The latest issue of the UK-Chinese Times, one of the mainstays of Britain’s nearly 400,000-strong Chinese-speaking community, splashed on the House of Fraser’s plan to close more than half of its department stores in the UK. The news organisation, with a print circulation of 40,000, has been providing news and information to its readers since 2003.

But the nature of that news has changed over time. Since 2010, the UK-Chinese Times, which is based in the southern commuter town of Milton Keynes, has partnered with the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist party. The result is that, as well as publishing an insert from the People’s Daily, the UK-Chinese Times runs dozens of articles identical to those printed by official Chinese media.

After the Communist party decided last year to abolish presidential term limits, thus allowing Xi Jinping to remain as head of state for life, the UK-Chinese Times ran a series of stories justifying the constitutional revision.