Guangming Daily

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.{{cite book |last=Zhao |first=Yuezhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHkza3TX-LIC&pg=PA17 |title=Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-252-06678-8 |pages=17–18}}

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.{{cite book |first = Timothy |last = Cheek |title=The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qbAkCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |date=7 January 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02141-9 |page=183 }}

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.{{cite book |first=Yuwu |last = Song |title=Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PnsjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148 |date=8 July 2013 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-3582-1 |pages=148–}}

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.{{cite news |date=24 February 2010 |title= |script-title=zh:光明日报: 第一个取掉报眼上的毛主席语录 |url=http://news.ifeng.com/history/zhongguoxiandaishi/detail_2010_02/24/353441_0.shtml |work=Phoenix Television |publisher= |language=zh |access-date=18 April 2017 |archive-date=2 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702050506/http://news.ifeng.com/history/zhongguoxiandaishi/detail_2010_02/24/353441_0.shtml |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite news |last=Zeng |first=Tao |title= |script-title=zh:关于真理标准问题的讨论 |url=http://www.people.com.cn/item/20years/newfiles/a1010.html |access-date=12 July 2017 |work=People's Daily |language=zh |archive-date=19 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419101321/http://www.people.com.cn/item/20years/newfiles/a1010.html |url-status=dead }}

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.{{Cite web |last=Bandurski |first=David |date=2024-05-07 |title=China's Mouthpieces Go Quiet |url=https://chinamediaproject.org/2024/05/07/mouthpieces-go-quiet/ |access-date=2024-05-07 |website=China Media Project |language=en-US}}

In 1998, Guangming Daily launched its official website, which was one of the earliest news websites in China.{{cite web |date=31 August 2012 |title=About GMW.cn |url=http://en.gmw.cn/2012-08/31/content_4945905.htm |publisher=Guangming Online |access-date=13 July 2017 |archive-date=7 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507032107/http://en.gmw.cn/2012-08/31/content_4945905.htm |url-status=dead }}

Two Guangming Daily journalists, Xu Xinghu ({{lang|zh|许杏虎}}) and his wife Zhu Ying ({{lang|zh|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.{{cite news |last1=Ponniah |first1=Kevin |last2=Marinkovic |first2=Lazara |date=7 May 2019 |title=The night the US bombed Chinese embassy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |access-date=7 May 2019 |work=BBC News |archive-date=30 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330123020/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |url-status=live }}

In March 2018, Guangming Daily won the Third National Top 100 Newspapers in China.{{cite web | title=

第三届全国"百强报刊"公布 这份名单是怎么产生的 | website=People's Daily | date=2018-03-06 | url=http://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0306/c40606-29850971.html | language=zh | access-date=2025-02-06}}{{cite web | title=第三届全国“百强报刊” 推荐结果出炉 | website=Xinhua | url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/zgjx/2018-03/05/c_137016743.htm | language=zh | access-date=2025-02-06}}

The Guangming Daily has been documented to have been used as cover by Ministry of State Security (MSS) officers posing as journalists overseas.{{Cite book |last=Joske |first=Alex |title=Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World |title-link=Spies and Lies (Joske book) |date=2022 |publisher=Hardie Grant Books |isbn=978-1-74358-900-7 |pages=121 |oclc=1347020692 |author-link=Alex Joske}}{{Cite web |last=McKenzie |first=Nick |date=2024-03-03 |title=China revealed as country behind spy chief's unnamed 'A-Team' |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/china-revealed-as-country-behind-spy-chief-s-unnamed-a-team-20240303-p5f9cr.html |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en |quote=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. |archive-date=3 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303230816/https://www.smh.com.au/national/china-revealed-as-country-behind-spy-chief-s-unnamed-a-team-20240303-p5f9cr.html |url-status=live }}

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.{{rp|167}} To survive in the market, it reduced political coverage and propaganda, and increased its coverage on culture and science.{{rp|167}} Guangming Daily is considered to be a less political newspaper, and today focuses mostly on cultural, educational and scientific content.{{Cite web |title=Decoding Chinese Politics: Party Center |url=https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/decoding-chinese-politics?policy=party-center&group=organizations&size=rank&connection=personal |access-date=11 October 2024 |website=Asia Society}}

Guangming Daily is published by Guangming Daily Press, a deputy-ministerial-level institution.

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.{{cite book |author=Jonathan Hassid |title=China's Unruly Journalists: How Committed Professionals are Changing the People's Republic |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-66611-2 |page=113 |chapter=Beyond pushback |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JqdACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113}}

• Dong Yuyu{{Cite news |last=Wang |first=Vivian |date=2023-04-24 |title=China Accuses a Liberal Columnist of Espionage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/world/asia/china-journalist-dong-yuyu.html |access-date=2023-04-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=24 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424142541/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/world/asia/china-journalist-dong-yuyu.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |title=Prominent Chinese journalist faces espionage charges |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/24/dong-yuyu-china-journalist-arrested/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823203429/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/24/dong-yuyu-china-journalist-arrested/ |url-status=live }}

{{Reflist}}

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{{Central Committee of the Communist Party of China}}{{Major central news organizations}}

Category:1949 establishments in China

Category:Newspapers published in Beijing

Category:Newspapers established in 1949

Category:Chinese Communist Party newspapers

Category:Daily newspapers published in China

Category:National Top 100 Publications