The newspaper was founded and owned by Lee Ya-ping (李亚频) and Chen Tao (陈韬)[5] in 1981 in the city of Monterey Park, California.
[6] On October 1, 1995, Ted Sioeng, an Indonesian-born entrepreneur, and his family bought the International Daily News,[7] paying between $3 and $4 million for the paper.
[8] In contrast to its competitor, the World Journal, the International Daily News appeals to mainland Chinese immigrants in North America due to its much less hostile attitude toward mainland China/Chinese (although in the mid/late-1990s, the World Journal significantly moderated its anti-China line).
[citation needed] Lee Ya-ping, a Chinese American businesswoman and the owner and publisher of International Daily News, was jailed by the Taiwanese government under the Kuomintang regime on 17 September 1985 during a visit to Taiwan, charged with spreading propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party,[9] because she was suspected of publishing articles supporting Beijing's overtures for reunification of Taiwan with mainland China.
[10] On September 2, 2001, International Daily News and Java Post collaborated to bundle and publish the Wen Wei Po (Southeast Asia Edition), an 8-page daily edition, which was launched simultaneously in Jakarta, Surabaya, Pontianak, and Medan.