China International Communications Group (CICG) is a foreign-language publishing and communications organization headquartered in Beijing, China, and owned and operated by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).[1] Established in October 1949 as the China International Publishing Group, it has developed into a global media corporation.[2]
CICG owns seven subordinate publishing houses, i.e. Foreign Languages Press, New World Press, Morning Glory Publishers, Sinolingua, China Pictorial Publishing House, Dolphin Books, and New Star Publishers.[3][4] The organization annually publishes over 3,000 titles of books and around 50 journals in more than 10 languages.[5] Notable periodicals include Beijing Review, China Today, China Pictorial, People’s China, and China Report.[4] Its subsidiary, the China International Book Trading Corporation, is in charge of the distribution.[4][6]
It also runs 20 overseas branches in countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Egypt, Mexico, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,[4] with about 3,000 staff members, including around 100 foreign workers.[5]
In addition to publishing, CICG operates the China Internet Information Center.[7] It is also responsible for the implementation and management of the national translation test and appraisal for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.[4]
Employees
Prominent people who have worked in the CICG include Nobel Literature Prize-winning novelist and playwright Gao Xingjian, Nobel Prize-nominated poet Bei Dao, actor and politician Ying Ruocheng (known for his role in the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor), translators Yang Xianyi and Ye Junjian, author Xiao Qian, non-fiction novel writer Xu Chi, cartoonist Ding Cong, former Chinese Foreign Minister Qiao Guanhua, and former UN Undersecretary General (1972–1979) Tang Mingzhao.[citation needed]
Several foreign employees have also gained notoriety, including the pseudonymous author "Alex Hill," whose account of working as a foreign editor for the organization was widely read in 2015.[8] In his account, the author writes of feckless bureaucracy, political correctness, and a general feeling of malaise among the many foreigners working in the compound.[8]
