Global Times

The Global Times (simplified Chinese: 环球时报; traditional Chinese: 環球時報; pinyin: Huánqiú Shíbào) is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, commenting on international issues from a nationalistic perspective.[1][2][3][4]

Global Times
环球时报
TypeDaily newspaper (Weekdays with a weekend edition)
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)People's Daily
PublisherPeople's Daily
EditorHu Xijin
Founded1993, (Chinese edition)
2009, (English Edition)
Political alignmentChinese Communist Party
LanguageChinese and English
HeadquartersNo.2 Jintai Xilu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100733, People's Republic of China
Circulation1,500,000 (copies printed Mon-Sat), Chinese edition
200,000 (copies printed Mon-Sat), English edition
ISSN2095-2678
Websitewww.globaltimes.cn (English)
www.huanqiu.com (Simplified Chinese)
China
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The newspaper has spread unfounded conspiracy theories and disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic;[5][6][7] it is part of a broader set of Chinese state-run-media outlets forming part of the Chinese government's propaganda apparatus.[8]

History

Established as a Chinese-language weekly publication in 1993, an English-language version was launched on 20 April 2009 as part of a Chinese campaign costing 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) to compete with overseas media.[9][10][11]

While the Chinese-language version strongly focuses on international issues, the English-language version reports more on China's domestic events.

Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of both Chinese and English versions, stated that he expected it to make a loss of 20 million yuan in its first year as an English-language publication.[12]

The English-language version of the newspaper also has launched two local sections, Metro Beijing since September 2009 and Metro Shanghai since April 2010, in the two largest Chinese metropolises, in an effort to provide more information to local readers.[13][14]

The Global Times launched its US edition in 2013.[1] In June 2020, the United States Department of State designated Global Times as a "foreign mission."[15][16]

Editorial stance

The Chinese-language version has been known to have a pro-Communist Party of China slant, attracting a nationalistic readership since its inception in 1993.[12][17][18] When launched in 2009, its editors claimed that the Global Times' English-language version took a less nationalistic stance.[19] The Global Times' editorial stance has been viewed as channeling the views of the hardline faction of top leadership.[20]

In 2016, it was reported that the English-language edition then had approximately 20 "foreign experts" who were involved with assigning stories and copyediting, "as long as the coverage [wa]s not about politics".[21]

Controversies

Astroturfing

According to Richard Burger, a former editor at Global Times, in the wake of the arrest of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese staff of the Global Times were ordered to conduct an "astroturfing" campaign against Ai Weiwei in favour of the Chinese Communist Party's criticism of Ai as a "maverick".[22]

China

In May 2016, the Global Times was criticized by the Cyberspace Administration of China that it was "fabricating" news on the US, the South China Sea, North Korea, and Hong Kong, and "disturbing" the order of the cyberspace.[23]

Hong Kong

In May 2016, the Global Times ran a boycott campaign denigrating Hong Kong pro-democracy singer Denise Ho for allegedly advocating independence for Hong Kong and Tibet.[24][25] On 5 June, Lancôme cancelled a promotional concert by the Cantopop star that was scheduled to be held on 19 June in Sheung Wan.[25] Lancôme also added, in a Facebook post, that Ho was not a spokesperson for the brand.[26] The Tibet allegation appeared to have stemmed from Ho's May 2016 meeting with the Dalai Lama.[25] The cancellation drew a heavy backlash in Hong Kong.[25][24] Some Lancôme shops in Hong Kong were shut down during the protests.[27] Listerine, another brand that Ho represents, retained the singer despite the fact that the Global Times also criticized that company hiring Ho as its public face in Hong Kong.[25]

Xinjiang

In 2019, Global Times was criticized for perceived bias in its coverage and portrayal of Uyghurs and of perceived disinformation campaigns regarding Xinjiang re-education camps, which led Twitter to ban it and other state-sponsored media outlets from ad purchases.[28][29][30][31]

Australia

The Global Times has been strident in its description of Australia as a paper cat in relation to the South China Sea, and a former offshore prison in relation to an Olympic swimmer being identified as a former drug cheat (in reference to the country's former status as a British penal colony).[32][33]

Coronavirus disinformation campaigns

The Global Times has been one of several state-run agencies propagating disinformation related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic through targeted Facebook ads.[7]

See also
  • List of newspapers in the People's Republic of China
  • Media of the People's Republic of China

References
  1. Huang, Zheping (8 August 2016). "Inside the Global Times, China's hawkish, belligerent state tabloid". Quartz. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  2. Jiang, Steven (16 August 2019). "The man taking on Hong Kong from deep inside China's propaganda machine". CNN. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  3. "China's Global Times plays a peculiar role". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  4. Wee, Sui-Lee; Mao, Sabrina (6 January 2012). "China must assert itself despite new US strategy-paper". Beijing. Reuters. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  5. "The photo had circulated online long before Simon Cheng was detained in mainland China". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  6. "Chinese Again Float U.S. Biolab Conspiracy Theories". Polygraph.info. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  7. Dodds, Laurence (5 April 2020). "China floods Facebook with undeclared coronavirus propaganda ads blaming Trump". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  8. Javier C. Hernández (23 May 2020). "China Deploys Propaganda Machine to Defend Move Against Hong Kong". New York Times.
  9. Huang, C. (2016). Conservative popular journalism, public diplomacy, and the search for an alternative Chinese modernity: Revisiting the global times. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4724-4398-4.
  10. "About Us" Archived 22 April 2013[Date mismatch] at the Wayback Machine, Global Times
  11. Sky Canaves, Global Times Breaches China's Official Media Silence on Tiananmen Archived 14 August 2009[Date mismatch] at the Wayback Machine, Wall Street Journal, 4 June 2009
  12. Branigan, Tania (2 April 2009). "China defies media cuts and closures with new newspaper launch". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  13. "404". Archived from the original on 25 June 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  14. "404". Archived from the original on 2 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  15. Wong, Edward (2 June 2020). "U.S. Designates Four More Chinese News Organizations as Foreign Missions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  16. Ruwitch, John; Kelemen, Michele (22 June 2020). "Trump Administration Labels 4 More Chinese News Outlets 'Foreign Missions'". NPR. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  17. Christina, Larson (31 October 2011). "China's Fox News". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011.
  18. “Patriotic” Voices? Comments from the Global Times Online Forum Archived 11 October 2011[Date mismatch] at the Wayback Machine, China Digital Times, 4 May 2008
  19. Richard Burger on being a foreign editor at the Global Times Archived 23 April 2018[Date mismatch] at the Wayback Machine Danwei.org, 8 May 2009
  20. Chen, Frank (11 May 2020). "Rally cry for more Chinese nuclear warheads". Asia Times. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  21. Zheping Huang (9 August 2016). "The Global Times, China's feisty state tabloid, relies on "foreign experts" to sell China to the world". Quartz. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  22. "Foreign Media Insider Exposes Global Times's Managing Editor's Smearing Of Ai Weiwei". Apple Daily. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  23. "中央网信办批《环球时报》、环球网"炒作"敏感事件" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  24. Yuen, Chantal (6 June 2016). "Cosmetic giant cancels pro-democracy singer's concert after boycott threats". Archived from the original on 7 June 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  25. Yeung, Raymond (5 June 2016). "Lancome scraps Hong Kong concert with Denise Ho: online backlash over move to distance itself from pro-democracy star". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  26. "Lancome cancels concert after Chinese online backlash". BBC News. 6 June 2016. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  27. "Denise Ho controversy: protesters march despite Lancome closing Hong Kong stores". South China Morning Post. 8 June 2016. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  28. Gallagher, Ryan (1 August 2019). "Twitter Helped Chinese Government Promote Disinformation on Repression of Uighurs". The Intercept. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  29. "China's social media troll army wages war on Uighurs". The Straits Times. 7 May 2019. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  30. "Official Chinese White Paper Claims Uyghurs, Xinjiang Have Long Been 'Inseparable Part of China'". Radio Free Asia. 23 July 2019. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  31. Mac, Ryan (20 August 2019). "Chinese Media Is Running Facebook Ads To Convince Westerners The Country's Detention Centers Aren't Human Rights Violations". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  32. "China warns Australia must 'cautiously behave' over South China Sea". 1 August 2016. Archived from the original on 30 May 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  33. "China labels Australia 'offshore prison' in Olympic drugs row". 8 August 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
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