Economic Daily

Economic Daily is one of China’s principal central Party newspapers devoted to economic affairs. First published on 1 January 1983, it was created on the basis of Zhongguo Caimao Bao, itself renamed in 1981 from Caimao Zhanxian, founded in 1978. Economic Daily Press is a public institution directly under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, while the newspaper’s current official description states that it is organised by the State Council and led and managed by the Central Publicity Department. Deng Xiaoping wrote its masthead on 31 August 1984 and it entered use that October.

Media assets

Newspapers and periodicals: Economic Daily and a portfolio of subsidiary publications. Its current website prominently lists Securities Daily, China Entrepreneur, China County Economy News, Rural Financial Times, China Flower and Gardening News and China Textile News among its newspaper and magazine family, and the group’s institutional page also lists Economy magazine

Digital: China Economic Net at ce.cn, operated by Economic Daily and designated one of China’s key central news websites, together with the Economic Daily news app and the organisation’s WeChat, Weibo and short video accounts. Economic Daily reported that its all-platform follower base had risen from 153 million five years earlier to 325 million in 2025

Publishing and production: Economic Daily Publishing House; China Construction Science and Technology Publishing House, formerly China Building Materials Industry Publishing House; and the Economic Daily printing operation

Network: 60 domestic reporter stations and more than 20 overseas stations

The Economic Daily Newspaper Group was established on 8 June 1998. Its structure has been repeatedly reorganised since, and older descriptions of an eighteen-unit group should not be read as a current count of publications; institutions such as the Beijing Economic Management Correspondence College appear in earlier lists but not in the organisation’s current structure. The newspaper reported an actual circulation of more than 1.25 million copies in 2025, continuing several years of growth, and stable cooperation with mainstream economic media in more than ten countries.

Ownership and governance

Economic Daily Press is a public institution directly under the CCP Central Committee. Official material describes the newspaper as organised by the State Council and led and managed by the Central Publicity Department, and the Press has historically been classified at deputy-ministerial level. The arrangement places it inside the central Party-state structure rather than at arm’s length from it.

Zheng Qingdong, born in August 1964, serves as President and Editor-in-Chief. Wang Songmiao is Deputy President, and Tang Weibin, Qi Dongxiang, Wu Xiangdong and Wu Qiang serve as Deputy Editors-in-Chief.

The degree of Party oversight was demonstrated directly during the review period. From 5 November 2024 to 5 January 2025 the CCP Central Committee’s Third Inspection Team conducted a regular political inspection of Economic Daily Press. The subsequent rectification report of March 2026 states that the newspaper’s editorial board treated implementing the inspection as a political responsibility, required loyalty to the Party, strengthened ideological responsibility and continued to develop its role in economic publicity and public opinion guidance.

The paper’s overseas status has also been formally contested. On 21 October 2020 the United States State Department designated the US operations of Economic Daily, together with Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press and Beijing Review, as foreign missions under the Foreign Missions Act. The Department said the organisations were substantially owned or effectively controlled by the Chinese government; the designation imposed transparency requirements but did not restrict what they could publish.

Source of funding and budget

Economic Daily does not publish consolidated financial statements enabling its income to be divided precisely between fiscal appropriations, advertising, circulation, publishing and other commercial activity.

There is nevertheless direct evidence that public financing forms part of its core funding structure. A National Audit Office report on Economic Daily Press described it as managed as a first-level central fiscal budget unit. More recent procurement records confirm continuing fiscal financing: the Press’s 2025 to 2026 procurement for public cloud services, budgeted at CNY 1.65 million, explicitly identifies its source of funds as fiscal funds, and its 2026 app development project was procured through the CCP Central Committee Directly Subordinate Organs Procurement Centre.

The organisation also has a substantial commercial dimension. Its 2025 social responsibility report describes advertising operations and requires the institutional separation of editorial and commercial activity. Its subordinate organisations include publications operating in commercially important sectors such as securities, business and industry, together with publishing and printing operations.

Local experts and journalists interviewed for State Media Monitor in March 2024 and April 2026 assessed that public funding accounts for more than half of Economic Daily’s budget. This is the principal evidence establishing the funding threshold required by the State Media Matrix, while the current procurement record independently confirms that central fiscal funds continue to finance operational and digital infrastructure.

State Media Monitor treats payments according to their ultimate source rather than solely their accounting form, so purchases of advertising or services by government bodies and state-controlled enterprises may also constitute state-derived revenue. Economic Daily does not publish a customer breakdown, however, and State Media Monitor therefore does not assume that any particular proportion of its advertising income originates with state-controlled buyers.

Editorial independence

Economic Daily openly defines itself as a central Party newspaper and an important public opinion platform through which the CCP Central Committee and State Council guide economic work. Its 2025 social responsibility report states that its political responsibilities include promoting Xi Jinping Thought and Xi Jinping’s economic thinking, maintaining the correct political and public opinion orientation, and providing what it calls a stabilising role in economic publicity and opinion guidance.

Its output is significant not simply because it reports economic policy but because its editorials and commentaries are used to explain and reinforce official economic priorities. During 2025 the newspaper described itself as working to sing loudly a positive account of China’s economic prospects, guide market expectations and build consensus around central economic policy.

The 2024 and 2025 Central Committee inspection provides particularly strong contemporary evidence of the institutional relationship. Economic Daily’s leadership described the inspection as an examination of whether the Press remained aligned with the CCP Central Committee in political position, direction, principles and path, and its 2026 rectification report documented strengthened management of editorial positions, public opinion guidance and subordinate publications.

There is some space for journalism addressing economic and social problems. The responsibility report cites investigative and critical coverage of local protectionism, platform practices, public spending and consumer protection under its rubric of constructive public opinion supervision. Such reporting does not constitute institutional independence, because the permissible boundaries and ultimate political responsibility remain within the Party structure. No legislation, autonomy charter, independent board or external oversight mechanism exists to guarantee editorial independence.

AI and digital policy

Economic Daily has demonstrably incorporated generative artificial intelligence into content production. Its 2025 social responsibility report states that the newspaper produced the video series Buy Globally, Sell Globally, All in China’s Big Market using AIGC technology, including AI-generated English-language voice-over, video material and graphics. The series was designed partly for international audiences and recorded more than 16 million views on overseas social platforms.

AI adoption also forms part of the newspaper’s broader digital transformation. Its March 2026 rectification report says Economic Daily was exploring the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to analyse communication patterns, alongside upgrading its integrated newsroom and short video production systems.

State Media Monitor nevertheless identified no publicly available comprehensive Economic Daily editorial policy governing generative AI: rules specifying permissible uses, mandatory human verification, responsibility for synthetic material, corrections, limits on fabricated representation or systematic labelling requirements. The absence should not be read as an absence of editorial controls generally, since Economic Daily applies a three-stage review and proofreading system and has introduced production and review procedures for short video. What is missing from the public record is an AI-specific overarching editorial standard.

Classification rationale

Economic Daily remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is Party-state owned and governed. Economic Daily Press is a directly subordinate public institution of the CCP Central Committee, the newspaper is led and managed by the Central Publicity Department, and the Press is subject directly to the Central Committee’s inspection and cadre management structures. State Media Monitor identified no independent board, appointments mechanism, autonomy charter or external editorial oversight.

Its editorial agenda is institutionally directed by the Party-state. Economic Daily defines itself as an important Party economic publicity and public opinion platform, explicitly commits itself to propagating Xi Jinping’s economic thinking and central economic policy, and operates under an ideological work responsibility system. The 2024 and 2025 Central Committee inspection and subsequent rectification programme provide unusually direct contemporary evidence of that accountability.

It is predominantly state-funded. Economic Daily does not publish a consolidated revenue breakdown, but the public record establishes that it operates within the central fiscal system and that current core infrastructure is purchased with fiscal funds. State Media Monitor’s two rounds of interviews additionally assess direct public financing at more than half of the organisation’s budget. Commercial advertising, publishing and other activities therefore do not displace state financing as the principal source under the State Media Matrix.

August 2026