The main page of the People’s Daily website.
People’s Daily ???? is the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, and is the most influential and authoritative newspaper in China to represent the voice of the Chinese central government. With a combined domestic and international circulation of over 3 million, it is ranked among the top ten largest newspapers in the world by UNESCO.
Beginning publication in 1948 in Pingshan, Hebei Province, as the newspaper of a regional branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People’s Daily is the official newspaper of the CCP’s Central Committee. In March 1949 the People’s Daily moved from its Hebei location to Beijing as the People’s Liberation Army entered the city in preparation for the founding of the People’s Republic of China; it was named the official party paper in August 1949.
The People’s Daily is the most influential and authoritative newspaper in China, representing the voice of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government. It has a combined domestic and international circulation of over 3 million. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it ranks among the world’s ten largest newspapers in circulation. The People’s Daily has thirty-six correspondent branches in China and thirty-two foreign correspondent bureaus.
The People’s Daily carries the latest news about policies, resolutions, and viewpoints of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government. It also offers comprehensive coverage of major domestic and international news.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) the People’s Daily was one of the few sources of information from which either Chinese or foreigners could learn what the Chinese government was doing. During that period an editorial in the People’s Daily was considered a powerful statement of government policy. The People’s Daily is still the chief information source of the Chinese Communist Party, but editorials in the People’s Daily are only regarded as fairly authoritative statements of government policies. Although all editorials, commentaries, and other opinions published in the People’s Daily must be government approved, they differ sharply in the amount of official authoritativeness they contain.
The People’s Daily has three editions: Mainland Edition for readers in mainland China; Hong Kong Edition for Hong Kong readers; and Overseas Edition for readers outside the first two areas. Unlike the other two editions, the Mainland Edition does not announce that it is specifically geared for mainland readers. The Hong Kong Edition has much more content, whereas the Mainland Edition content is restricted from including party-sensitive subjects.
Since the mid-1990s the People’s Daily has faced a decline of government subsidies and has been challenged as well by increased competition from international news sources, smaller Chinese newspapers, tabloids, and online news outlets. As part of its effort to modernize, in 1997 it began an online edition at its website (www.people.com.cn) and has expanded its content in language editions of simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. The web content, such as that appearing in the Strong Nation Forum in the Chinese edition, has been more candid than that of the paper’s printed editions.
Published under the People’s Daily are several other publications, such as East China News, South China News, Market Daily, International Financial Daily, Jiangnan Times, Global Times, Securities Times, Health Times, Satire and Humor, and monthly magazines, including The Earth, News Front, Listed Companies, Times Trend, and People Forum.
Further Reading
China journalism yearbook: 2006. (2006). Beijing, China Journalism Yearbook Publishing House.
China journalism yearbook: 2007. (2007). Beijing: China Journalism Yearbook Publishing House.
50 years of new China’s media. (2000). Beijing: China Journalism Yearbook Publishing House.
People’s Daily Online. (2008). Retrieved May 16, 2008, from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/
Source: Yu, Xuejian. (2009). People’s Daily. In Linsun Cheng, et al. (Eds.), In Linsun Cheng, et al. (Eds.), Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, pp. 1745–1746. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.
People’s Daily (Rénmín rìbào ????)|Rénmín rìbào ???? (People’s Daily)
