Deliveries of Chinese Communist Party newspaper to MPs could be stopped
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked for review after MPs complained about ‘propaganda’ newspaper China Daily being delivered directly to them.
A newspaper branded “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda” could be stopped from being delivered to MPs in Parliament after Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle asked for a review.
China Daily, which is owned by the governing party’s central propaganda department, is received automatically by MPs.
The newspaper is sent to Parliament without being asked for, with a copy earmarked for most MPs.
However, Sir Lindsay has requested an evaluation of bulk mailing after a written question from Conservative shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns.
Labour MP Nick Smith, who is head of the Commons’ Administration Committee which oversees services for MPs, said Sir Lindsay had requested an audit.
Ms Kearns told the PA news agency: “Chinese diplomats may be banned from Parliament, but the taxpayer is inadvertently funding the dissemination of Chinese Communist Party propaganda direct to MPs’ offices.
“The China Daily propaganda paper is the only thing which arrives every day, without fail.”
She added: “Its delivery should be banned as an unfriendly act of attempted foreign influence – the unsubscribe function does not work.
“At the very least we would be saving huge amounts of paper from the bin – where I suspect all of this CCP propaganda ends up.”
Conservative former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by Beijing, said it was a “terrible propaganda sheet”.
Sir Iain said: “It ought not to be in the building at all. If some of my colleagues are not up to speed on it, then perhaps what it does is gives them the opportunity to make sure they are aware that with these deliveries, they are under surveillance as much as anyone.”
In a response to the written question, Mr Smith said: “China Daily has been delivered to our mail screening centre in bulk, addressed to all members since 2016. There is an unsubscribing email address that is passed to members who no longer wish to receive it.
“The bulk delivery has never been requested by the administration. However, the Speaker has now asked the Administration Committee to review the process of bulk mail deliveries including the related costs.”
PA understands the issue has yet to be formally discussed by the committee.
China Daily was set up in 1981 as the only national English-language newspaper in China. It is distributed in print, online, and within other newspapers globally.
Its website claims it has a print and online circulation of 350 million.
An annual report registered with the Chinese government in 2014 detailed its “organiser” as the state council information office, which forms part of Beijing’s central propaganda department.
The newspaper has previously praised Chinese government policies against the Uighur people in the Xinjiang province for stopping women becoming “baby-making machines”.
Reports have suggested that the Chinese government has carried out forced contraception or sterilisation on Uighur women.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the newspaper claimed the virus originated in a US army research centre in Maryland, or that it was created by pharmaceutical firm Moderna.
It comes as the Labour Party is seeking a renewed relationship with China.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited the country in January, and lauded £600 million of investment in the UK from agreements made during the trip.
She received criticism for going to China against a backdrop of increased control of Hong Kong, including the imprisonment and solitary confinement of British-Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
China Daily has been contacted for comment.
