Fact-Checking Organisations in China: Characteristics, Verification Approaches, and Practices

Abstract Amid the global spread of misinformation, fact-checking has emerged as a key mechanism for ensuring informational accuracy. Yet existing research remains largely Western-centric, overlooking practices in authoritarian and hybrid media systems. Addressing this gap, this study examines the organisational characteristics, issue selection logics, and verification approaches of fact-checking entities in mainland China. Drawing on a mixed-methods design, it analysed 2,719 fact-checking articles from seven institutional actors and 3,026 video texts from three individual fact-checkers on Chinese TikTok (Douyin) between 2022 and 2025. The study integrated BERTopic modelling and manual content analysis, with 400 sampled cases assessed across verification dimensions such as claim accessibility, verdict style, evidentiary support, and citation diversity. Based on metadata, a fourfold typology was constructed: official, professional/commercial, independent/academic, and individual models. Findings show that Chinese fact-checking operates within a pluralistic yet state-integrated ecosystem shaped by political sensitivities, platform affordances, and audience expectations. Verification functions as a culturally embedded performance of epistemic authority. By conceptualising fact-checking as institutional boundary work, the study contributes to comparative debates on misinformation governance beyond liberal-democratic contexts.