 | |
 Xinhua headquarters office in Beijing | |
Native name | 新华通讯社 |
|---|---|
| Formerly | Red China News Agency (1931–1937) |
| Company type | Statenews agency |
| Industry | |
| Founded | November 1931; 93 years ago (1931-11), inRuijin,Jiangxi,Chinese Soviet Republic |
| Founder | Chinese Communist Party |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Owner | People's Republic of China (state-owned institution) |
Number of employees | 10,000+[2] |
| Parent | State Council of the People's Republic of China |
| Subsidiaries | Reference News China Xinhua News Network Corporation CNC World |
| Website | english xinhuanet |
| Xinhua News Agency | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 新华通讯社 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 新華通訊社 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | New China News Agency | ||||||||||
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| Abbreviated name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 新华社 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 新華社 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | New China Agency | ||||||||||
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Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation:/ˌʃɪnˈhwɑː/),[3] orNew China News Agency, is the officialstate news agency of thePeople's Republic of China. It is aState Council's ministry-level institution, and was founded in 1931. It is the largest media organ in China.
Xinhua is a publisher, as well as a news agency; it publishes in multiple languages and is a channel for the distribution of information related to the Chinese government and the rulingChinese Communist Party (CCP). Its headquarters in Beijing are located close to the central government's headquarters atZhongnanhai.
Xinhua tailors its pro-Chinese government message to the nuances of each international audience.[4][5] The organization has faced criticism for spreadingpropaganda anddisinformation and for criticizing people, groups, or movements critical of the Chinese government and its policies.[6][7][8] As of September 2024[update], theMedia and Journalism Research Center evaluated the Xinhua News Agency to be "State Controlled Media" under itsState Media Matrix.[9][10]
The predecessor to Xinhua was the Red China News Agency (紅色中華通訊社;Hóngsè Zhōnghuá Tōngxùnshè), founded in November 1931 as the ChineseSoviet Zone ofRuijin, Jiangxi province. It mostly republished news from its rivalCentral News Agency (CNA) for party and army officials. The agency got its name of Xinhua in November 1935, at the end of theLong March, in which theChinese Red Army retreated fromJiangxi toShaanxi. By the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Xinhua'sReference News translated CNA news from theKuomintang, and also international news from agencies likeTASS andHavas. Xinhua first started usingletterpress printing in 1940.[11]
During thePacific War the agency developed overseas broadcasting capabilities and established its first overseas branches.[12] It began broadcasting to foreign countries in English from 1944. In 1949, Xinhua followed a subscription model instead of its previous limited distribution model.[11] In the direct aftermath of theChinese Civil War, the agency represented the People's Republic of China in countries and territorieswith which it had no diplomatic representation, such asBritish Hong Kong.[12] In 1956, Xinhua began reporting on anti-Marxist and other opinions critical of the CCP. In 1957, Xinhua switched from a journal format to a newspaper format.[11]
The agency was described by media scholars as the "eyes and tongue" of the CCP, observing what is important for the masses and passing on the information.[13] A former Xinhua director, Zheng Tao, noted that the agency was a bridge between the CCP, the government, and the people, communicating both the demands of the people and CCP policies.[14]
In 2018, theUnited States Department of Justice directed Xinhua's U.S. branch to register as aforeign agent under theForeign Agents Registration Act.[15][16][17] In 2020, theUnited States Department of State designated Xinhua and other state-owned media outlets as aforeign mission.[18][19] Xinhua registered in the U.S. as a foreign agent in May 2021.[20]
In June 2022, Fu Hua, the formerCCP Committee Secretary ofBeijing Daily, was appointed president of Xinhua.[21] In September 2022, Fu stated, "Xinhua will never depart from the party line, not even for a minute, nor stray from the path laid down byGeneral SecretaryXi Jinping".[22]
By 2021, Xinhua had 181 bureaus globally, publishing news in multiple languages.[23] Xinhua is also responsible for handling, and in some cases, censoring reports from foreign media destined for release in China.[24] In 2010, Xinhua acquired prime commercial real estate onTimes Square inManhattan and started an English-language satellite news network.[25] Xinhua has paid other media outlets such asThe New York Times,The Washington Post, andThe Wall Street Journal to carry itsadvertorial inserts, branded as "China Watch" or "China Focus".[26]
TheCCP's internal media system, in which certain journals (neican) are published exclusively for government and party officials, provides information and analysis which are not available to the public.[27] Xinhua produces reports for these internal journals that contain information that the CCP considers too sensitive for public consumption and can pertain to subjects for security and intelligence purposes.[28]
Xinhua reporters file certain internal reports to CCP leadership from secure rooms in some Chinese embassies.[29] Informed observers note that journalists generally like to write for the internal publications because they can write less polemical and more comprehensive stories without making the omissions of unwelcome details commonly made in the media directed to the general public. The internal reports, written from a large number of countries, typically consist of in-depth analyses of international situations and domestic attitudes towards regional issues and perceptions of China.[30]
The Chinese government's internal media publication system follows a strict hierarchical pattern designed to facilitate party control. A publication calledReference News—which includes translated articles from abroad as well as news and commentary by Xinhua reporters—is delivered by Xinhua personnel, rather than by the national mail system, to officials at the working level and above. A three-to-ten-page report called Internal Reference (Neibu Cankao) is distributed to officials at the ministerial level and higher. One example was the first reports on theSARS outbreak by Xinhua which only government officials were allowed to see.[31] The most classified Xinhua internal reports are issued to the top dozen or so party and government officials.[32]
Xinhua headquarters is located in Beijing, strategically located near Zhongnanhai, which houses the headquarters of the CCP, the General Secretary, and the State Council. Xinhua established its first overseas affiliate in 1947 in London, withSamuel Chinque as publisher. It distributes its news from the publication's overseas headquarters inNew York City, in conjunction with distributing coverage from theUnited Nations bureau, as well as its other hubs in Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.[33]
As of 2024, Xinhua has over 170 overseas bureaus.[34]
Xinhua's branch in Hong Kong was not just a press office, but served as thede facto embassy of the PRC in the territory when it was under British administration. It was named a news agency under the special historic conditions before the 1997handover, because the People's Republic did not recognize British sovereignty over the colony, and could not set up a consulate on what it considered to be its soil.[35][36]: 64 In the early 1980s, the deputy secretary of Xinhua, Wong Man-fong, negotiated with Hong Kong-basedtriads on behalf of the Chinese government to ensure their peace after the handover of Hong Kong.[37]
Despite its unofficial status, the directors of the Xinhua Hong Kong Branch included high-ranking former diplomats such asZhou Nan, former Ambassador to the United Nations and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, who later negotiated theSino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.[38] His predecessor,Xu Jiatun, was also vice-chairman of theHong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, before fleeing to the United States in response to the1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, where he went into exile.[36][39]
It was authorized by thespecial administrative region government to continue to represent the central government after 1997, and it was renamed "TheLiaison Office of theCentral People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR" on 18 January 2000, retaining branch chiefJiang Enzhu as inaugural director.[40]
Xinhua opened its Middle East Regional Bureau inCairo, Egypt in 1985.[41]
Xinhua has a department in Portuguese since 2004. In 2016, they had 14 employees and launched a new portal.[42]
In 2015, Xinhua and other Chinese state media outlets signed cooperation and content-sharing agreements with Russian state media outlets.[43][44]
In November 2018, Xinhua News Agency and theAssociated Press (AP) of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation. Some lawmakers in the US congress asked the AP to release the text of its memorandum of understanding with Xinhua. In response, AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton toldTheWashington Post that AP's agreement with Xinhua is to allow it to operate inside China and has no bearing on AP's independence, and that Xinhua has no access to AP's sensitive information and no influence over AP's editorial decisions.[45]
In December 2022, journalistJoshua Kurlantzick said that Xinhua has had more success than other Chinese state media outlets such asChina Global Television Network andChina Radio International in acting as a part of China's media offensive, with Xinhua having signed content sharing agreements with many news agencies around the world.[23] He noted that "unlike with, say, a television station that a viewer has to actively turn on, and probably knows the channel, most print or online readers do not check the bylines of news articles—making it easier for Xinhua copy to slip through to readers."[23] He also noted: "In developing countries, Xinhua is increasingly stepping into the void left by other news wires like the Associated Press, because Xinhua content is free or cheap", and warned about Xinhua content being used by local news outlets in countries such asThailand, saying: "Readers don't really notice where it comes from. That's going to skew the views of the general reading public, and that's quite dangerous."[46]
In 2018, Xinhua, in partnership withTencent's subsidiarySogou, launched its firstartificial intelligence-generated news anchor.[47][48][49]
In 2005,Reporters Without Borders called Xinhua "The World's Biggest Propaganda Machine", pointing out that Xinhua's president held the rank of a minister in the government. The report stated that the news agency was "at the heart of censorship and disinformation put in place" by the government.[5][50]
In a 2007 interview withThe Times of India, then Xinhua presidentTian Congming affirmed the problem of "historical setbacks and popular perceptions" with respect to Xinhua's credibility.[51]Newsweek criticized Xinhua as "being best known for its blind spots" regarding controversial news in China, although the article acknowledges that "Xinhua's spin diminishes when the news doesn't involve China".[52]
During the2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Xinhua was slow to release reports of the incident to the public. However, its reporting in the aftermath of the2008 Sichuan earthquake was seen as more transparent and credible as Xinhua journalists operated more freely.[53][54]
Xinhua has criticized perceived foreign media bias and inaccurate reporting, citing an incident during the2008 Tibetan unrest when media outlets used scenes ofNepalese police arresting Tibetan protesters as evidence of Chinese state brutality[55] with commentary fromCNN'sJack Cafferty calling China's leaders "goons and thugs". CNN later apologized for the comments.[56]
During theMay 68 events in France, Xinhua and PRC embassy press office staff were reported to exploit civil unrest to undertakeindustrial espionage at French factories.[36]
Xinhua staff struggled to find the "right line" to use in covering the1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Although more cautious thanPeople's Daily in its treatment of sensitive topics during that period – such as how to commemorate reformist CCP leaderHu Yaobang's April 1989 death and then ongoing demonstrations in Beijing and elsewhere – Xinhua gave some favorable coverage to demonstrators and intellectuals supportive of the movement. Conflict between journalists and top editors over the censorship of stories about the Tiananmen Square crackdown lasted for several days after the military's dispersal of demonstrators on 4 June, with some journalists going on strike and demonstrating inside the agency's Beijing headquarters. Government oversight of the media increased after the protests – top editors at the agency's bureaus in Hong Kong andMacau were replaced with appointees who werepro-Beijing.[57]
In 2012, Xinhua'sOttawa correspondentMark Bourrie resigned after Ottawa bureau chief Zhang Dacheng allegedly requested him to report on theDalai Lama for Xinhua'sinternal media, which Bourrie felt amounted to gathering intelligence for China.[58][59][60] Zhang denied the allegation, telling theCanadian Press that Xinhua's policy is to "cover public events by public means" and his bureau's job is to cover news events and file the stories to Xinhua's editing rooms, who would then decide which stories would be published.[61] Bourrie, who had a press pass providing him access to the Parliament of Canada, had previously tried to consult theCanadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2009 on the matter of writing for Xinhua, but was ignored by CSIS.[62]
During the2017 China–India border standoff, Xinhua's English-languagenew media programThe Spark released asatirical video named the "Seven Sins ofIndia" on 16 August 2017, in which presenter Di'er Wang spoke of Indians having "thick skin" and "pretending to sleep" on the matter of the border dispute. Wang stated that India was physically threateningBhutan, and compared India to a "robber who breaks into a house and does not leave". An actor in the video portraying "India" with aturban,beard and accent sparked allegations ofracism andanti-Indian sentiment.[63] The video was criticized on Twitter and by Indian and Western media.[64][65]
In January 2018,The New York Times published an investigative report on social media promotions, alleging that the US-based companyDevumi was providing "Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online." The article alleged an unnamed Xinhua editor bought "hundreds of thousands of followers and retweets on Twitter".[66]
In 2019, Xinhua was criticized for perceived bias in its portrayal of the2019–20 Hong Kong protests as violent and illegitimate, which led Twitter to ban it and other state-sponsored media outlets from ad purchases.[8][67]
In 2020, Xinhua was one of several Chinese state media agencies reported to have been disseminating propaganda, targeted advertisements and social media posts, and news that showed the Chinese government in a better light.[68][7][69][70]
In 2022, journalist Joshua Kurlantzick noted that Xinhua's coverage of the pandemic, while being "sometimes factual and on the face of it little different in style from other newswires, often downplayed the threat of the virus within China and to other countries", and that it frequently highlighted the efforts of doctors and citizens in combating the virus, while ignoring the ways China had initially covered up the signs of an outbreak and Chinese citizens' growing anger at the government's response.[71]
In 2012, Xinhua launched aUyghur language website.[72] In 2021, Xinhua published a "fact check" following the publication of aBBC News report on the situation in Xinjiang which, according toThe Diplomat, "included an attempt to directly refute the testimony of one witness quoted in the BBC report. (Notably, Xinhua's fact check did not address the bulk of the testimony from other survivors.)"[73]
During theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Xinhua and other Chinese state media outlets paid for digital ads onFacebook supporting pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda, including dissemination of theUkraine bioweapons conspiracy theory, afterMeta Platforms banned Russian state media advertisement buys.[74][75][76][77]
During the2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, Xinhua published an altered image of a TaiwaneseChi Yang-class frigate near the coast ofHualien County appearing to be aPeople's Liberation Army Navy vessel. The TaiwaneseMinistry of National Defense labelled the image as disinformation.[78][79][80]
Wong Man-fong, the former deputy secretary-general of Xinhua, China's news agency in Hong Kong (which reputedly acts as a de facto embassy), admitted it during a forum at Hong Kong's Baptist University. Wong said that in the early 1980s, at Beijing's behest, he "befriended" Hong Kong's triad bosses and made them an offer they could not refuse: China would turn a blind eye to their illegal activities if they would promise to keep peace after the handover.
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