China Radio International
China Radio International 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
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 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 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 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, Julien Gaudfroy, Elyse Ribbons, Li Xin, and Soojin Zhao.
- Bianzou Biankan, a travel show dedicated to a new location every episode
- New Wealth Times, a financial talk show
Chinese podcasts
- News, which comes from the Xinhua News Agency.
- Tángrénjiē, a programme about overseas Chinese
- Weather forecasts around China
- Sports
English radio channels
CRI in English (846 AM, 1008 AM; 91.5 FM)
The English channels that can be heard online are:- EZFM
- Round the Clock
- * 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
- 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
English Podcasts
- Hourly News
- The Beijing Hour
- RoundTable
- Studio Plus
- Today
- Chinese Studio
- More to Read
Holiday Broadcasts
- Growing Up In China
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 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
- Global Sightseeing
- China Communication
Languages
| Language | Launched | Website |
| Albanian | ||
| Arabic | http://arabic.cri.cn | |
| Armenian | 12 April 2011 | |
| Belarusian | 23 September 2009 | http://belarusian.cri.cn |
| Bengali | http://bengali.cri.cn | |
| Bulgarian | http://bulgarian.cri.cn | |
| Burmese | 10 April 1950 | http://myanmar.cri.cn |
| Croatian | ||
| Cambodian | 11 December 2008 | http://cambodian.cri.cn |
| Cantonese | ||
| Czech | http://czech.cri.cn | |
| Dutch | 23 September 2009 | |
| English | 11 September 1947 | http://english.cri.cn |
| Esperanto | 19 December 1964 | http://esperanto.cri.cn |
| Estonian | ||
| Filipino | ||
| French | 5 June 1958 | http://french.cri.cn |
| German | 15 April 1960 | |
| Greek | 23 September 2009 | http://greek.cri.cn |
| Hausa | http://hausa.cri.cn | |
| Hebrew | 23 September 2009 | http://hebrew.cri.cn |
| Hindi | 15 March 1959 | http://hindi.cri.cn |
| Hungarian | http://hungarian.cri.cn | |
| Indonesian | ||
| Italian | ||
| Japanese | 3 December 1941 | |
| Kazakh | https://web.archive.org/web/20170908052146/http://kazak.cri.cn/ | |
| Korean | 2 July 1950 | http://korean.cri.cn/ |
| Laotian | 20 November 2006 | http://laos.cri.cn |
| Malay | ||
| Mandarin | ||
| Mongolian | 1 December 1964 | |
| Nepali | 25 Jun 1975 | http://nepal.cri.cn |
| Persian | http://persian.cri.cn | |
| Polish | ||
| Portuguese | http://portuguese.cri.cn | |
| Pashto | http://pushtu.cri.cn | |
| Romanian | 30 August 1968 | |
| Russian | 24 December 1954 | |
| Serbian | http://serbian.cri.cn | |
| Sinhala | January 1975 | http://sinhalese.cri.cn |
| Spanish | 3 September 1956 | http://espanol.cri.cn |
| Swahili | 6 March 2006 | http://swahili.cri.cn |
| Swedish | ||
| Tamil | August 1963 | |
| Thai | http://thai.cri.cn | |
| Tibetan | https://web.archive.org/web/20190224113849/http://tibet.cri.cn/ | |
| Turkish | http://turkish.cri.cn | |
| Ukrainian | May 2008 | |
| Urdu | http://urdu.cri.cn | |
| Uygur | https://web.archive.org/web/20180116173813/http://uygur.cri.cn/ | |
| Vietnamese |
The Tibetan, Uygur and Kazakh services are broadcast in association with local radio stations.