Many titles try to push the envelope on social issues but it can be a dangerous game, writes Clifford Coonan
CHINA IS the world’s biggest newspaper-reading nation, and while readership may be shrinking in many western countries, the number of newspapers sold in 2010 in China is expected to exceed 50 billion – a 13.9 per cent year-on-year increase.
Of the top 100 daily newspapers in the world, 25 of them were mainland Chinese.
There are at least 2,200 newspaper titles in China, and the total output value of China’s press and publication industry exceeded 1 trillion yuan (€110 billion) in 2009, according to an industry official.
China certainly has a lively newspaper publishing business, publishing everything from the deeply conservative Communist Party organ the People's Dailyto the progressive Southern Weekendgroup of titles.
What they all have in common is tight control by the government – all papers are censored, and while many titles try to push the envelope on social issues, it can be a dangerous game, and newspaper editors have been jailed for not following strict rules on what is allowed in print.
“It’s the reform of cultural systems that spurs the big progress in China’s press and publication industry,” Liu Binjie, director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), which controls the industry, told the Xinhua news agency.
“It makes the for-profit cultural products integrate with the market, capital and customers under market mechanisms,” he said.
While censorship remains an overarching issue, the government has liberalised the newspaper business in recent years and allowed journalists to report on issues that were previously taboo, such as natural disasters and official corruption.
Increased competition has meant the quality of many Chinese newspapers is very high and has also led to big differences between the various titles.
The most popular newspaper is Reference News, which has a daily circulation of 3.5 million.
The People's Dailyis essential reading, but it is also very propaganda-focused, and its 2.8 million readers are largely party members.
Its tabloid subsidiary, Global Times, with 2.4 million readers, is much nippier, but its virulent nationalism makes for shocking reading at times. The English-language sister paper, also called Global Times, is far less aggressive.
At the other end of the scale you have the newspapers in the Guangzhou-based Southern Daily group, which include titles such as the Beijing News, a very well reported and lively daily tabloid for the capital, and the liberal Southern Weekend, which contains strong investigative pieces and often comes into conflict with the censors.
Flushed with success, China is also keen to start exporting its newspapers.
Last month, China Daily, the national English daily paper, launched a weekly European edition, and revamped its Asian edition.