The Guangming Daily, also known as the Enlightenment Daily,[1] is a national Chinese-language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1949 as the official paper of the China Democratic League. Starting from 1982, it was run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and was officially recognized as an institution directly under the Central Committee of the CCP from 1994.[2] As one of China's "big three" newspapers during the Cultural Revolution, it played an important role in the political struggle between Hua Guofeng and the Gang of Four in 1976 and between Hua and Deng Xiaoping in 1978.
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Front page of the first issue on 16 June 1949 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Chinese Communist Party (1982–present) China Democratic League (1949–1982) |
| Publisher | Guangming Daily News Agency |
| Founded | 16 June 1949 |
| Political alignment | Chinese Communist Party |
| Language | Chinese |
| Headquarters | Beijing |
| ISSN | 1002-3666 |
| Website | www |
| Guangming Daily | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 光明日报 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 光明日報 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
History
editThe Guangming Daily, then romanized as Kuangming, was launched on 16 June 1949 in Beijing. It was originally the official newspaper of the China Democratic League, but later became the Chinese Communist Party's official organ for China's educated elite.[3]
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Guangming Daily was one of the only three national newspapers that remained in circulation, together with the People's Daily and the People's Liberation Army Daily, and the sole magazine Red Flag. The four periodicals, known as "the three papers and one magazine", dominated China's public affairs. For safety reasons, regional newspapers and specialist magazines all took cues from the big four, and largely reprinted articles from them.[4]
Before the death of Mao Zedong, the paper fell under the control of the radical left-lean Gang of Four led by Mao's widow Jiang Qing. In October 1976, Vice Premier Ji Dengkui played a significant role in taking over the Guangming Daily, helping Mao's successor Hua Guofeng oust the Gang of Four and put an end to the Cultural Revolution.[5]
In 1978, the reformist CCP leader Hu Yaobang appointed Yang Xiguang, formerly with Shanghai's Jiefang Daily, chief editor of the Guangming Daily. Under Yang's editorship, Guangming was the first Chinese newspaper to stop publishing Chairman Mao's Quotations on the front page every day.[6] On 11 May 1978, it published Hu Fuming's famous editorial "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth", refuting Hua Guofeng's Two Whatevers theory in support of Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening policy. The article was quickly reprinted in almost all major Chinese newspapers, cementing support for Deng's victory over Hua.[6][7]
Since November 1982, it was run by the Chinese Communist Party. In 1984, it was officially recognized as an institution directly under the Chinese Communist Party and supervised by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.[2][8]
In 1998, Guangming Daily launched its official website, which was one of the earliest news websites in China.[9]
Two Guangming Daily journalists, Xu Xinghu (许杏虎) and his wife Zhu Ying (朱颖), were killed on the night of 7 May 1999 in the United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[10]
The Guangming Daily has been documented to have been used as cover by Ministry of State Security (MSS) officers posing as journalists overseas.[11][12]
Circulation and content
editGuangming Daily's circulation reached 1.5 million in 1987, but as independent publications flourished during the Reform and Opening era, it dropped to 800,000 in 1993.[3]: 167 To survive in the market, it reduced political coverage and propaganda, and increased its coverage on culture and science.[3]: 167 Guangming Daily is considered to be a less political newspaper, and today focuses mostly on cultural, educational and scientific content.[13]
Organization
editGuangming Daily is published by Guangming Daily News Agency, a deputy-ministerial-level institution.[13]
In 2003, Guangming Daily partnered with the Nanfang Media Group (publisher of the highly successful Southern Weekly) to jointly publish The Beijing News, which quickly became one of Beijing's most influential newspapers.[14]
Notable people
editReferences
edit- ^ John King Fairbank; Denis Crispin Twitchett, eds. (1978). The Cambridge History of China: Volume 14. Cambridge University Press. p. 693. ISBN 978-0-521-24336-0.
- ^ a b 张宁. "传播光明的使者". Guangming Daily. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
- ^ a b c Zhao, Yuezhi (1998). Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. University of Illinois Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-252-06678-8.
- ^ Cheek, Timothy (7 January 2016). The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History. Cambridge University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-107-02141-9.
- ^ Song, Yuwu (8 July 2013). Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China. McFarland. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-0-7864-3582-1.
- ^ a b 光明日报: 第一个取掉报眼上的毛主席语录. Phoenix Television (in Chinese). 24 February 2010. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ Zeng, Tao. 关于真理标准问题的讨论. People's Daily (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- ^ Bandurski, David (7 May 2024). "China's Mouthpieces Go Quiet". China Media Project. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ "About GMW.cn". Guangming Online. 31 August 2012. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
- ^ Ponniah, Kevin; Marinkovic, Lazara (7 May 2019). "The night the US bombed Chinese embassy". BBC News. Archived from the original on 30 March 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
- ^ Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Hardie Grant Books. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-74358-900-7. OCLC 1347020692.
- ^ McKenzie, Nick (3 March 2024). "China revealed as country behind spy chief's unnamed 'A-Team'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
Former defence official Paul Monk confirmed to this masthead that, in 1995, ASIO warned him that the same Chinese journalist– who introduced himself to Monk as a Guangming Daily newspaper reporter while Monk worked at the Defence Intelligence Organisation – was an MSS operative stationed in Australia.
- ^ a b "Decoding Chinese Politics: Party Center". Asia Society. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
- ^ Jonathan Hassid (2016). "Beyond pushback". China's Unruly Journalists: How Committed Professionals are Changing the People's Republic. Routledge. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-315-66611-2.
- ^ Wang, Vivian (24 April 2023). "China Accuses a Liberal Columnist of Espionage". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ "Prominent Chinese journalist faces espionage charges". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 23 August 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.