Published : 2025-06-01

On June 1, 1981, China Daily, the first national English-language newspaper in the country, was officially launched after the founding of People's Republic of China.

China Daily is published six days a week, targeting foreigners who come to China and work in China.

In addition to important news about China and major international news, China Daily also covers cultural and entertainment content.

After more than 40 years of development, China Daily today has been distributed in more than 150 countries and regions around the world, with an average daily circulation of more than 200,000 copies, one-third of which are distributed overseas.

Up to now, China Daily has also launched an electronic version that has attracted more than 4 million visits per month on average, with about 2.5 million from North America.

At the beginning of the Reform and Opening-up, more and more foreigners came to China for travel and work. Many of them reported that they couldn't read newspapers and watch TV after coming to China, and thus had no channels to obtain information.

To improve this situation, the central government decided to set up an English-language daily newspaper to comprehensively disseminate information to and introduce China to overseas readers.

For this reason, a group of journalists were sent to Hawaii to study journalism. The late chief editor Liu Zunqi once told them, "You are the pioneers who are opening a new chapter in the history of Chinese journalism."

After its launch, China Daily opened a new chapter in the business of journalism in China by introducing new practices such as English articles, the use of large pictures, and advertisements taking up a quarter of the page.

At the same time, the launch of China Daily brought a new inspiration to the traditional Chinese press and journalism, showing that the layout could be more lively.

The layout of China Daily uses a lot of pictures in addition to horizontal and vertical line designs, because they truly believe a picture is worth a thousand words.

The readership of China Daily is becoming wider. In addition to being a must-read newspaper for foreigners living, studying, and traveling in Mainland China, it is also attracting increasing attention from overseas readers and media interested in China.

Moreover, the governments, economic and business communities of various countries also regard China Daily as an essential reference when formulating policies and economic guidelines towards China.