When the People’s Republic of China was founded, much unfinished business inherited from the old China had to be given priority. Nevertheless, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party made great efforts to establish news organizations to present China to the outside world and inform overseas friends of the progress being made in politics, the economy and culture. On November 1 1949, one month after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Press and Publications Administration was formally set up, with the Xinhua News Agency, the Broadcasting Administration and the International News Administration under it. Their purpose was to let the world know China’s position on major issues and to garner international support and sympathy for new China. Most of the pre-existing international media were not included under the Press and Publications Administration, and the International News Administration put out the first Chinese publication aimed solely at foreigners.

The 1950s and early 1960s saw the initial development of these news media. News agencies, broadcasting stations and publishers appeared one after another and developed rapidly.

News Agencies

After the founding of new China, Xinhua News Agency, first set up in the 1930s, established its headquarters in Beijing and became a national press service providing information for other countries and regions. It later established correspondent offices abroad.

The China News Service was founded on September 10, 1952, and began thrice-daily broadcasts in eight frequencies under the name “China News Broadcasting” on October 1 1952, and began thrice-daily broadcasts in eight frequencies under the name “China News Broadcasting” on October 1 that year for overseas Chinese newspapers. It also placed its news articles abroad and later began providing photographs and film images.

Radio Stations

On December 5, 1949, the Central People’s Broadcasting Station (formerly the Yan’an Xinhua Broadcasting Station) began nationwide broadcasts. It has been broadcasting to Taiwan since 1954.

The International Broadcasting Editorial Department of the Central Broadcasting Administration started foreign language programming in Vietnamese and Burmese under the name of Radio Beijing, and later broadcast in standard Chinese and four dialects to overseas Chinese. The number of languages quickly increased and by the 1960s Radio Beijing was broadcasting in 32 languages.

Periodicals

In January 1950, the first of the English edition ofPeople’s China(it became Japanese-only in 1953) was published. It was the first foreign language monthly published in China. In May that year, the Esperanto magazineEl Popola Ciniowas founded, followed byChina Pictorial(English) in January 1951,Chinese Literature(English) in 1951,China Reconstructschanged toChina Today(English) in January 1952 andBeijing Review(English) in March 1958. These periodicals later added other languages to spread news about China to more readers. They are still playing an important role in introducing China to the world.