Xinhua News Agency (hereinafter referred to as Xinhua) is the state news agency of the People's Republic of China, and the largest news and information gathering and release center in China.

Xinhua's head office is located in China's capital Beijing. Except for in Taiwan Province, it has 32 branches in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities under direct administration of the central government and the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR, as well as sub-branches or reporter stations in 50-plus major cities. It also has branches in more than 100 countries and regions, and 5 regional offices that can directly release news items. Its Asia-Pacific Regional Office is headquartered in Hong Kong, Latin-American Regional office is based in the Mexican City, African Regional Office is headquartered in Nairobi, Middle East Regional Office is based in Cairo, and Paris Regional Office caters for the French-speaking customers. Its news gathering and processing system consists of three parts, namely, the head office, domestic branches and overseas branches. In addition to the Editor-in-Chief's Office, it has the Domestic News Editorial Department, the International News Editorial Department, the Domestic News for Overseas Service Department, the Sports News Editorial Department, the News Photography Editorial Department, the Reference News Editorial Department, the News and Information Center, and the Network Center.

Xinhua has basically modernized its communications technology. It has a satellite communications and transmission network, and has introduced 10 computerized information processing systems covering text editing, photo processing, news communications, economic information and data indexing.

Xinhua has a complete news coverage and release system featuring multiple channels, functions, tiers and means. At home, it releases daily via special circuits various types of news items totaling 400,000 characters to newspapers, radio stations and TV stations at the county, prefecture and provincial levels, as well as to evening newspapers and specialized newspapers. Overseas, it releases around the clock news items totaling more than 400,000 words in 7 languages, i.e. Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabian and Portuguese. It also releases economic information totaling 400,000 words daily to Chinese and foreign clients. Moreover, it provides nearly 100 news photo plates a day. According to customers' special needs, it also offers special reports and news features to more than 130 countries.

Xinhua currently publishes nearly 40 types of newspapers and magazines, such as the Xinhua Daily Telegraph, the News Bulletin of the Xinhua News Agency (in English, French, Spanish, Arabian and Russian), the Reference News (daily), the Economic Information Daily, the China Securities (daily), the Shanghai Securities (daily), Sports Express (published on Tuesdays), Outlook (weekly), the China Comment (fortnightly), the Globe (monthly), the Chinese Reporters (monthly), the Photography World (monthly), the Great Rural World (monthly), Securities Investment Weekly (published on Tuesdays), the China Photo (quarterly), the China Yearbook (in Chinese and English versions). The Reference News is the daily with the largest circulation in China. The China Comment is the magazine with the largest circulation in China. The Xinhua Publishing House attached to Xinhua publishes annually over 400 kinds of books focusing on current affairs and politics.