People’s Daily · Full chronicle and history

On November 2, the People's Daily published an article extending from the controversy surrounding the Japanese drama 'VIVANT', naming works such as Pokémon, Kantai Collection, My Hero Academia, and GATE. It claimed that the Japanese side is releasing the toxic ideology of militarism into popular culture, and called for vigilance against cultural products becoming tools of ideological incitement for Japan's military expansion and war preparations.

On October 30, the front pages of 12 newspapers, including the People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, China Youth Daily, Nanfang Daily, and Hubei Daily, were highly identical. All featured the holding of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th CCP Central Committee in Beijing as the headline, accompanied by the same set of photos of Xi Jinping speaking and a panoramic view of the meeting, along with extensive coverage of the plenary session communique.

On October 30, the official Bilibili account of China News Service reposted a People's Daily video commentary on pensions regarding young people being unable to afford to support the elderly. A large number of netizens refuted this through comments and bullet comments, stating that they can barely support themselves and questioning whether state media is manufacturing or avoiding anxiety about retirement.

On October 29, the People's Daily commentary account 'People's Sharp Review' posted on Weibo, criticizing claims such as 'young people can no longer afford to support the elderly' and 'the pension system is about to collapse' as inciting confrontation. It stated that there is no precedent for public pension bankruptcy, but the comment section was set to 'creator-selected,' leading netizens to mock the post under other reposts.

On October 21, the state media outlet People's Sharp Commentary published "Tesla 'Can Fly' — Have We Been Left Behind?", stressing the advantages of China's new energy vehicles. In the comment section, netizens responded with sarcasm, asking when the two-day weekend, the eight-hour work system, and the problem of unpaid wages will ever be resolved.

On October 19, People's Daily published a commentary calling for the “cleanup and removal” of “jingri” speech and conduct and related identifying content, and for “blocking the channels of coordination” in regard to acts that use circles and groups to organize, incite and carry out harassment.

People's Daily and four major joint organizations have formally entered the fray, sharply criticizing the breakage of a Chinese car's brake pedal during driving, saying it should never occur, drawing public attention.

The People's Daily app published an article on October 11 about the fracture of the brake pedal bracket in the Maextro vehicle, pointing out that a car's brake pedal should never break while driving.

On October 11, People’s Daily published a commentary criticizing Taiwan’s technology industry for its dominance and its traditional industries for their continued decline, claiming that this has created a lopsided structure in which ordinary people have no share of the development dividends.

On October 8, People’s Daily published an article about Qilian County opening student dormitories to house tourists, arguing that it is difficult to conclude from the available information alone that the local authorities bullied students for the sake of tourists, while acknowledging that further explanation is still needed regarding the protection of students’ rights. The related topic trended on Weibo, with netizens asking whether county guesthouses and government dormitories are also used to receive tourists.

On October 8, Securities Times published a commentary stressing that People's Daily's "Jinxuan" series of articles should guide expectations and build consensus, and that their greater value lies in "establishing confidence."

On October 4, People's Daily ran a signed article under the pseudonym "Jin Xuan" of the National Development and Reform Commission for the tenth consecutive day, acknowledging that pressure on residents' employment and income growth constrains consumption capacity and willingness, that the endogenous momentum of consumption is insufficient, and that the vitality of private investment has weakened somewhat.

On September 30, the People's Daily WeChat account People's Sharp Commentary published an article in response, arguing that interpreting "living on a tight budget" as having no money is too narrow a reading; in recent years the budgets of Peking University and many other universities have all kept growing, and the key lies in whether funds are spent scientifically and yield results.

On September 24, People's Daily released a video titled "Crossing the Trap," revisiting the question Xi Jinping raised in May, during Trump's visit to China, of whether China and the US can overcome the "Thucydides Trap," and said the new positioning of China-US relations as a "constructive, strategically stable relationship" is the answer to that question.

Netizens left sarcastic comments under People’s Daily's Bilibili account regarding Zhao Lijian's past remarks on drones. Currently, the comment section for the video has been restricted.

On September 10, 2026, the official media People’s Daily posted an entry announcement on the social platform Xiaohongshu. Subsequently, a netizen posted “We want two-day weekend” in the platform’s comment section as a test, and the system returned a prompt “This comment is under review, sharing not supported at this time”. The incident shows that People’s Daily’s comment function on the new media platform is limited by the platform’s censorship mechanism, sparking netizens’ attention to platform speech censorship.

On August 27, 2026, the People's Daily, an official media outlet of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), opened an account on the overseas social platform Threads. It was immediately flooded with reports and mockery from a large number of netizens, and the People's Daily closed its comment section the following day.

On August 27, 2026, netizens discovered on the social platform Threads that the Central Committee’s official newspaper People’s Daily had opened an official account. After the news spread, many netizens reported, blocked, and restricted the account, and flooded the short posts it published with Xi Jinping memes. The next day, on August 28, 2026, the comment section of the People’s Daily’s account on Threads was closed, preventing further public discussion.

An article under the pen name “Zhong Caiwen” published in People’s Daily calls on the public to strengthen confidence and meet challenges positively.

The "Zhong Caiwen" article published by People's Daily stresses that China's 4.7% GDP growth in the first half of the year is "an achievement hard-won."

People’s Daily continues to publish “Zhong Caiwen” articles, claiming that China’s economy has shown “strong resilience.”

People’s Daily published an article signed “Zhong Caiwen,” arguing that observations of China’s economy should not focus only on single-month data.

Chinese state media People’s Daily published a commentary defending China’s strong exports and rebutting warnings of a “new round of China shock.”

CCP party media People's Daily published a message soliciting opinions from the public, but the comment section showed "no comments yet," with only the author allowed to comment, sparking netizen criticism of it as "fishing" and "solving the person who raises the problem."

People's Daily published guidance opinions, releasing a strong signal of investigating the Ctrip monopoly case and cracking down on antitrust involution, drawing outside attention to the authorities' further rectification of foreign and private enterprises.

The theory section of the People's Daily published a full-page article discussing the significant contemporary value of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building.

People’s Daily published an article praising the achievements of North Korean socialist construction, hinting that the Chinese Communist Party may draw on the North Korean model.

People's Daily published an article stating that an MCN agency organized internet trolls to create negative public opinion about film and television dramas, causing box office damage to the movie "Four Crossings." Police have arrested 12 people.

On June 29, 2026, the People's Daily reported that police had cracked a case involving the manipulation of online public opinion, claiming that the poor box office performance of the red-themed film 'Four Crossings' was caused by an MCN agency that controlled influential accounts to maliciously generate negative sentiment.

The front page of the People's Daily defines Xi Jinping's party-building thought as the party-building chapter of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

On February 2, 2024, People's Daily published an interview with Koppe, a Communist Party official from Germany, and ran it as a headline, sparking large-scale irony and an opinion storm among Chinese netizens against the backdrop of a stock market crash and economic downturn.

On the evening of June 28, 2020, Gao Xiaosong took part in a "Celebrities Read Great Books" charity livestream launched by People's Daily New Media and others. After he appeared, the live chat was flooded with comments such as "get out," "public intellectual," and "American," the livestream was cut off, and the picture never returned.

In 2014, People's Daily published a commentary on pensions, stating that civil servants hold public power and if their pension benefits are poor, it is difficult to lead the team, suggesting that occupational annuities be used to widen the gap in benefits between civil servants and enterprise employees. This article sparked renewed heated discussion in early November 2026.

By the end of 1997, a total of 12.74 million workers had been laid off or reassigned by state-owned enterprises nationwide, of whom 6.34 million had still not been re-employed; some enterprises were unable to guarantee basic living allowances and social insurance.

On May 4, 1989, reporters and editors from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Daily, and China Youth Daily took to Chang'an Avenue, carrying banners demanding that the news must tell the truth.

People’s Daily published an editorial titled “We must unequivocally oppose this unrest,” labeling the student movement as unrest.