In the early 1940s, China was fighting against the Japanese invasion. CRI was founded on December 3, 1941 to call on people from home and abroad to join in the fight. At that time its station ID was XNCR, representing New China Radio.

Its first radio broadcaster was Hara Kiyoshi, a Japanese anti-war activist. She broadcast in her mother tongue, telling Japanese people the truth about the war.

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the radio station moved to Beijing, the capital of China. On October 1st, 1949, the station broadcast the news of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the whole world.

And then in April, 1950, China's overseas broadcasts began to use the station ID - Radio Peking.

This music was a very popular song in China at the time: "The East is Red".

Later, in order to promote friendship between China and other developing countries, China's overseas broadcasts opened Farsi, Kiswahili, and Arabic services.

By the mid 1970s, CRI was broadcasting in 38 foreign languages as well as Mandarin and 4 Chinese dialects.

The birthplace of CRI's English Service: Shanhe Village, Shexian County, Hebei Province. (September 11, 1947)

CRI's English Service in early 1950s, at 26, Guohui St., Beijing.

Chairman Mao Zedong (2nd on the right) meets Ali, a foreign expert from CRI's Swahili Service in 1964.

Premier Zhou Enlai meets (front on the left) with people from foreign broadcast industry. (1962)

Witty Deng Xiaoping (center) with happy reporters. (September, 1987)

President Jiang Zemin (front) signs CRI's flag. (1999)

President Hu Jintao (center) poses with CRI staff after delivering his New Year Message in 2005.