The Chinese Communist Party created its news agency, the Red China News Agency, in 1931; its primary responsibilities were the Red China newspaper and the internal Reference News. In 1937, the Party renamed the agency Xinhua, New China. Xinhua became the official news agency of the People's Republic of China in 1949.Xin Xin, "A developing market in news: Xinhua News Agency and Chinese newspapers"; Media, Culture & Society 28.1 (2006).
