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.[26] 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.[27] The paper was a departure from other Chinese newspapers at the time: it was "a Western-style paper", in content, style, and organizational structure.[27] By July 1982, the newspaper had plans to publish editions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and tentatively Australia.[27] Initially, it struggled to find English-speaking journalists.[27]
China Daily began distribution in North America in 1983. It has been registered as a foreign agent in the United States under the Foreign Agents Registration Act since 1983.
China Daily introduced an online edition in 1996 and a Hong Kong edition in 1997.[28] By 2006, it had a reported circulation of 300,000, of which two thirds were in China and one third international.[26] In 2010, it launched China Daily Asia Weekly, a tabloid-sized pan-Asian edition.[28]
In December 2012, China Daily launched an Africa edition, published in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.[29][30] This edition aimed expand the China Daily readership, of both African people and Chinese people who live in Africa, and showcase China's interests in Africa.[30]
In 2015, China Daily published a fake op-ed which the publication 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.[31] The fabricated op-ed contained made up praise for China and misrepresented Hessler's own words by taking them out of context.[32][33] According to the Associated Press, 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.[34]
In 2018, the paper fabricated a quote by the mayor of Davos, Switzerland, Tarzisius Caviezel.[35]
A January 2020 report by Freedom House, a U.S. non-governmental organization, noted that China Daily had increased its spending from $500,000 in the first half of 2009 to over $5 million in the latter half of 2019 for increased print runs.[36] China Daily said it had a circulation of 300,000 in the U.S. and 600,000 overseas.[37]
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.[38] 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.[39][40][41][42]
In June 2020, China Daily awarded a tender for a "foreign personnel analysis platform" to the Communication University of China to scan social media and automatically flag "false statements and reports on China."[43]
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.[44] In September 2023, the US Department of State accused the Chinese government of information laundering by using a fictitious opinion columnist named "Yi Fan" writing in China Daily and other outlets to present state narratives as "organic sentiment".[45][46][47]
In January 2024, China Daily and the Yunnan International Communication Center (ICC), a project of the propaganda department of the Yunnan provincial CCP committee, jointly launched the South and Southeast Asian Media Network.[48] China Daily has continued to partner with other provincial ICCs established by provincial CCP propaganda departments.[49] The publication has also formed partnerships with Renmin University of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shandong University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
In March 2025, U.S. congressional Republicans banned the distribution of China Daily on Capitol Hill.[50] The same month in the UK, members of Parliament requested a review of free delivery of China Daily to legislators.[51] In August 2025, the propaganda department of the Shaanxi provincial CCP committee signed a cooperation agreement with China Daily.[52]
