New daily aims to improve China's image

[FT_news]

China's most successful tabloid has launched an English-language newspaper, the first concrete step in a global media push aimed at improving China's image abroad.

The English edition of Global Times, an affiliate of People’s Daily, the Communist party’s mouthpiece, is set to become a test case for whether Chinese media can win the trust of a foreign audience.

Beijing is pushing its main state-owned media including Xinhua, the official news agency, and China Central Television, to set up English-language news channels to bypass western media, which are perceived as being biased against China. But media experts have cautioned that propaganda mouthpieces will struggle to appeal to western audiences.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times, claimed that was not true for his newspaper. In contrast to China Daily, the existing nationwide English-language daily which reflected the government’s views, the English Global Times would be “the voice of the people”, he said in an interview.


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