Article 19

11/04/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/04/2025 12:45

UK: China links reaffirm need to investigate Telegraph purchase

In late October, the Telegraph reported on a seemingly unknown meeting last year between John L. Thornton, the chairman of RedBird Capital, an American investment firm trying to buy the Telegraph Media Group, and a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The official, Cai Qi, is the fifth highest ranking member of the CCP. This news has reignited serious concerns of the potential for foreign influence behind RedBird's planned acquisition of the 170-year-old publication. Given the new revelations regarding the closeness of RedBird Capital senior leadership and the CCP, ARTICLE 19 reiterates our call for the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, to suspend the acquisition pending a full and independent investigation of these concerns. Such investigation should be informed by an understanding of how China engages in information and influence operations.

Earlier this year a group of MPs and peers raised concerns with Secretary Nandy over 'the lack of transparency regarding the source of the funds behind this acquisition,' making it 'conceivable, and increasingly likely, that funds could be sourced directly or indirectly from foreign state actors,' including China. This risk arises from the close relationship between China and RedBird Capital chairman, John L Thornton, whose connections are not historical or incidental, but ongoing and manifold. Last year's previously unreported meeting further compounds existing concerns, especially in light of Cai Qi's roles within the CCP architecture, and related unfolding scandals of Chinese influence and espionage in the UK.

Michael Caster, Head of ARTICLE 19's Global China Programme, said:

"Cai Qi is not your average senior Party bureaucrat - he is effectively Xi Jinping's right-hand man. One does not casually sit down with such members of the innermost circle of the Chinese Communist Party unless you are already very close or promising something lucrative in return. Recent revelations of Cai Qi's apparent role at the centre of an alleged Westminster spy ring only elevate the high concerns over information threats in an already perilous bid to purchase the Telegraph Media Group by actors with exceedingly close ties to the CCP."

In early October 2025, the Guardian reported that Cai Qi is suspected as the recipient of intelligence information from Westminster that allegedly funneled through a parliamentary researcher in the UK and a teacher living in China. The espionage case against the two UK citizens, which had been scheduled for trial this month, was unexpectedly dropped by the Crown Protection Services (CPS) in September, stoking extreme controversy.

The alarming allegation highlighting Cai Qi's alleged part in intelligence operations targeting the UK are not the only cause for concern regarding his role in information operations. This points to the need for greater scrutiny of RedBird Capital, considering its closeness to Chinese officials.

Cai Qi is the fifth highest ranking member of the seven-person Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP, making him one of the most powerful people in China. As the Director of the CCP General Office he is also effectively Xi Jinping's chief of staff. According to some accounts, as a former official alongside Xi Jinping in Fujian Province, decades before the latter became the leader of the country, Cai Qien joys exceptional trust from Xi Jinping. Since 2024, he has also been the deputy chair of the National Security Commission. However, it is his role as 'internet tsar' that raises particular concern for his potential influence over information operations.

For at least the last year, Cai Qi has served as the leader of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, established in 2014 and previously headed by Xi Jinping himself. The Commission is a secretive Party institution that, among other tasks, oversees the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). In his opening remarks at the first meeting of the CAC in February 2014, Xi Jinping emphasised the institution's varied roles, including the necessity to innovate and improve online publicity and to 'vigorously cultivate and practice the core socialist values, and grasp the guidance of online public opinion,' which could translate simply to perfecting propaganda.

Indeed, the CAC, as ARTICLE 19 has pointed out, plays broadly two main roles. It is responsible for setting the digital governance agenda, including managing China's censorship infrastructure, and shaping public opinion online. The CAC's original institutional home, the State Internet Information Office, then under the Central Propaganda Department, is carried over to today - the Director of the CAC is also the Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department. As leader of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the CAC now-parent institution, Cai Qi oversees all such functions.

Among its charges, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission also runs the Online Public Opinion Information Center, whose tasks include coordination with state-owned media to monitor and influence public opinion online.

As such, any engagements with Cai Qi, in light of his elevated authority within the Party, proximity to Xi Jinping, and especially his direct involvement in China's online propaganda work, raises serious concerns over potential Chinese foreign influence and information threats.

This is even more noteworthy in light of comments by RedBird Capital's chairman in 2023, regarding shaping public opinion on China. At a talk on US-China Relations hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, Thornton relayed having previously told senior Chinese officials they were losing the global narrative war because China's story was being told by people who are not Chinese. He advised them to insert themselves into English-language media channels where they could better shape international narratives. 

The terminology of 'telling China's story well' is itself a central external propaganda directive, delivered first by Xi Jinping during the 2013 National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference. As ARTICLE 19 has previously noted, such guidance - that China should insert itself in English-language media to better shape international narratives - from the Chairman of the entity now poised to acquire a major UK newspaper raises alarm for information threats.

"From his seat at the head of China's super-powerful cyber commission, Cai Qi is not only tasked with internet governance over a system unique in its sophistication for censorship and surveillance," said Caster. "He is also part of a massive information manipulation and interference ecosystem that spans myriad domains and departments. Association with this kind of Party leader demands answers to some very difficultquestions from anyone, let alone those involved in the potential acquisition of foreign media outlets; which would be quite the treasure for China's efforts at shaping public opinion abroad."

For more information, contact:

Michael Caster, Head of Global China Programme, [email protected] or [email protected]
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