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

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

's oldest Chinese language newspapers. 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 i ...

, of which Kwok Ying-shing () is chairman. Its English-language sister is the

free newspaper Free newspapers are distributed Gratis versus libre, free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. T ...

'' 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. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', a

Torstar Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes news. It is known for publishing the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake. Torstar was purchased by NordStar Capital LP, which is currently owned by Jordan Bi ...

Corporation company.

History

HK Sheung Wan Sing Tao Daily News Rumsey Street 2a

Sing Tao Daily is the oldest

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

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 A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...

for China's Ministry of State Security according to Alex Joske. Until 2002, the parent company of ''Sing Tao Daily'' was Sing Tao Holdings; since then it has been

. In June 2021, a real estate developer's daughter from mainland China purchased a majority stake in the company. In August 2021, the U.S. branch of ''Sing Tao Daily'' started to register as a

foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the Diplomatic immunity, protections offered to those working in their official capacity fo ...

under the

Foreign Agents Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ( ''et seq.'') is a United States law that imposes Public disclosure of private facts, public disclosure obligations on Foreign agent, persons representing foreign interests.

(FARA) at the order of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. The company said the incident involved libel and it would seek legal actions.

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) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

and

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was under British Empire, British rule from 1841 to 1997, except for a Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. It was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 ...

government; and once Hong Kong was transferred and turned into a special administrative region, the paper turned its support to the Beijing government. Sing Tao’s reporting on China now aligns with that of state-run media from Beijing.

Reports of Chinese Communist Party influence

A 2001 article by the

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

claimed that two of ''Sing Tao'''s owners were members of

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

and one editor had previously worked for ''

China Daily ''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...

''. According to a

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...

report, Sing Tao was purchased by a pro-Beijing businessman in May 2001, who soon after partnered with the

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. It is a ...

to establish a joint venture, leading to the formation of an information-service company named Xinhua Online. It is another formerly independent Chinese newspaper that has fallen under Beijing’s control. In 2013, an analyst at

Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...

wrote in a report submitted to the Center for International Media Assistance that in recent decades, ''Sing Tao'''s management and owners began practicing "

self-censorship Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse, typically out of fear or deference to the perceived preferences, sensibilities, or infallibility of others, and often without overt external pressure. Self-censorship is c ...

," "high-risk" contributors were terminated, and journalists left due to an "unpalatable editorial policy." Topics such as the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, human rights in Tibet, and

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

were minimized or avoided.

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 Conservatism in Hong Kong Daily newspapers published in New York City Non-English-language newspapers published in New York (state) Aw family Sing Tao News Corporation Overseas Chinese newspapers

History

Political stance

Reports of Chinese Communist Party influence

See also

References

External links