People's Daily

The ''People's Daily'' ( zh, s=人民日报, p=Rénmín Rìbào) is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP in multiple languages. It is the largest newspaper in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

History

The paper was established on 15 June 1948 and was published in Pingshan County, Hebei. It was formed from the merger of the ''Jin-Cha-Ji Daily'' and the newspapers of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu base area. On 15 March 1949, its office was moved to Beijing, and the original People's Daily Beijing edition was renamed ''Beijing Liberation Daily''. The newspaper ceased publication on 31 July 1949, with a total of 406 issues published. Since the newspaper was the official newspaper of the North China Central Bureau of the CCP, it was historically known as the ''North China People's Daily'' or the ''People's Daily North China Edition''. At the same time, in order to indicate that the newspaper was published in Pingshan County, Hebei, it was also called the ''People's Daily Pingshan Edition''. On 1 August 1949, the ''People's Daily'' was officially changed from the official newspaper of the North China Bureau of the CCP to the official newspaper of the CCP Central Committee.

Ever since its founding, the ''People's Daily'' has been under direct control of the CCP's top leadership. Deng Tuo and Wu Lengxi served as editor-in-chief from 1948 to 1958 and 1958–1966, respectively, but the paper was in fact controlled by Mao Zedong's personal secretary Hu Qiaomu.

At the start of the Cultural Revolution, many news media executives were overthrown, and Wu Lengxi replaced Deng Tuo as editor-in-chief. Faced with the ever-changing political situation, the ''People's Daily'' was still at a loss as to what to do. On the afternoon of 31 May 1966, Chen Boda led a working group to "carry out a small coup" at the ''People's Daily,'' seizing power from Wu Lengxi and the editorial board. Afterwards, the ''People's Daily'' and '' Red Flag'' were led by a working group headed by Chen Boda, the head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. On 1 June, the ''People's Daily'' printed an editorial called '' Sweep Away All Cow Demons and Snake Spirits'', seeking support for the Cultural Revolution and the moving against "rightist". During this period, the two papers and the '' People's Liberation Army Daily'' became part of what was known as the Two Newspapers and One Journal, becoming three most influential media during the Cultural Revolution.

During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the ''People's Daily'' editorial of 26 April, which condemned "unlawful parades and demonstrations," marked a significant moment in the newspaper's history. The editorial increased tension between the government and protesters, and top CCP leaders argued about whether to revise it. An article that compiles the most important editorials was released by the ''People's Daily'' during the student movement.

An analysis of the wording of all the issues of the ''People's Daily'' from 1995 to 2000 was used in the writing of '' The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms''. In March 2018, ''People's Daily'' won the Third National Top 100 Newspapers in China.

Content

The ''People's Daily'' is published by the People's Daily Press, a ministerial-level institution. The agency is also responsible for the publication of the nationalist tabloid '' Global Times.'' The newspaper is published worldwide in four editions:

* Mainland China Edition: Mainly for readers in mainland China
* Hong Kong Edition: Mainly for readers in Hong Kong
* Overseas Edition: Mainly for readers outside mainland China and Hong Kong
* Tibetan version: mainly for Tibetan readers in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu and other provinces of China.

The Mainland Edition is the domestic edition, and the name of the edition is not clearly stated. The Mainland Edition initially had 4 pages, and later developed to 24 pages from Monday to Friday, 12 pages on Saturday and Sunday, and 8 pages on holidays. From 2019, it started to have 20 pages on weekdays and 8 pages on weekends and holidays, and have been printed in full color. In addition, the People's Daily Publishing House issues reduced-print bound volumes of the ''People's Daily'', one volume every half month, 24 volumes per year, and the content and layout are basically the same as the original newspaper.

The ''People's Daily'' maintains a unit called People's Data that conducts overseas social media data collection and analysis for police, judicial authorities, CCP organizations. People's Data also has data sharing agreements in place with various companies such as DiDi and Temu's parent company Pinduoduo. In 2022, the ''People's Daily'' launched a commercial software service called ''Renmin Shenjiao'' (People's Proofreader) that provides outsourced content censorship. The ''People's Daily'' also provides artificial intelligence companies in China with training data that CCP leaders consider permissible. In 2024, the ''People's Daily'' released a large language model-based tool called Easy Write.

Overseas edition

The overseas edition of the People's Daily was first published on 1 July 1985, and was originally published in traditional Chinese characters. After 1 July 1992, it was changed to simplified Chinese characters. It currently has about three to four million regular readers worldwide. When it was first published, its layout was inspired by Western newspapers and periodicals, using a variety of font sizes. Soong May-ling, a Kuomintang elder living in the United States at the time and Chiang Kai-shek's widow, said that its layout was better than that of its main competitor, the Kuomintang's party newspaper in Taiwan, the aviation edition of the Central Daily News. Haiwainet is the website of the overseas edition of the ''People's Daily''. In February 2014, the People's Daily Overseas Edition launched the WeChat public account “XiaKeDao”. The People's Daily Overseas Edition and its subsidiary Overseas Network also collaborated to launch the commentary columns “Study Group” and “Hong Kong and Taiwan Tone”.

Internet

The ''People's Daily'' also maintains a multilingual internet presence; and established the People's Daily Online in 1997. The website of ''People's Daily'' includes content in Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese and English. In comparison to the original Chinese version, the foreign-language version offers less in-depth discussion of domestic policies and affairs and more editorials about China's foreign policies and motives. The ''People's Daily'' in recent years has been expanding on overseas social media platforms. It has millions of followers on its Facebook page and its accounts on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. An unusually high proportion of its followers are virtually inactive and are likely to be fake users, according to a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The ''People's Daily'' also maintains agreements with foreign newspapers to republish its content.

Editorial style

The newspaper is the official "mouthpiece" () of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It is often viewed as most representative of the mainstream perspective of China's government and the CCP leadership's priorities.

A large number of articles devoted to a political figure, idea, or geographic focus is often taken as a sign that the mentioned official or subject is rising. Editorials in the ''People's Daily'' are regarded both by foreign observers and Chinese readers as authoritative statements of official government policy. Distinction is made between editorials, commentaries, and opinions. Although all must be government approved, they differ sharply on the amount of official authoritativeness they contain by design – from the top. For example, although an opinion piece is unlikely to contain views opposed to those of the government, it may express a viewpoint, or it may contain a debate that is under consideration and reflect only the opinions of the writer: an editorial trial balloon to assess internal public opinion. By contrast, an official editorial, which is rather infrequent, means that the government has reached a final decision on an issue.

Writing practices

The ''People's Daily'' employs "writing task groups" ( zh, s=写作小组, p=xiězuò xiǎozǔ) of various staff to compose editorial pieces to signal the significance of certain pieces or their relationship to the official views of the CCP. These groups are published under "signatures" (i.e., pen names: 署名 ''shǔmíng'') that may correspond with the topic and weight of a piece, and what specific government or CCP body is backing it, often with homophonous references to their purpose.

Reactions

During the AIDS epidemic, the ''People's Daily'' downplayed the epidemic domestically while "presenting AIDS as a relatively innocuous social problem for the country."

A 2013 study of the ''People's Daily'' coverage of the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak reported that it "regurgitated triumph and optimism" and framed the outbreak as an "opportunity to showcase China's scientific achievements, and the strength of national spirits, as well as the wise leadership of the party and effective measures to protect the lives of ordinary citizens."

In February 2020, the ''People's Daily'' published an article stating that the novel coronavirus "did not necessarily originate in China." In March 2020, the online insert of the ''People's Daily'', distributed by ''The Daily Telegraph'', published an article stating that Traditional Chinese medicine "helps fight coronavirus." In May 2020, the ''People's Daily'' stated that the novel coronavirus had "multiple origins." In November 2020, the ''People's Daily'' published a claim that COVID-19 was "imported" into China. In January 2021, the ''People's Daily'' inaccurately attributed deaths in Norway to the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

In 2020, the United States Department of State designated the ''People's Daily'' a foreign mission, thereby requiring it to disclose more information about its operations in the U.S.

In 2021, ProPublica and ''The New York Times'' reported that the ''People's Daily'' was part of a coordinated state propaganda campaign to deny human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

In 2023, the ''People's Daily'' sparked a backlash on Chinese social media for exhorting citizens to not complain about their own poverty or boredom.

See also

* Mass media in China
* Xinhua News Agency
* China Media Group
* ''Xinwen Lianbo'', the news program of China Central Television
* China News Service
* '' Qiushi''
* '' Reference News''
* '' Rodong Sinmun'', North Korean counterpart
* Strengthening Nation Forum
* Yang Gang, deputy chief editor who committed suicide during the Anti-Rightist Campaign

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

Chinese-language newspapers (Simplified Chinese)
Communism in China
Chinese Communist Party newspapers
Multilingual news services
Newspapers published in Beijing
Newspapers established in 1948
1948 establishments in China
Daily newspapers published in China
Chinese propaganda organisations
National Top 100 Publications
Propaganda newspapers and magazines