The story
Founded by Chinese Communist Party in 1931.1
History
The predecessor to Xinhua was the Red China News Agency (紅色中華通訊社; Hóngsè Zhōnghuá Tōngxùnshè), founded in November 1931 in Communist-controlled Ruijin, Jiangxi Province. It mostly republished news from its rival Central News Agency (CNA) for party and army officials. It was renamed the New China News Agency in November 1935 at the end of the Long March, in which the Chinese Red Army retreated from Jiangxi to Shaanxi. By the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Xinhua's Reference News translated CNA news from the Kuomintang, and also international news from agencies like TASS and Havas. Xinhua first started using letterpress printing in 1940.
During the Pacific War, the agency developed overseas broadcasting capabilities and established its first overseas branches. It began broadcasting to foreign countries in English in 1944. In 1949, Xinhua followed a subscription model instead of its previous limited distribution model. In the direct aftermath of the Chinese Civil War, the agency represented the People's Republic of China in countries and territories with which it had no diplomatic representation, such as British Hong Kong. In 1956, Xinhua began reporting on anti-Marxist and other opinions critical of the CCP. In 1957, Xinhua switched from a journal format to a newspaper format.
The agency was described by media scholars as the "eyes and tongue" of the CCP, observing what is important for the masses and passing on the information. A former Xinhua director, Zheng Tao, noted that the agency was a bridge between the CCP, the government, and the people, communicating both the demands of the people and CCP policies.
In 2018, the United States Department of Justice directed Xinhua's U.S. branch to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In 2020, the United States Department of State designated Xinhua and other state-owned media outlets as a foreign mission. Xinhua registered in the U.S. as a foreign agent in May 2021.
In June 2022, Fu Hua, a member of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and former CCP committee secretary of Beijing Daily, was appointed president of Xinhua. In September 2022, Fu stated, "Xinhua will never depart from the party line, not even for a minute, nor stray from the path laid down by General Secretary Xi Jinping".
Political bias, censorship, and disinformation
In 2005, Reporters Without Borders called Xinhua "The World's Biggest Propaganda Machine", pointing out that Xinhua's president held the rank of a minister in the government. The report stated that the news agency was "at the heart of censorship and disinformation put in place" by the government.
In 2002, four Xinhua reporters were found to have accepted hush money to censor a story about a mine explosion that killed 37 workers. In a 2007 interview with The Times of India, then Xinhua president Tian Congming affirmed the problem of "historical setbacks and popular perceptions" with respect to Xinhua's credibility. Newsweek criticized Xinhua as "being best known for its blind spots" regarding controversial news in China, although the article acknowledges that "Xinhua's spin diminishes when the news doesn't involve China".
During the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Xinhua was slow to release reports of the incident to the public. However, its reporting in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake was seen as more transparent and credible as Xinhua journalists operated more freely.
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Xinhua has criticized perceived foreign media bias and inaccurate reporting, citing an incident during the 2008 Tibetan unrest when media outlets used scenes of Nepalese police arresting Tibetan protesters as evidence of Chinese state brutality with commentary from CNN's Jack Cafferty calling China's leaders "goons and thugs". CNN later apologized for the comments.
Historical events
1968 industrial espionage allegations
During the May 68 events in France, Xinhua and the PRC embassy press office staff were reported to exploit civil unrest to undertake industrial espionage at French factories.
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
Xinhua staff struggled to find the "right line" to use in covering the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Although more cautious than People's Daily in its treatment of sensitive topics during that period – such as how to commemorate reformist CCP leader Hu Yaobang's April 1989 death and then ongoing demonstrations in Beijing and elsewhere – Xinhua gave some favorable coverage to demonstrators and intellectuals supportive of the movement. Conflict between journalists and top editors over the censorship of stories about the Tiananmen Square crackdown lasted for several days after the military's dispersal of demonstrators on 4 June, with some journalists going on strike and demonstrating inside the agency's Beijing headquarters. Government oversight of the media increased after the protests – top editors at the agency's bureaus in Hong Kong and Macau were replaced with appointees who were pro-Beijing.
2012 Mark Bourrie resignation and espionage allegations
In 2012, Xinhua's Ottawa correspondent Mark Bourrie resigned after Ottawa bureau chief Zhang Dacheng allegedly requested him to report on the Dalai Lama for Xinhua's internal media, which Bourrie felt amounted to gathering intelligence for China. Zhang denied the allegation, telling the Canadian Press that Xinhua's policy is to "cover public events by public means" and that his bureau's job is to cover news events and file the stories to Xinhua's editing rooms, which would then decide which stories would be published. Bourrie, who had a press pass providing him access to the Parliament of Canada, had previously tried to consult the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2009 on the matter of writing for Xinhua, but was ignored by CSIS.
Portrayal of Indians during the 2017 Doklam standoff
During the 2017 China–India border standoff, Xinhua's English-language new media program The Spark released a satirical video named the "Seven Sins of India" on 16 August 2017, in which presenter Di'er Wang spoke of Indians having "thick skin" and "pretending to sleep" on the matter of the border dispute. Wang stated that India was physically threatening Bhutan, and compared India to a "robber who breaks into a house and does not leave". An actor in the video portraying "India" with a turban, beard and accent sparked allegations of racism and anti-Indian sentiment. The video was criticized on Twitter and by Indian and Western media.
2018 Devumi allegations
In January 2018, The New York Times published an investigative report on social media promotions, alleging that the US-based company Devumi was providing "Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online." The article alleged that an unnamed Xinhua editor bought "hundreds of thousands of followers and retweets on Twitter".
2019 Hong Kong protests
In 2019, Xinhua was criticized for perceived bias in its portrayal of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests as violent and illegitimate, which led Twitter to ban it and other state-sponsored media outlets from ad purchases.
COVID-19 pandemic
In 2020, Xinhua was one of several Chinese state media agencies reported to have been disseminating propaganda, targeted advertisements and social media posts, and news that showed the Chinese government in a better light.
In 2022, journalist Joshua Kurlantzick noted that Xinhua's coverage of the pandemic, while being "sometimes factual and on the face of it little different in style from other newswires, often downplayed the threat of the virus within China and to other countries", and that it frequently highlighted the efforts of doctors and citizens in combating the virus, while ignoring the ways China had initially covered up the signs of an outbreak and Chinese citizens' growing anger at the government's response.
Uyghurs
In 2012, Xinhua launched a Uyghur language website. In 2021, Xinhua published a "fact check" following the publication of a BBC News report on the situation in Xinjiang, which, according to The Diplomat, "included an attempt to directly refute the testimony of one witness quoted in the BBC report. (Notably, Xinhua's fact check did not address the bulk of the testimony from other survivors.)"
Russian invasion of Ukraine
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Xinhua and other Chinese state media outlets paid for digital ads on Facebook supporting pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda, including the dissemination of the Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory, after Meta Platforms banned Russian state media advertisement buys.
2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan
During the 2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, Xinhua published an altered image of a Taiwanese Chi Yang-class frigate near the coast of Hualien County, appearing to be a People's Liberation Army Navy vessel. The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense labelled the image as disinformation.
2025 India–Pakistan conflict
Following the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict, the Twitter accounts of Xinhua and Global Times were blocked in India after both continuously published Pakistani claims of Indian military losses during the conflict. While the block on the Twitter account of Global Times was lifted on the same day it was imposed, Xinhua's account continues to remain blocked in India.
From Wikipedia’s article on Xinhua News Agency, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3