The SCMP prints paper editions in Hong Kong and operates an online news website that is blocked in mainland China.

Critics including The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and The Atlantic have alleged that the paper is on a mission to promote China's soft power abroad.

[9][10] Anti-Qing revolutionary Tse Tsan-tai and British journalist Alfred Cunningham (克寧漢) founded the South China Morning Post in 1903,[11]: 25  publishing its first issue on 6 November 1903.

[12]: 27 Early editorials were mainly written by British journalists, such as Cunningham, Douglas Story and Thomas Petrie, while Tse attracted business to the newspaper.

[11]: 25  It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November 1971, but was privatised again in 1987 after being bought by the News Corporation in 1986 for HK$2.2 billion (US$284.4 million).

[11]: 25 Reading the SCMP has been described as a status symbol in the 20th century, when the newspaper represented the interests of Hong Kong elites and the British government.

[16]: 323  Editors of the SCMP attended regular meetings at the Government House for disclosures that aimed to influence public opinion and received business briefings from the HSBC.

[18] In September 1993, Murdoch was in negotiations to sell his 50 percent interest in the SCMP as part of a scheme to increase the News Corporation's investments in the Asian electronic media industry.

[18] News Corporation then announced that it would sell 34.9 per cent stake – a controlling interest – for US$375 million to Kerry Media owned by Malaysian businessman Robert Kuok.

[28] Following Gina Chua's short-lived tenure at the Post, from 2009 to April 2011, and deputy editor, Cliff Buddle served as acting editor-in-chief for 10 months.

[23] In May 2015, the SCMP told columnists Philip Bowring, Steve Vines, Kevin Rafferty and Frank Ching – all of whom have criticised the government in commentaries to varying degrees on different subjects over the years – that their services would no longer be needed.

[30][35] During Alibaba's failed attempt at securing an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the SCMP published articles questioning the business practices of the platform, including incidents involving counterfeit goods.

Among the possible motives of the Alibaba acquisition was to make media coverage of China "fair and accurate" and not in the optic of Western news outlets.

[44][45] In March 2021, it was reported that the Chinese government is pressuring Alibaba to sell SCMP, due to concerns over the company's influence over public opinion in Hong Kong.

[49] Hines wrote in the Hong Kong Free Press of its closure:[50] The South China Morning Post purchased us at the right time, and for sensible reasons.

[61] The printed version of the SCMP is in a broadsheet format, in sections: Main, City, Sport, Business, Classifieds, Property (Wednesday), Racing (Wednesday), Technology (Tuesday), Education (Saturday), Style magazine (first Friday of every month); the Sunday edition contains Main, a Review section, a Post Magazine, Racing, "At Your Service", a services directory, and "Young Post", targeted at younger readers.

On 16 July 2007, SCMP.com launched its first-ever viral video marketing campaign targeting a global audience and highlighting the new multimedia features of the website.

[66] The previous owners of the publication, Kerry Group's Robert Kuok and his family, are claimed to be inclined towards the central government of the People's Republic of China, and questions were raised over the paper's editorial independence and self-censorship.

There have been concerns, denied by Kuok, over the forced departures, in rapid succession, of several staff and contributors who were considered critical of China's government or its supporters in Hong Kong.

[67][68][69][70] Not long after Kuok's purchase of the newspaper, and after running several cartoons about the culling of human body parts from Chinese prisoners, Larry Feign was abruptly dismissed and his satirical comic strip "Lily Wong" axed in 1995.

His firing was defended as "cost cutting", but was widely viewed as political self-censorship in the face of the imminent handover of Hong Kong to the PRC.

After the paper ran a story by Willy Lam on its front page about a delegation of Hong Kong tycoons meeting with Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Jiang Zemin,[3] in which it was reported that business opportunities in China were being offered as a quid pro quo for the tycoons' political support, the Chinese Liaison Office raised objections of insensitivity as well as incurring the owner's wrath.

"[67] Editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei, appointed by the owner in 2012 after consultation with the Liaison Office, was criticised for his decision to reduce the paper's coverage of the death of Li Wangyang on 7 June 2012.

[32] Wang, who had left the office for the day, reportedly returned to the paper after midnight to reverse the staff editors' decision to run a full story.

[74] A senior staff member who sought to understand the decision circulated the resulting email exchanges, that indicate he received a stern rebuff from Wang.

[3][82] The New York Times stated that Alibaba is steering the newspaper into promoting the PRC's soft power, and several critical stories about China's current government have been rewritten in an act of self-censorship by the top editors.

[88] The SCMP was able to make contact with Zhao Wei a few days after her release from prison while she was still in the custody of Chinese security forces and at a time when neither her husband nor lawyer was able to reach her.

Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor at Cornell University and friend of Gui,[93] commented that:[94] [...] the spectacle's producers included not just the usual propaganda arms of the regime (e.g. the Xinhua News Agency, etc.

"[94] In October 2022, Peter Langan, a former senior editor at the SCMP, said he resigned after the outlet rejected the publication of his three-month investigation into human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.

[103][104] The newspaper won the grand prize at the 2020 Lorenzo Natali Media Awards for its report titled ""The 'thin yellow line' standing between Hong Kong police and protestors".