New English-language China newspaper hits stands

The Boston Globe? Hanging on by a thread.

The San Francisco Chronicle? Breathing its last gasps.

China's English-language papers? Those seem to be doing A-OK, with the "Global Times" released its first English-language addition yesterday in Beijing.

According to Xinhua,The People's Daily-affiliated Global Times claims to specialize in a Chinese perspective on international affairs, while still remaining fair and insightful (does that sound like a tagline for Fox News or what?).

The paper features a staff fully independent from that of the Chinese-language Global Times, intended to provide their own commentary, reporting, and perspective, with one or two articles still being direct translations in order to offer opportunities for readers to practice English and Chinese. A quick look at the Global Times' homepage reveals a variety of discrepancies with the Chinese' homepage.

The titles of articles come across a bit less nationalistic than their Chinese counterparts ("Chinese call for stronger naval presence" vs. "The world focuses on China's fleet review"), but the comments' feature of the English page is disabled. Furthermore, there is very little overlap in the front page news for the Global Times with other China-based papers like the Shanghai Daily and China Daily.

We've mentioned before our worries that mainland Chinese news sources (that mostly just toe the government line) will become the primary voices on China-related English-language news. Now that another CCP-approved player has hit the scene, we wonder how much more the world's view of China will change to China's view of China.

Source: Danwei