China News Service (CNS; ) is the second largest

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, after

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 ...

. China News Service was formerly run by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which was absorbed into the

United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with " united front work". It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over ...

of the Central Committee of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP) in 2018. Its operations have traditionally been directed at

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

worldwide and residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

History

CNS was established in 1952 as a successor to the CCP's International News Agency. It has news offices and stations in every province in mainland China, as well as in Hong Kong and Macau. CNS also has news offices in foreign countries, including the United States, Japan, France, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. According to 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 ...

, CNS is "the CCP's main propaganda organ targeting overseas Chinese." In 1990, CNS personnel were dispatched to the U.S. to found SinoVision and '' The China Press'' to counter negative perceptions of the

Chinese government The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

following 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 ...

. Since 2001, CNS has held a biannual Global Chinese Language Media Forum in China (also known as World Chinese Language Media Forum), a large global summit of Chinese media leaders. In 2007, CNS established the China News Service Overseas Center, which provides news reports, editorials, and layout for overseas Chinese media outlets. In 2009, CNS established the Global Chinese Media Cooperative Union (GCMCU), which redistributes CNS and other Chinese state media content to other Chinese-language media outlets. In Europe, newspapers and outlets such as ''Nouvelles d’Europe'' in France, ''Cine in Italia'' in Italy, ''Ouhua News'' in Spain, the ''Prague Chinese Times'' in the Czech Republic, and ''EurAsia Info'' in Switzerland carry CNS content. In 2014, CNS published an editorial which derided outgoing American ambassador to China

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat from the State of Washington. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first Chinese-American governor ...

. The editorial was widely criticized both within China and internationally for referring to the

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

ambassador as a

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

which was interpreted as a racial slur. The article also mocked his Mandarin Chinese abilities and said that his ancestors would disown him if they knew about his loyalties. In 2017, a former editor-in-chief and

Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

of CNS until February 2015, Liu Beixian, was charged with taking bribes during the

anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping A far-reaching anti-corruption campaign began in China following the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012. The campaign, carried out under the aegis of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CCP, ...

and expelled from the CCP. In 2018, CNS became part of the

(UFWD) when its host organization, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, was folded into the UFWD. The same year, a deputy head of the UFWD stated that " an important propaganda unit of the United Front, CNS must adhere to the concept of ‘newspapers run by politicians’ and thoroughly carry out political awareness work. CNS's important mission is to do good united front propaganda work within Overseas Chinese affairs." In 2019, CNS began a campaign to increase its influence on overseas social media. According to NPR and the

Australian Strategic Policy Institute The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is a defence and strategic policy think tank based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, founded by the Australian government, and funded by the Australian Department of Defence along with o ...

, CNS was involved in targeted

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

campaigns during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. That year, CNS released a public tender to increase its

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

followers. According to a 2020 investigation by

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...

, CNS hired a third-party firm to create fake Twitter accounts to spread

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

and disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

designated China News Service, along with other Chinese

state media State media are typically understood as media outlets that are owned, operated, or significantly influenced by the government. They are distinguished from public service media, which are designed to serve the public interest, operate independent ...

outlets, as a foreign mission. During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, CNS repeated unsubstantiated Russian state media claims that the Bucha massacre was staged. In 2023, cybersecurity researchers found that CNS had established

sock puppet account A sock puppet, sock puppet account, or simply sock is a false online identity used for deceptive purposes. The term originally referred to a sock puppet, hand puppet made from a sock. Sock puppets include online identities created to praise, ...

s on Twitter for influence operations in Latin America.

Activities

Film and television production

During the early stages of CNS's establishment, a film team was created under Liao Chengzhi's guidance, led by Wu Jiang and others. From the 1950s onwards, numerous documentaries and operas, including "North and South of Taishan", "Heroes of Qilu", "Sisters Get Married Easily" and "The Pearl Pagoda", were produced and distributed in Hong Kong, Macau and overseas. In 1979, CNS's business departments underwent reconstruction. Following Liao Chengzhi's instruction to revive the agency's film work, a team of professionals from Beijing film production institutions were transferred by the agency's leadership to expand the film team into a dedicated department. This led to the establishment of the "Nanhai Film Company", with Wu Jiang as its chairman. In 1981, CNS produced its inaugural feature film, ''The Wilderness'', under the banner of "Nanhai Film Company." Beginning with the film '' The Savage Land'', the Film Department of the China News Agency (expanded to become the Film and Video Department in 1985) has since produced feature films and film documentaries, starring actors such as Liu Xiaoqing, Chen Baoguo, Pu Cunxin, Jiang Wen, and Ge You. The Department of Film Sound and Video has also worked with professionals from

Changchun Film Studio Changchun Film Studio Group Corporation () is a Chinese film production company in Changchun. It is one of the studios transitioned from the 1940s, and has been considered one of the cornerstones of the Cinema of China, Chinese film industry. E ...

, Beijing Film Studio and

Shanghai Film Studio The Shanghai Film Studio (), one of the three biggest film studios in China, is the film division of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation in Shanghai, China. It is responsible for the production of Chinese films and TV programs. History Shangh ...

Video

In April 2007, CNS officially released a television news release called "China News Video". In October 2007, CNS and Sina Corporation signed a strategic cooperation agreement, and "China News Video" debuted on Sina. In July 2010, CNS adjusted the business of its Film and Television Department and set up a new Video News Department, positioning video news as the "third channel news", and using China News Service website as the basic communication platform to promote video interviews, and launching a column called "Focus on Net Affairs". Since its establishment in 2010, the department has been involved in the coverage of major events such as the " Two Sessions", the

2010 Yushu earthquake The 2010 Yushu earthquake struck on April 14 and registered a magnitude of 6.9 Mw (USGS, EMSC) or 7.1 MsExpo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the ...

, the

2010 Gansu mudslide The 2010 Gansu mudslide was a deadly mudslide in Zhouqu County, Gansu Province, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China that occurred at midnight on 8 August 2010. The floods were triggered after decades of clearcutting, clear cut logging p ...

, the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

, and the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Publications

CNS publishes China Newsweek, Fengya and World Chinese Media Yearbook in China, and China Digest (monthly) in Hong Kong, and runs the Hong Kong China News Press.

Affiliates

CNS controls the ''Chinese New Zealand Herald'', which is co-owned by

New Zealand Media and Entertainment New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the merger of APN New Zealand (a division of Here, There & Everywhere (company), APN News & Media), ...

Notable employees

The past presidents and editors-in-chief of China News Service are as follows: ;President or director # (December 1952-January 1969) # (February 2000 - February 2007) #Guo Zhaojin (郭招金) (February 2007-March 2009) #Liu Beixian () (March 2009 - 5 February 2015) #Zhang Xinxin (章新新) (February 6, 2015 - November 7, 2019) #Chen Lujun（陈陆军）(November 8, 2019─) ; Editor-in-chief #Liu Beixian () (February 2007 - March 2009) #Zhang Xinxin (章新新) (March 2009 - February 2015) #Wang Xiaohui (王晓晖) (March 2015—)

Commentary

According to scholars Filip Jirouš and Petra Ševčíková, "CNS's activity lies at the symbiotic intersection of

and

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

work." They state that such a symbiosis helps the CCP to shape the "information landscape" to better serve the party's policy goals.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mass media companies established in 1952 1952 establishments in China Mass media in China News agencies based in China Communist propaganda Propaganda in China Chinese propaganda organisations Organizations associated with the Chinese Communist Party Information operations units and formations State media Conspiracist media United front (China) United Front Work Department