The 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 liberal 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 (胡福明) famous editorial "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth" (Chinese: 实践是检验真理的唯一标准; pinyin: Shíjiàn shì jiǎnyàn zhēnlǐ de wéiyī biāozhǔn), 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]
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
Guangming 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
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.[15]
^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.
^Jonathan Hassid (2016). "Beyond pushback". China's Unruly Journalists: How Committed Professionals are Changing the People's Republic. Routledge. p. 113. ISBN978-1-315-66611-2.