China Radio International

China Radio International (CRI) is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of China. It is currently headquartered in Babaoshan, Shijingshan, Beijing. It was founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking. It later adopted the pinyin form Radio Beijing.

CRI is the international radio arm of the China Media Group, under the control of the Central Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, created following the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in March 2018. CRI states that it "endeavours to promote favourable relations between the PRC and the world" while upholding the PRC's official positions. CRI claims to "play a significant role in the PRC's soft power strategy" and Go Out policy, aiming to expand the influence of Chinese culture and media in a global stage. CRI attempts to employ new media and partnerships with other media outlets to compete with other international media. Unlike other broadcasters, CRI's control via indirect majority ownership or financial support of radio stations in various nations is not publicly disclosed.

History

Radio was first introduced in China in the 1920s and 1930s. However, few households had radio receivers. A few cities had commercial stations. Most usage of radio was for political purpose, frequently on a local area level.

The Chinese Communist Party first used radio in Yanan, Shaanxi Province in March 1940 with a transmitter imported from Moscow. Xinhua New Chinese Radio (XNCR) went on the air from Yanan on December 30, 1940. XNCR transmitted to a larger geographical area after 1945, and its programs became more regular and formalized with broadcasts of news, official announcements, war bulletins, and art and literary programs.

The English service started on September 11, 1947, transmitting as XNCR from a cave in Shahe in the Taihang Mountains, when China was in the midst of a civil war, to announce newly conquered areas and broadcast a Chinese political and cultural perspective to the world at large. The station moved from the Taihang Mountains to the capital, Peking, when The People's Republic of China was formed in 1949. Its name was changed to Radio Peking on April 10, 1950, and to Radio Beijing in 1983.

In April 1950, it began broadcasting for listeners in Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, and in four dialects for overseas Chinese throughout East Asia.

Radio Peking's influence and capacity grew from 1957 to 1967. By 1967, it was broadcasting 21 hours per week to East Africa.

During the Cultural Revolution, it canceled many of its regular programs and focused on broadcasting Mao Zedong's works.

On January 1, 1993, the name of the station was again changed, this time to China Radio International, in order to avoid any confusion with local Beijing radio broadcasting. Its online broadcasting platform: China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN) was formally established in 2011, as a joint venture of China Radio International, Huawen Media Investment, JinZhengYuan, Youku, Oriental Times Media and Suning Holdings Group.

Radio Peking began exchanges with Voice of America in 1982. Voice of America had opened a bureau in Beijing the previous year.

A 2015 investigative report by Reuters found a network of at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that obscures CRI as its majority shareholder. A significant portion of the programming on these stations is either produced or provided by CRI, or by media firms CRI controls in the United States, Australia, and Europe.

In February 2020, the United States Department of State designated CRI and other Chinese state-owned media outlets as foreign missions.

CRI has focused on forging commercial partnerships, particularly in Europe, in which its content is broadcast without attribution to CRI. According to a 2023 discourse analysis by the Central European Digital Media Observatory, CRI's content steers clear of any criticism of the Chinese government.

Programming

Mandarin radio channels

At the beginning of 1984, it started to broadcast home service to the Beijing area on AM and FM frequencies. The service later expanded to dozens of major cities across the PRC, providing listeners inside the PRC with timely news and reports, music, weather, English and Chinese learning skills, as well as other services.

News Radio (90.5 FM)

News Radio (环球资讯广播) was established on 28 September 2005. Its aim is to make CRI News Radio a first-class national news radio brand and its slogans are 'First News, News First', 'On-the-Spot China, Live World' etc. CRI News Radio can be heard online and in Beijing on the radio on 90.5 FM; in Tianjin 90.6 FM; in Chongqing 91.7 FM; in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau 107.1 FM; in Shandong 89.8 FM; in Anhui 90.1 FM.

Popular Shows Laowai's Viewpoint (), an international news program with three hosts from different countries, frequent hosts include: Peter Yu (Chinese), Julien Gaudfroy (French), Elyse Ribbons (American), Li Xin (Chinese), and Soojin Zhao (Korean). Bianzou Biankan (), a travel show dedicated to a new location every episode New Wealth Times (), a financial talk show

Chinese podcasts The following programmes can be heard on the Mandarin version of the podcast from the World Radio Network: News (), which comes from the Xinhua News Agency. Tángrénjiē (), a programme about overseas Chinese Weather forecasts around China Sports

This broadcast was originally targeted at London in the United Kingdom. In 2006, they removed the "London" reference, which was part of the introduction as "Ni hao London. Hello London"China Broadcast

English radio channels

CRI in English (846 AM, 1008 AM; 91.5 FM) The English channels that can be heard online are: EZFM (also known as Easy FM) (closed on 23 December 2025; merged with CGTN Radio) Round the Clock (Internet only) Voices from Other Lands is a weekly English radio program featuring entrepreneurs who originated outside of China doing business in China, hosted by Guanny Liu. CRI 91.9 FM (Kenya 91.9 FM) Chinese Studio is a 5-minute segment that follows most CRI English programmes China Drive is an English radio show about life in the PRC CRI Sri Lanka FM 97.9 in Sri Lanka in Sinhala and English (05:00—00:00 Sri Lanka Time)

English Podcasts CRI offers a list of podcast programs in English:

Hourly News The Beijing Hour RoundTable Studio Plus Today Chinese Studio More to Read

Holiday Broadcasts

During major Chinese holidays (dubbed Golden Week), such as Chinese New Year, May Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival, China Radio International typically broadcasts special programmes such as: Growing Up In China (during the May Day holiday)

Most of these programmes are not typical of the broadcast during the other parts of the year. The analogy is similar to Christmas music broadcasts in the United States.

Olympic Radio In July 2006, CRI launched a new radio station called Olympic Radio at 900 AM in Beijing. This special broadcast was in Mandarin, Korean, English, Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and German 24 hours a day. This service was terminated in late 2008 after the Beijing Olympics and now the frequency 900 AM is occupied by CRI News Radio, which covers only Beijing.

CRI Hit FM CRI Hit FM (www.hitfm.cn) was an international music radio station owned by CRI during 1999 and 2025, airing in a Contemporary hit radio format. The station first launched in Beijing through 88.7 FM, later rollout to other major cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Pay television channels Other than radio channels, CRI also operates these pay television channels via satellite airing: Shark Shopping (聚鲨环球精选) (de facto free channel in several local DTV networks) Global Sightseeing (环球奇观) China Communication (中国交通) (co-operate with Ministry of Transport)

Languages China Radio International broadcasts in the following languages:

+LanguageLaunchedWebsiteAlbanian Radio e Jashtme e KinësArabic http://arabic.cri.cnArmenian 12 April 2011Belarusian 23 September 2009http://belarusian.cri.cnBengali http://bengali.cri.cnBulgarian http://bulgarian.cri.cnBurmese 10 April 1950http://myanmar.cri.cnCroatian Kineski Radio InternacionalCambodian 11 December 2008http://cambodian.cri.cnCantonese Czech http://czech.cri.cnDutch 23 September 2009English 11 September 1947中央人民广播电台研究室《解放区广播历史资料选编 1940–1949》. Beijing: 中国广播电视出版社, 1985.http://english.cri.cn Esperanto 19 December 1964Skizo pri Esperanto-elsendo de ĈRI , CRI.http://esperanto.cri.cnEstonian Filipino Radyo Internasyonal ng TsinaFrench 5 June 1958Service français , CRI.http://french.cri.cnGerman 15 April 1960 Radio China InternationalGreek 23 September 2009http://greek.cri.cnHausa http://hausa.cri.cnHebrew 23 September 2009http://hebrew.cri.cn Hindi 15 March 1959 http://hindi.cri.cnHungarian http://hungarian.cri.cnIndonesian Radio Internasional TiongkokItalian Radio Cina InternazionaleJapanese 3 December 1941日本語部紹介 , CRI.Kazakh https://web.archive.org/web/20170908052146/http://kazak.cri.cn/Korean 2 July 1950조선어부 소개 및 연계방식 , CRI.http://korean.cri.cn/Laotian 20 November 2006http://laos.cri.cnMalay Radio Antarabangsa ChinaMandarin Mongolian 1 December 1964 Хятадын олон улсын радиоNepali25 Jun 1975http://nepal.cri.cnPersian http://persian.cri.cnPolish Chińskie Radio MiędzynarodowePortuguese http://portuguese.cri.cnPashto http://pushtu.cri.cnRomanian 30 August 1968Radio China InternaţionalRussian 24 December 1954Международное радио Китая , CRI.Международное радио КитаяSerbian http://serbian.cri.cnSinhala January 1975 http://sinhalese.cri.cnSpanish 3 September 1956Breve Historia del Departamento de Español , CRI.http://espanol.cri.cnSwahili 6 March 2006http://swahili.cri.cnSwedish Tamil August 1963சீன வானொலிThai http://thai.cri.cnTibetan https://web.archive.org/web/20190224113849/http://tibet.cri.cn/Turkish http://turkish.cri.cnUkrainian May 2008Міжнародне радіо КитаюUrdu http://urdu.cri.cnUygur https://web.archive.org/web/20180116173813/http://uygur.cri.cn/Vietnamese Đài phát thanh quốc tế Trung Quốc

Joint ventures China International Broadcasting Network China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN, traded as , an internet TV service, was a joint venture of China Radio International with other companies. The company was owned by Global Broadcasting Media Group (, a joint venture (50–50) of China Radio International and , literally JinZhengYuan Union Investment Holding) for 34.0004% stake, Huawen Media Investment for 30.9996% stake, a subsidiary () of listed company Oriental Times Media () for 15% stake, the operator of Youku () for 10% stake and Suning Holdings Group, the parent company of PPTV for 10% stake.

GBTimes CRI owns 60% of Finland-based GBTimes. GBTimes is headed by Zhao Yinong and operates radio stations across Europe that broadcast CRI-produced content.

G&E Studio

G&E Studio is 60% owned by Guoguang Century Media, a Beijing firm completely owned by the CRI. James Su is president and CEO of G&E Studio, which distributes CRI content to more than a dozen radio stations inside the United States.

China Radio International

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