With the debut of China’s No.1 party website on the A-Share market on Friday, attention is once again focused on the controversial state-backed media company that has a market value of 1.6 times the New York Times Co.

Just 30 minutes after its debut on Friday, the company’s stock surged 50 percent, echoing the strong market sentiment in the country’s faith in its political system.

In this offering, the website operator issued 13,800,691 shares through a private placement and 55,305,000 shares through public offering. The IPO price was set at 20 yuan per share, implying a P/E ratio of 46.

The flurry in trading started long before this debut. In its previous private placement, the company’s shares were 56.29 times oversubscribed, a record high this year for A-Share IPOs. People.cn reportedly raised 1.38 billion yuan ($219 million) in this offering, almost triple its original plan for 527 million yuan ($83.6 million).

Why is this heavily censored website receiving so much attention? China’s No. 1 Party website in stellar IPO，probably because everything to do with the government in China is big business.

Commentators on the Sina Weibo microblogging service were saying that the IPO price reflected investors’ faith in the country’s powerful and dominant political party. Such an investment reflects a long-term positive outlook for the Party and the country’s economy.

Others said the interest is down to the rosy investment return forecast, and has nothing to do with politics. A debate is now raging about whether the stock is actually market oriented.

With People’s Daily as a majority shareholder (it holds 79.54 percent of its shares directly and indirectly) the website has a huge advantage over its peers: it enjoys the right to independently collect, edit and publish news -- unique in the country’s strictly controlled media sector. It also has the right to run original and exclusive news on politics and the economy.

According to People.cn chairman Ma Li, the company, like its commercial peers, generates its profits mainly through advertising and mobile value-added services, which account for about 60 percent and 10 percent of its revenues, respectively. In addition, by taking advantage of “its “authority and news resources”, the website runs a business information service that brings in about 30 percent of revenues.

The company owns two websites, People’s Daily Online and Global Times. Sales revenue of People’s Daily Online was 497 million yuan for 2011. Its net profit amounted to 138 million yuan, surging 73.9 percent over 2010. Global Times realized record-high revenue of 37.73 million yuan in 2011, but still posted a loss of 3.78 million yuan.