The ''Sing Tao Daily'' () (also known as ''Sing Tao Jih Pao'') is

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

's oldest and second-largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by

Sing Tao News Corporation Sing Tao News Corporation Limited (Sing Tao) is a Hong Kong media company, incorporated in Bermuda. It was formerly called Global China Group Holdings Limited. History The Group, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, was founded ...

, of which Kwok Ying-shing () is chairman. Its English language sister paper is '' The Standard''. Sing Tao's Toronto edition is partly owned by Star Media Group, the publisher of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', a

Torstar Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes daily and community newspapers. In addition to the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake, Torstar also publishes daily newspapers in Hamilton, Peterborough, Ni ...

Corporation company.

History

HK Sheung Wan Sing Tao Daily News Rumsey Street 2a

Sing Tao Daily is the oldest Chinese-language daily newspaper in Hong Kong, having commenced publication on 1 August 1938.Sing Tao Holdings Ltd Annual Report
2002, Profile of the Group The first overseas edition of the paper was launched in 1963 in San Francisco, where the group’s first overseas office was set up in May 1964. In 1992, ''Sing Tao Daily'', encountering financial difficulties, established a joint publication with the International Culture Publishing Corporation, a front organization for the Ministry of State Security. Until 2002, the parent company of ''Sing Tao Daily'' was

Sing Tao Holdings Sing Tao Holdings Limited was a Bermuda-incorporated company, but headquartered in Hong Kong. The company was listed in The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The company was a media and property conglomerate until it was dismantled in 2002. After s ...

; since then it has been

. In 2021, Sing Tao's U.S.-based subsidiaries registered with the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

as foreign agents under the

Foreign Agents Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)2 U.S.C. § 611 ''et seq.'' is a United States law that imposes public disclosure obligations on persons representing foreign interests.

Political stance

The ''Sing Tao'' has a long pro-government history. Before the handover of Hong Kong to China, it supported the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

and British Hong Kong government; and once Hong Kong was transferred and turned into a special administrative region, the paper turned its support to the Beijing government. Charles Ho, chairman of Sing Tao News Corp Ltd. until June 2021, and his predecessor

Sally Aw Aw Sian also known as Sally Aw, OBE, DStJ, JP, (born 1932) is a Hong Kong businesswoman and daughter of the British Raj Burma-born entrepreneur and newspaper proprietor Aw Boon-haw. Sally Aw was nicknamed ''Tiger Balm Lady'' as well as ''Chi ...

, were both members of the

Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

, a select group of the Chinese Communist Party’s loyal friends and allies.

Chinese Communist Party influence

According to a 2013 report by the US government-funded

Center for International Media Assistance The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) is an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). CIMA works to improve the development of independent media worldwide while working to strengthen the support for such develop ...

, "The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How the Communist Party’s Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World," a number of patterns emerged in recent decades that signalled Sing Tao was under influence or directly controlled by the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

: management and owners began practicing “self-censorship”, “high-risk” contributors were being terminated, and high turnover rates increased as journalists left due to an “unpalatable editorial policy.” Editorial coverage also shifted noticeably since the 1990s, notes the report: * Avoiding or limiting coverage of politically sensitive topics such as 1989 military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters,

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

, and

Taiwanese independence The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations. Currently, Tai ...

. * Shifting critical opinions from front to back pages. * Choosing “

politically correct ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

” rhetoric. * Reducing investigative journalism in favor of soft news or a simple accounting of emerging events. A 2001 report on Chinese media

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

by the

Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which ...

cited Sing Tao as one of four major overseas Chinese newspapers directly or indirectly controlled by Beijing.Duzhe, Mei. China Brief Vol1, Issue 10
"How China's Government is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America"
"Jamestown Foundation." 2001 “Four major Chinese newspapers are found in the U.S.—World Journal, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, and The China Press," reads the report, “Of these four, three are either directly or indirectly controlled by the government of Mainland China, while the fourth (run out of Taiwan) has recently begun bowing to pressure from the Beijing government.” The point of view on the influence of Chinese Communist Party was also stated by another author John Manthorpe in his book '' Claws of the Panda''.

References

External links

* {{Newspapers in Hong Kong Chinese-language newspapers published in Hong Kong Chinese-language newspapers (Traditional Chinese) Chinese-American culture in New York City Chinese-language newspapers published in the United States Daily newspapers published in New York City Non-English-language newspapers published in New York (state) Aw family Sing Tao News Corporation Organizations listed by the United States as foreign agents

History

Political stance

Chinese Communist Party influence

See also

References

External links