BEIJING — The ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, is expanding its coverage as part of a reported multibillion-dollar drive to expand China’s international media influence.
The staid daily that chronicles the activities of the party leadership and publishes editorials praising official policies plans to expand from 16 to 20 pages with more coverage of breaking and international news, it said in a notice on its Web site Tuesday.
The newspaper’s 72 foreign and domestic bureaus will be upgraded, it said, without giving details.
The announcement comes just days after state broadcaster CCTV announced plans to revamp its news broadcasts for the first time in a decade to combat a sharp decline in viewership.
The moves are believed to be part of a 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) government plan to fund a major expansion of CCTV, People’s Daily and the official Xinhua News Agency, as reported earlier this year by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper.
Officials have yet to confirm the plan’s details, but the Post said it calls for Xinhua to nearly double its overseas bureaus to 180, while adding a 24-hour satellite news channel. CCTV would add Arabic and Russian-language channels to its international Chinese, English, French and Spanish services, the newspaper said.
All three outlets enjoy top-level party support and funding, along with virtual monopolies in certain sectors of their domestic markets. Despite that, all have been struggling against more dynamic competitors and rely in varying degrees on state handouts or cash injections from moneymaking subsidiaries such as People’s Daily’s popular Global Times tabloid.
The Chinese media drive reflects steps already taken by Russia and Qatar to influence international news coverage through their state-funded Russia Today and Al-Jazeera channels. Those attempts to challenge the BBC and CNN have scored some success.
Despite its rapid economic growth and rising global influence, China has retained its authoritarian one-party political system with strict limits on freedom of speech and civil and political life.
