Chinese Communist Party telegraphed shakeup of investigative newspaper

Analysis

By Gene Mater
freedomforum.org

06.08.01

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To avid China watchers, the recent firing of two editors of the influential weekly Southern Weekend probably did not come as a total surprise since the Communist Party gave warning two months ago.

In a little-noted story in the April 10 edition Chinese-language Hong Kong daily Ming Pao, Xu Guangchun, vice director of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party, singled out Southern Weekend for criticism for being what Ming Pao called "too avid in its reporting of negative topics."

Speaking at a recent conference of China's propaganda organizations, the discussion also touched on the possibility of closing down Southern Weekend if the newspaper didn't mend its ways.

Southern Weekend (Nanfang Zhoumou) has the highest domestic circulation of any Chinese weekly, according to Ming Pao, selling about 1.3 million copies each weekend.

The weekly edition of the Guangzhou newspaper Southern Daily (Nanfang Ribao), Southern Weekend frequently reports on sensitive social topics and on the avant-garde issues of the literary and artistic world.

In recent years, Ming Pao noted, Southern Weekend and Beijing Youth Daily (Beijing Qingnian Bao) have become well-known for carrying stories that created major attention and reaction.

"Chinese people began calling them 'the hot pepper of the North and the hot pepper of the South,'"Ming Pao reported, but noted that in the past two years "Beijing Youth Daily became more cautious after having been criticized by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party."

The same did not happen with Southern Weekend, which Ming Pao said continued to publish "daring reports on news of great social importance, often going right up to the edge of what is permissible and so has been very much appreciated by Chinese readers."

Readers like the publication so much so that Ming Pao claims Southern Weekend's influence "exceeds that of even some official central newspapers of the Chinese Communist Party" and that the weekender also is "very influential in Beijing."

"These daring reports won the hearts of its readers but have also often been the target of criticism by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party," Ming Pao contends.

Noting that Southern Weekend reported on some major stories much earlier than did official newspapers, Ming Pao said it became more difficult for the government to handle, making the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party "unhappy."

Xu Guangchun, who called Southern Weekend a newspaper that concentrates on reporting negative news, asked the Propaganda Department of Guangdong Province to put pressure on the newspaper, warning that if it did not change its ways, it risked being closed temporarily.

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