People's Daily

People's Daily
人民日报

Front page on 1 October 1949 (the day the PRC was established)
Type	Daily newspaper
Owner(s)	Communist Party of China
Publisher	Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Founded	15 June 1948
Political alignment	Socialism with Chinese characteristics
Language	Chinese, Varieties of Chinese
Headquarters	No. 2 Jintai Xilu, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Website	en.people.cn (English)

The People's Daily is the biggest newspaper group in China. The paper is an official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Tibetan, Kazakh, Uyghur, Zhuang, Mongolian, Korean and other minority languages in China. The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the government.

The paper was established on 15 June 1946 and was published in Pingshan, Hebei, until its offices were moved to Beijing in March 1949. Ever since its founding, the People's Daily has been under direct control of the Party's top leadership. Deng Tuo and Wu Lengxi served as editor-in-chief from 1948–1958 and 1958–1966, respectively, but the paper was in fact controlled by Mao's personal secretary Hu Qiaomu.

During the Cultural Revolution, the People's Daily was one of the few sources of information from which either foreigners or Chinese could figure out what the Chinese government was doing or planning to do. During this period, an editorial in the People's Daily would be considered an authoritative statement of government policy, was studied and reproduced nationwide, and analyzed globally for insight into the Party's plans.

Newspaper articles in the People's Daily are often not read for content so much as placement. A large number of articles devoted to a political figure or idea is often taken as a sign that the mentioned official or subject is rising. Likewise with articles on geographical areas foreign or domestic; recently increased interest in Latin America has been shown.