新华通讯社（简称新华社）是中华人民共和国的国家通讯社，是中国最大的新闻信息采集和发布中心。

　　新华社前身是“红色中华通讯社”，创建于1931年11月,1937年改现名。全社从事新闻报道、经营管理和技术工作的职工有7000多人。

　　新华社总社设在中国首都北京。全社的新闻采集和处理系统由总社、国内分社、国外分社三部分组成。总社除总编辑室外，还设有国内新闻编辑部、国际新闻编辑部、对外新闻编辑部、体育新闻编辑部、新闻摄影编辑部、参考新闻编辑部、新闻信息中心和网络中心。在国内除台湾省以外的各省、自治区、直辖市和香港特别行政区、澳门特别行政区设有33个分社，在50多个大中城市设有支社或记者站;在海外的100多个国家和地区设有分社。同时，分别在香港、墨西哥城、内罗毕、开罗、布鲁塞尔设有亚太、拉美、非洲、中东及欧洲等五个可以直接向国外发稿的总分社。

　　新华社拥有多渠道、多功能、多层次、多手段的新闻报道和发布体系。在国内，每天通过专线分别向中央、省市、地县、晚报、专业报和电台、电视台播发各类新闻稿件，总字数为40多万字。对海外，每天用中、英、法、西、俄、阿、葡7种文字24小时不间断的向世界各地提供各类新闻，总字数为40多万字。此外，每天还向国内外发布经济信息约30万字，提供新闻图片近百底，并根据用户的特别需求向130多个国家提供多种文字的专稿和特稿。目前，新华社已在海内外建立起一个庞大的新闻信息用户网络，并与近百个国家的通讯社或新闻机构签订了新闻交换合作协议。成立于1993年的新华社音像中心，为各级电视台和广大音像制品订户提供多品种的新闻、专题类节目。

　　新华社编辑出版近40种报刊，其中《参考消息》是全国发行量最大的日报；《半月谈》是全国发行量最大的杂志。新华社所属的新华出版社每年出版以新闻和时事政治为主的各类图书400余种。XINHUANEWSAGENCY

　　Xinhua News Agency (Xinhua), the state news agency of thePeople’sRepublic of China, is a major news and informationcollecting anddistribution center in China. Xinhua was called RedChina NewsAgency at its founding in Novr 1931 and got its currentname in 1937with more than 7,000 news reporters and editors aswell as businessmanagement and technical support staff.

　　The head office of Xinhua is in Beijing and its newsandinformation collecting and processing system is made up ofthreeparts: the head office, domestic branches and overseasbureaus.

　　The head office has the following news and informationgatheringand editing departments: the Editor-in-Chief’s Office,DomesticNews Department, International News Department, Home NewsforOverseas Service Department, Sports News Department,PhotographicNews Department, Reference News Department, the NewsandInformation Center and Network Center.

　　Xinhua has branches in 31 provinces, autonomous regionsandcentrally-administered municipalities (Taiwan is not included),aswell as in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrativeregions.It also has sub-branch offices or correspondent stations inmorethan 50 large and medium-sized cities.

　　Xinhua has bureaus in more than 100 countries and regions.Amongthem, five are regional offices that release news directly.Theyare the Asian-Pacific Regional Office in Hong Kong, theLatinAmerica Regional Office in Mexico City, the Africa RegionalOfficein Nairobi, the Middle East Regional Office in Cairo, theEuropeRegional Office in Brussels.

　　Xinhua has a multi-channel, multi-n and multi-level newsreleasesystem. Everyday, it broadcasts news of up to more than400,000Chinese characters to domestic newspapers, radio andtelevisionstations through dedicated lines, and releases news of asmany as400,000 words nonstop to the rest of the world in sevenlanguages,namely Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, ArabicandPortuguese.

　　Besides, it releases daily about 100 news photos andnearly300,000 characters of economic information in Chinese andEnglishto domestic and foreign subscribers. It also providesfeaturestories in different languages to clients in more than130countries according to their special requests. Established in1993,Xinhua’s Audio-Video News Center provides programs oncurrentevents and special topics to TV stations at all levels aswell asto other subscribers.

　　Up to now, Xinhua has set up a news, information andsubscribernetwork both at home and abroad. It has signed newsexchange andcooperation agreements with news agencies and otherjournalisticorganizations of about 100 countries and regions.

　　Xinhua publishes nearly 40 publications. “Reference News”and“Fortnightly Chat” have the largest circulation in China intermsof daily newspaper and magazine respectively. The XinhuaPublishingHouse affiliated to Xinhua publishes more than 400 titlesonjournalism and politics every year.