No foreign media in China? Condé Nast is looking pretty in Shanghai, in partnership with the State Council, and begs to differ

Vogue magazine's China edition is on the streets, two weeks in advance of its September launch date. The gatefold cover features Australian super model Gemma Ward, and Chinese models Du Juan and Wang Wenqin with three other Chinese models to their right. They were photographed in Shanghai styled by Patrick Demarchelier, with French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld as stylist.

The September issue contains 430 pages, with an even mix of foreign and locally produced content. About a quarter of the pages are advertisements.

Judging from the advertisers in this issue which include Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès etc., Vogue is going to do just fine. At last, the trashy Cosmopolitan magazine has some strong competition.

Vogue China has been in the pipeline for more than two years. The magazine is produced in partnership with China Pictorial Publishing House, a state-owned company that has been publishing the propaganda rag China Pictorial (人民画报) in several different languages since 1950, when Mao Zedong inscribed the Chinese characters for its masthead.

According to their own website, China Pictorial Publishing House is "under the administration of the News Office of the State Council and the China Foreign Languages Publishing and Distribution Administration". This is pretty funny when you consider the recent noises emanating from various government bodies about preventing foreign involvement in Chinese media — if the State Council does not take those rules seriously, who will? (The State Council is "the highest executive organ of State power, as well as the highest organ of State administration" according to the People's Daily.)

The nominal President of Vogue China is Wang Jingtang, with Zeng Xiangmin listed as Executive Editor. The real editor of the magazine is Angelica Cheung (张宁).