Kong.
"China Daily Asia Weekly" was initially distributed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan. Later, it was expanded to include Australia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
"China Daily European Weekly".
"China Daily European Weekly" was launched in December 2010 and is published from London. In 2011, it won the Launch Paper of the Year award presented by the UK's Association of Circulation Executives (ACE); and the International Media Award sponsored by the Plain English Campaign. A 2014 audit found that 94% of "China Daily European Weekly" copies were being given away. In 2014, it won the International Newspaper of the Year at the Newspaper Awards.
Hong Kong edition.
The China Daily Hong Kong Edition (), has been published since 6 October 1997. It is the only official English-language newspaper published by the Chinese government in Hong Kong and Macau.
US edition.
"China Daily USA", based in New York City, was launched in 2009. Circulation includes the United Nations Headquarters, government agencies of the United States and Canada, universities, think tanks, major financial institutions, and many international corporate entities. While New York City coverage historically focused on Manhattan during the publication's earlier days, this emphasis has evolved and expanded to include in-depth coverage of Queens and Brooklyn, the boroughs of New York City and U.S. municipalities with the largest Chinese populations.
Reception.
Overall.
In 2009, "China Daily" was called "the most influential English language national newspaper in China" according to University of St. Thomas scholar Juan Li. It is known for original reporting.
In 1982, John Lawrence wrote in "The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs" that "China Daily" is "essential reading for China watchers". He said that "bias shows through in the selective reporting of events in some countries", but that the paper's coverage of other international news is more evenhanded. Domestic news, he said, was given "wide coverage", but "sometimes in an uncritical way".
In a 2004 journal article, University of Sheffield professor Lily Chen stated that "China Daily" was "essentially a publicly funded government mouthpiece". Many international observers see it as an official government outlet, though Judy Polumbaum stated in the "Berkshire Encyclopedia of China" (2009) that "China Daily" "resists definition as a simple mouthpiece" and has a "distinctive, if quixotic, status".
"The New York Times" wrote that "China Daily"'s supplements published in US newspapers "generally offer an informative, if anodyne, view of world affairs refracted through the lens of the Communist Party."
Disinformation allegations.
Non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders have accused "China Daily" of engaging in censorship and propaganda. Media outlets such as "The New York Times", NPR, Quartz, and BuzzFeed News have also published accounts of "China Daily"'s dissemination of disinformation related to the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. In September 2019, "China Daily"'s official Facebook account stated that Hong Kong protesters were planning on launching terrorist attacks on 11 September of the same year.
In May 2020, CNN, "Financial Times", and other media outlets reported that "China Daily" censored references to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic from an opinion piece authored by European Union ambassadors. In January 2021, "China Daily" inaccurately attributed deaths in Norway to the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. In April 2021, the European External Action Service published a report that cited "China Daily" and other state media outlets for "selective highlighting" of potential vaccine side-effects and "disregarding contextual information or ongoing research" to present Western vaccines as unsafe.
In response to criticism, "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Daily Telegraph", and Nine Entertainment Co. ceased publishing "China Daily"'s "China Watch" insert in their newspapers.
Portrayal of Muslims.
A 2019 critical discourse analysis of "China Daily"'s coverage of Chinese Muslims found them to be portrayed as "obedient and dependent Chinese citizens who benefit from the government’s intervention." In January 2021, a "China Daily" article praised a report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stating that government policies in Xinjiang had "emancipated" the minds of Uyghur women so that they are "no longer baby-making machines." The article drew condemnation as being a justification for reproductive policies of Uyghur genocide, and sparked calls for Twitter to remove links to the article. Twitter removed a reposting of the "China Daily" article by the PRC's official U.S. embassy account and subsequently suspended the account for contravening its stated policy against "dehumanization of a group of people."