Guangdong Xin Wenhua is a commercial arm of the Liaison Office, the political office of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong. The group runs companies in various fields including printing services, retail, wholesale and publishing. It runs several media outlets including the newspapers Ta Kung Pao (founded in 1902) and Wen Wei Po (founded in 1948), the magazines Bauhinia and Knowledge Magazine and the news portal Orange News. According to local journalists and experts, Hong Kong Commercial Daily is also run by the Liaison Office.
Media assets
Publishing: Newspapers- Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po, Hong Kong Commercial Daily (HKCD); Magazines- Bauhinia, Knowledge Magazine
News portal: Orange News
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu)
Ownership and governance
Recent reports established that Guangdong Xin Wenhua is owned by the Liaison Office, the official political bureau of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong. These ownership links have been hidden for a long time.
Source of funding and budget
Guangdong Xin Wenhua doesn’t release information about its financial performance. Although the media run by the company do take advertising, Hong Kong-based journalists and experts say that Beijing is funneling state funds to these media via its local liaison office. However, we don’t have any evidence that these funds account for more than 50% of the outlets’ annual budget.
Editorial independence
The media outlets run by Guangdong Xin Wenhua are known by local journalists and experts and described in various media reports and NGO studies as mouthpieces of the Chinese government in Hong Kong. In recent years, as Chinese authorities have become more aggressive in silencing dissent in Hong Kong, the editorial agenda of these outlets has become even more biased: attacks against critical media outlets and journalists and false news meant to discredit the so-called enemies of China abound.
No domestic statute and no independent assessment or oversight mechanism that would validate the editorial independence of the media outlets controlled by Guangdong Xin Wenhua have been identified.
October 2023