Pressure of Truth
The news, with the spin made visible.
Outlet profile

Xinhua (via Manila Times)

Chinese state media

Owned byOwned and operated by the Chinese government as a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China; editorially directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
FundingFunded primarily through the Chinese central government budget; as of 2024, its annual budget was approximately CNY 6.17 billion (roughly US$877 million), with about 60% from direct state appropriations and the remainder from commercial operations
On the administrationmixed

Background

Xinhua was founded in November 1931 as the Red China News Agency by the Chinese Communist Party in Ruijin, during the Chinese civil war. It was renamed Xinhua ('New China') in 1935 at the end of the Long March, and began broadcasting internationally in English in 1944. After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Xinhua became the country's sole official state news agency, eventually growing into one of the world's largest wire services with 181 overseas bureaus by 2021. Beijing has signed content-sharing deals with media outlets across Asia and beyond, including the Manila Times and Manila Bulletin in the Philippines, offering articles at no cost in exchange for distribution of Chinese state perspectives. In 2020, the U.S. State Department designated Xinhua a 'foreign mission,' and in 2021 its North American affiliate registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), with the Justice Department finding it acts under the direction and control of the CCP and the Chinese government. In 2019, Twitter banned Xinhua and other Chinese state-sponsored outlets from purchasing advertising after criticism that their coverage of the Hong Kong protests was systematically biased. The agency's editorial line has consistently aligned with CCP positions on domestic governance, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Chinese foreign policy broadly.

Sources

  1. Xinhua News Agency – Wikipedia
  2. Xinhua – State Media Monitor (2025)
  3. Xinhua News Agency – Media Bias/Fact Check
  4. Obligation of Xinhua News Agency North America to Register Under FARA – U.S. DOJ
  5. State Department Designates Chinese Media Outlets as 'Foreign Missions' – FARA.us
  6. Xinhua News Agency Author Page – Manila Times
  7. Philippines: Beijing's Global Media Influence 2022 Country Report – Freedom House
  8. Xinhua and Content-Sharing Deals – Oxford Academic (Beijing's Global Media Offensive)
  9. Xinhua Headlines: Xi-Trump meeting charts course for constructive strategic stability – Xinhua
  10. Xinhua News Agency – Britannica

Profile compiled 2026-07-01; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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