21st century
In 2016, Ta Kung Pao merged with Wen Wei Po to form the Hong Kong Dagong Wenhui Media Group, which is under the control of the Hong Kong Liaison Office.[9][3]
In January 2019, Ta Kung Pao published an article stating that a "secret envoy" of president Tsai Ing-wen had met with three Hong Kong localist camp activists from the pro-independence group Studentlocalism. However, the "secret envoy" was actually Su Yong-yao, a senior political reporter for Liberty Times, a Taiwanese newspaper. The article was in turn criticized by the Taiwanese presidential office as "ridiculous" and "a piece of fake news".[10] In 2019, the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey ranked Ta Kung Pao as having the lowest credibility score among all paid newspapers in Hong Kong.[11][12]
During the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, Ta Kung Pao published antisemitic George Soros conspiracy theories, displaying Soros as a reptile in collusion with Jimmy Lai.[13] In 2020, Ta Kung Pao frequently attacked judges perceived as siding with pro-democracy protesters, causing Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma to make an 18-page plea against attacking judges and the judiciary system.[14] In November 2020, the Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) published a letter to Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng, accusing Ta Kung Pao of publishing false material that claimed judge Anderson Chow was being supportive of criminal activities.[14] The HKBA asked Teresa Cheng to protect the city's judges against false accusations.[14]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ta Kung Pao spread vaccine misinformation and portrayed Western vaccines more negatively than Chinese ones, mirroring Chinese government disinformation about COVID-19.[15] In 2022, the newspaper launched investigations into several Hong Kong academics that it deemed "anti-China scholars."[16]
In May 2023, the newspaper attacked housing and urban planning NGO Liber Research Community, saying the NGO was "taking things out of context with groundless evidence."[17]
In 2024, the newspaper partnered with the Heilongjiang Daily Newspaper Group to establish the Heilongjiang International Communication Center.[18]
In March 2025, Ta Kung Pao ran a series of articles and editorials, republished by the CCP's Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, criticizing CK Hutchison Holdings and Li Ka-shing for agreeing to sell the company's Panama ports stake to BlackRock.[19][20][21] In May 2025, in response to declining press freedom and greater censorship in Hong Kong, Ta Kung Pao called Reporters Without Borders a "thug" and termed its World Press Freedom Index a "political smear tool".[22]
