Global Times

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Global Times
环球时报
GlobalTimesLogo.svg
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)
Politics of China
National Emblem of the People's Republic of China (2).svg
Leadership
Communist Party
United Front
Ideology
Legislative
Presidency
Executive
Military
Supervision
  • Judiciary
  • Law enforcement
Propaganda
  • Hong Kong
  • Macau
Cross-Strait relations
Foreign relations
Related topics
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China portal
  • Other countries
  • v
  • t

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 flagship People's Daily newspaper, commenting on international issues from a nationalistic perspective.[1][2][3][4] The newspaper has been the source of various incidents, including fabrications and disinformation.[note 1]

The publication has been labelled as "China's Fox News" by some scholars and writers for its propagandistic slant and the monetization of nationalism.[12][13] It is part of a broader set of Chinese state media outlets that constitute the Chinese government's propaganda apparatus.[14][15] The Global Times has published COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories.[note 2]

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 government campaign to compete with overseas media.[16][17][1]

In 2009, 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.[18] As of 2016, Hu said the Global Times was profitable but faced difficulties that would be familiar to other newspaper editors.[19]

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.[20][21] The Global Times launched its US edition in 2013.[1]

Editorial stance[]

The Chinese-language version has been known to have a pro-Chinese Communist Party slant, attracting a nationalistic readership since its inception in 1993.[18][13][22] When launched in 2009, its editors claimed that the Global Times' English-language version took a less nationalistic stance than its Chinese-language counterpart.[23] The Global Times' editorial stance has been viewed as channeling the views of the hardline faction of top leadership.[24] Some scholars have noted that Global Times' more nationalistic stance permits other official state-run media to appear more moderate in tone.[25]

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".[26]

Australia[]

The Global Times has referred to 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).[27][28]

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.[29][30] On 5 June, Lancôme cancelled a promotional concert by the Cantopop star that was scheduled to be held on 19 June in Sheung Wan.[30] Lancôme also added, in a Facebook post, that Ho was not a spokesperson for the brand.[31] The Tibet allegation appeared to have stemmed from Ho's May 2016 meeting with the Dalai Lama.[30] The cancellation drew a heavy backlash in Hong Kong.[30][29] Some Lancôme shops in Hong Kong were shut down during the protests.[32] 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.[30]

Incidents[]

COVID-19 disinformation[]

The Global Times has spread unfounded conspiracy theories and disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[note 2] It has distributed disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic via Facebook posts and targeted ads.[36][37] In January 2021, the Global Times urged Australia not to use the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.[41][42]

Astroturfing allegations[]

According to Richard Burger, a former editor at Global Times, in the wake of the 2011 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".[43]

Fabricated quotes[]

In October 2015, Roderick MacFarquhar, a China expert at Harvard University, spoke at a conference on Marxism in Beijing. He said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping's talk of the so-called Chinese Dream was "not the intellectually coherent, robust and wide-ranging philosophy needed to stand up to Western ideas." The Global Times reported his speech as saying that the "Chinese Dream" would "make great contributions and exert a positive impact on human development." MacFarquhar said that the paraphrasing was a "total fabrication". The line was later removed by the newspaper from its story.[5]

Xinjiang[]

In 2019, Global Times was criticized for perceived bias in its coverage and portrayal of Uyghurs and of alleged disinformation campaigns regarding Xinjiang internment camps, which led Twitter to ban it and other state-sponsored media outlets from ad purchases.[44][45][46][47] In 2021, ProPublica and The New York Times reported that Global Times was part of a coordinated state campaign to deny human rights abuses in Xinjiang.[48]

Reaction[]

In China[]

In May 2016, the Global Times was criticized domestically 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.[6]

In India[]

In September 2020, India's Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying that comments made by the Global Times were falsely attributed to Ajit Doval.[7]

In Singapore[]

In September 2016, the Global Times published an article, titled "Singapore's Delusional Reference to the South China Sea Arbitration During the Non-Aligned Movement Summit". Stanley Loh Ka Leung, then Singapore's ambassador to China, criticized the article to be fake news. Loh also asked the Global Times to publish in full, in both English and Chinese, a letter he wrote to the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin. Hu refuted the ambassador by saying that the Global Times' reports were reliable and based on information from people who attended the meeting, without publishing the letter that Loh had requested to be published.[8][9][10][11]

In the United States[]

In June 2020, the United States Department of State designated Global Times as a foreign mission.[49][50]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ See references[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b See references[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c 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". Reuters. Beijing. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Hernández, Javier C. (15 October 2015). "In China's State News Media, What Is Said May Not Be What's Printed". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "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.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Press Statement on China Daily / Global Times article attributing false comments to NSA". Ministry of External Affairs (India). 8 September 2020. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Lin, Ping (27 September 2016). "新加坡驻中国大使罗家良日前批评中国《环球时报》南海报道胡编乱造". Radio Free Asia. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b "新加坡大使怒指环球"胡编乱造"" (in Chinese). Deutsche Welle. 27 September 2016. Archived from the original on 6 January 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "新加坡驻华大使罗家良先生致函《环球时报》总编辑胡锡进先生回应《环球时报》中文版于2016年9月21日所刊登的一篇报道" (in Chinese). Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Yang, Lijuan (28 September 2016). "新加坡驻华大使罗家良再次致函反驳《环球时报》总编辑胡锡进" (in Chinese). Lianhe Zaobao. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  12. ^ Hernández, Javier C. (31 July 2019). "When Trump Tweets, the Editor of 'China's Fox News' Hits Back (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Christina, Larson (31 October 2011). "China's Fox News". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011.
  14. ^ Javier C. Hernández (23 May 2020). "China Deploys Propaganda Machine to Defend Move Against Hong Kong". New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  15. ^ Brady, Anne-Marie (October 2015). "Authoritarianism Goes Global (II): China's Foreign Propaganda Machine". Journal of Democracy. 26 (4): 51–59. doi:10.1353/jod.2015.0056. S2CID 146531927. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  16. ^ 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. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  17. ^ Canaves, Sky (4 June 2009). "Global Times Breaches China's Official Media Silence on Tiananmen". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b 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.
  19. ^ Hornby, Lucy (13 November 2016). "Battling for influence — Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief, Global Times". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  20. ^ "404". Archived from the original on 25 June 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  21. ^ "404". Archived from the original on 2 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  22. ^ ""Patriotic" Voices? Comments from the Global Times Online Forum". China Digital Times. 4 May 2008. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  23. ^ "Richard Burger on being a foreign editor at the Global Times". www.danwei.org. 8 May 2009. Archived from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  24. ^ Chen, Frank (11 May 2020). "Rally cry for more Chinese nuclear warheads". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  25. ^ Hamilton, Clive; Ohlberg, Mareike (3 September 2020). Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-78607-784-4. OCLC 1150166864. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ "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.
  28. ^ "China labels Australia 'offshore prison' in Olympic drugs row". 8 August 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b Yuen, Chantal (6 June 2016). "Cosmetic giant cancels pro-democracy singer's concert after boycott threats". Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  30. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e 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.
  31. ^ "Lancome cancels concert after Chinese online backlash". BBC News. 6 June 2016. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  32. ^ "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.
  33. ^ MOLTER, VANESSA; DIRESTA, RENEE (8 June 2020). "Pandemics & propaganda: how Chinese state media creates and propagates CCP coronavirus narratives". Harvard Kennedy School. Misinformation Review. 1 (3). doi:10.37016/mr-2020-025. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  34. ^ Molter, Vanessa; Webster, Graham (31 March 2020). "Virality Project (China): Coronavirus Conspiracy Claims". Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  35. ^ "Chinese Again Float U.S. Biolab Conspiracy Theories". Polygraph.info. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  36. ^ Jump up to: a b Stanway, David (26 November 2020). "With frozen food clampdown, China points overseas as source of coronavirus". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  37. ^ Jump up to: a b 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.
  38. ^ Broderick, Ryan (13 March 2020). "Chinese Diplomats Are Pushing Conspiracy Theories That The Coronavirus Didn't Originate In China". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 5 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  39. ^ "Coronavirus cover-ups, disinformation, netizen pushback (April 2020)". China Media Bulletin. Freedom House. April 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
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  41. ^ Hui, Mary (21 January 2021). "China's vaccine diplomacy has an aggressive anti-vax element". Quartz. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  42. ^ Patranobis, Sutirtho (26 January 2021). "Covid-19: Chinese media float conspiracies, smear foreign vaccines". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
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  46. ^ "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.
  47. ^ 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.
  48. ^ Kao, Jeff; Zhong, Raymond; Mozur, Paul; Krolik, Aaron (23 June 2021). "How China Spreads Its Propaganda Version of Life for Uyghurs". ProPublica. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
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  50. ^ Ruwitch, John; Kelemen, Michele (22 June 2020). "Trump Administration Labels 4 More Chinese News Outlets 'Foreign Missions'". NPR. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

External links[]

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